Web Writing Tutorial

Good web writing keeps the central goal of web users in mind: To find good information as quickly as possible.

Web users generally use the Web for technical support, product information, research for school reports and work, employment opportunities, sales leads, investment information, travel information, weather reports, shopping, coupons, real estate information, games, humor, movie reviews, email, news, sports scores, horoscopes, soap opera updates, medical information, and historical information.

Site architecture has to support the goal of finding information in its page design, layout, graphic elements and style, navigation, and icons. However, many studies show that users generally comment on the quality and relevance of the content to a much greater extent than they will comment on navigational issues or page elements. It seems that for the majority of internet users, content really is king!

Web Writing - How Do Web Users Read?

Similarly, when a page comes up, users focus their attention on the center of the window where they read the body text before they bother looking over headerbars or other navigational elements.

Once you know how readers use web pages, you can focus your efforts on developing good web writing skills.

Web Writing - What is Good Web Writing?

Web Writing - Concise

Web Writing - Scannable

Scannability is increased by boldface text to highlight keywords, photo captions, shorter sections of text, and more headings.

In general, visitors often read only the first sentence of each paragraph. This suggests that topic sentences are important, as is the "one idea per paragraph" rule.

Web Writing - Objective

Web Writing - Other Considerations

2. Information needs to be organized. This includes using words and categories that make sense to the audience, using topic sentences, limiting each paragraph to one main idea, and providing the right amount of information.

4. Information needs to be categorized by topic rather than date. Users get frustrated by search results that are categorized by dates, because it does not help them find the information they're searching fore.

5. Providing the right amount of information is important.

6. Users like summaries.

7. Graphical elements are liked if they complement the text.

8. There is a role for playfulness and humor in work-related websites. However, humor should be used with caution.

9. Simple and informal writing are preferred.

10. Credibility is an Important Issue on the Web. Visitors want to know your qualifications and motivations to decide whether you are trustworthy.

The quality of a site's content influences users' evaluations of credibility, as one person pointed out: "A magazine that is well done sets a certain tone and impression that are carried through the content. For example, National Geographic has a quality feel, a certain image. A website conveys an image, too. If it's tastefully done, it can add a lot of credibility to the site."

11. Outbound Links Can Increase Credibility.
Users rely on hypertext links to help assess credibility of the information contained in websites. This point was made by 4 participants. "Links are good information. They help you judge whether what the author is saying is true," one said.

While reading an essay, one person commented, "This site is very believable. The author presents several points of view, and he has links for each point of view." Another person made a similar statement about a different essay: "Because the web writing is referencing other links, it's probably relatively accurate information."

In this study, 10 participants discussed their preferences for humor in various media, and some evaluated humor in certain websites. Overall, participants said they like a wide variety of humor types, such as aggressive, cynical, irreverent, nonsense, physical, and word-play humor. "I like websites when they're not all that dry. I like to laugh.

I get bored while waiting. I would like something clever and crafty (to read)," one person said in Study 1. A website containing puns (word-play humor) was described as "stupid" and "not funny" by 2 out of the 3 participants who visited it. A site that contained cynical humor was enjoyed by all 3 participants who saw it, though only one of them had said earlier that he liked this type of humor.

Given people's different preferences for humor, it is important for Web writing to know the audience, before including humor in a site. Of course, using humor successfully may be difficult, because a site's users may be diverse in many ways (e.g., culture, education, and age). Puns are particularly dangerous for any site that expects a large number of international users.

Users Want to Get Their Information Quickly
This was mentioned by 11 participants. Users like well-organized sites that make important information easy to find. "Web users are under emotional and time constraints. The most important thing is to give them the information fast," one participant advised. "I prefer something highly organized to get quickly from here to there. I want to do it quickly," one person said about a site.

Users also want fast-loading graphics and fast response times for hypertext links, and they want to choose whether to download large (slow) graphics. "A slow connection time or response time will push me away," one user said.

Text Should be Scannable
Scanning can save users time. During the study, 15 participants always approached unfamiliar Web text by trying to scan it before reading it. Only 3 participants started reading text word by word, from the top of the page to the bottom, without scanning. Elements that enhance scanning include headings, large type, bold text, highlighted text, bulleted lists, graphics, captions, topic sentences, and tables of contents.

One user from Study 1 who scanned an article but failed to find what he was looking for said, "If this happened to me at work, where I get 70 emails and 50 voicemails a day, then that would be the end of it. If it doesn't come right out at me, I'm going to give up on it."

"Give me bulleted items," another user said. While looking at a news site, one person said, "This is easy to read because it uses bold to highlight certain points." An essay containing long blocks of text prompted this response: "The whole way it looked made it kind of boring. It's intimidating. People want to read things that are broken up. It gets the points across better."

Text Should be Concise
Consistent with users' desire to get information quickly is their preference (expressed by 11 people) for short text. One person said, "Websites are too wordy. It's hard to read a lot of text on the screen." While looking at a news story, another person said, "I like that short style. I don't have time for gobbledygook. I like getting the information fast." Many participants want a Web page to fit on one screen. One person said the following about a news story: "It was too long. I think it's better to have condensed information that's no bigger than one screen."

Participants want a website to make its points quickly. While reading a movie review, one person said, "There's a lot of text in here. They should get more to the point. Did they like it or didn't they?"

Users Like Summaries and the Inverted Pyramid Style
According to 8 participants, Web writing that presents news, summaries, and conclusions up front is useful and saves time. A participant who was reading a page of article summaries said, "I like the ability to read a summary and then go to the article if I'm interested."

A news story written in the inverted pyramid style (in which news and conclusions are presented first, followed by details and background information), prompted this response: "I was able to find the main point quickly, from the first line. I like that." While reading a different news story, someone else said, "It got my attention right away. This is a good site. Boom. It gets to the point."

Hypertext is Well-Liked
"The incredible thing that's available on the Web is the ability to go deeper for more information," one participant said. In the study, 15 participants said they like hypertext. "Links are a good thing. If you just want to read the page you're on, fine, you're not losing anything.

But if you want to follow the links, you can. That's the great thing about the Web," one person said. When asked how useful hypertext links are, another said, "I might be searching for one document, but I might find 15 other related things that pique my interest. It's very useful. I really enjoy that." However, hypertext is not universally liked: 2 participants said hypertext can be distracting if a site contains "too many" links.

Graphics and Text Should Compliment One Another
Words and pictures can be a powerful combination, but they must work together, 5 participants said. "I don't ever want to see a picture without a caption beneath it," one participant said. Graphics that add nothing to the text are a distraction and waste of time, some people said. "A graphic is good when it relates to the content, but many are just trying to be flashy," one person said.

Web Writing - Conclusions

The good results for the objective language condition may be because it might be easier to process objectively written text than promotional text. Web users wonder about credibility, and questioning the credibility of promotional statements may distract users from processing the meaning.

Since there is no inherent conflict between concise, scannable, and objective texts, we recommend that Web authors employ all three principles in their web writing. Indeed, the combined effect of employing all three improvements gives the best outcome.

Should You Redesign Your Web site?

"What would you say is the primary purpose of the site?

"How would you describe the site's style of web writing?

"How do you like the way it is written?

"How could the web writing in this website be improved?

"How easy to use is the website? Why?

"How much do you like this site? Why?

"Do you have any advice for the writer or designer of this website?

"Think back to the site you saw just before this one. Of the two sites, which did you like better? Why?

If you decide to rewrite pages, start with the following:

1. In addition to making your pages concise, scannable and objective, split them into more pages.

2. Use hypertext links to move less important material from top-level pages to secondary pages.

Web Writing - Headlines