IT@TT - Online

Writing for the Web

Considering the explosion of Internet companies and content management portals, online writing has become quite a lucrative profession. Apart from having in-house teams, many companies actively out source content. Many newspapers (like this one) and non-technology magazines too are also going online. The net result of all this activity is that online writers are very much in demand. Do you have the knack for writing pithy phrases no matter what the subject. There's a good chance of your landing either a full-time writer's job or a part-time freelancing arrangement.

Here are some basic tips and guidelines for prospective Web writers:

Be Succinct!
The most important quality of online writing is that it should be concise. Briefly getting your idea across is also an art. Never write more than 50% of the text that you normally would have for a hardcopy publication.

Importance of Short Texts
Research shows that it's 25 percent slower to read from computer screens than from paper. Very often lay users complain about an unpleasant sensation while reading online text. Consequently, average people dislike reading a lot of text from computer screens.

Therefore, it's imperative to write 50% less text and not just 25% less. Apart from the reading speed , it's very important to feel good. Generally users don't like to scroll. So why limit your market when you can make an effort to keep pages short.

The invention of screens with 300 dpi resolution promises to solve the screen readability problem in the near future. They've been found to have as good readability as paper. Currently, high-resolution screens are very expensive, but will be available at an affordable price in a few years from now. Till then it's best to follow the mantra of brevity.

Write for Scannability
In the previous guideline, we spoke of the necessity of having short texts. But how does one achieve this?

First, don't expect users to read long continuous blocks of never-ending text. Always use hypertext to split up long information into multiple pages. Short paragraphs seem to provide some variety for tired eyes. Since the online experience appears to foster some amount of impatience, users prefer to scan text. And pick out keywords, sentences. And paragraphs of interest while skipping over those parts of the text they care less about. Usability studies show that skimming instead of reading is an accepted Web truth. So it's best for Web writers to acknowledge this veracity and write for scannability.

Headlines and Highlighting
Structure articles with two or even three levels of headlines when appropriate. For example, a general page heading plus subheads and sub-sub-heads. Nested headings also facilitate access for blind users with screen readers.

An user should be able to figure out what the article is about from the heading. Therefore, use meaningful rather than "cute" headings.

Highlight and emphasize important words to catch the reader's eye. Coloured text can also be used for emphasis, and hypertext anchors stand out by virtue of being blue and underlined.

Hypertext Structure
Shorten text without sacrificing content-depth by splitting up the information into multiple nodes connected by hypertext links. Though each page becomes brief, yet, the full hyper space contains much more information than would be feasible in a printed article. Relegate long and detailed background information to secondary pages; similarly, make available related information to willing readers through a link without penalizing those who don't want it.

It's best to avoid using hypertext for segmenting a long linear story into multiple pages. Downloading several segments slows down reading and makes printing more difficult. Proper hypertext structure is not a single flow "continued on page 2"; instead split the information into coherent chunks that each focus on a certain topic.

Write each hypertext page according to the "inverse pyramid" principle and start with a short thesis-antithesis-synthesis kind of conclusion that offer users a gist of the page even if they don't read all of it.

Lastly, remember to allow readers a choice to select topics that interest them and only download those pages. It pays to base the hypertext structure on an audience analysis.

Amrita Ghosh
[email protected]

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