writing for the web amiee whitcroft
TRANSCRIPT
Writing for the web…better
aimee whitcroft
We write for many people and many reasons
• Different reasons:– marketing– compliance– advice– informational– other?
• Different audiences and locations:– public, business, ministers and other government, etc…– internal (intranet)– external (websites and social media)
One binding characteristic
People need simplicity[and clarity]
• We’re all:– time poor– distracted– dealing with other, higher priorities– deluged in information (much of which is difficult to understand).
We can help with this…
…by making sure information we present is simple, clear and easy to understand.
Basic/fundamental techniques:• write in the F pattern• keep sentences short• keep paragraphs short• Headings to break up textblobs• leave out ALL unnecessary detail• avoid jargon at all costs• WRITE IN PLAIN ENGLISH
Heatmap. Credit: Nielsen Normal Group.
but wait…there are more!
Flesch reading ease and Flesch-Kincaid grade level scores
• MS Word tools• Show readability based on length of words and sentences
– Note: Māori words (for example) negatively affect this score
• Reading ease:– We aim for scores of 70-75+ for plain English
• Grade level:– Corresponds to US education system
Reading Ease Score Notes90.0–100.0 easily understood by an average 11-year-old student60.0–70.0 easily understood by 13- to 15-year-old students0.0–30.0 best understood by university graduates
Cloze test
• Take a page of content• Replace every 5th word with blank space• Ask people to guess what fills gaps
• Plain English if people can correctly guess >60% of missing words
Hemingway App: visual teacher
One I prepared earlier Actual ‘About Us’
Source: https://www.govt.nz/about/govtnz/Source: The dark inner recesses of my brain
GatherContent is also pretty useful
• Live demo!
Also, consider having a style guide
• It should tell writers:– what grammar and syntactical styles to use– how times, dates, numbers and punctuation are
handled– how to deal with hyperlinks and email addresses– how to deal with images, videos and other media– anything else useful
Govt.nz has a pretty good one (www.govt.nz), which is CC-BY 3.0 and forkable on github
…and a list of banned words
Credit: Govt.nz style guide, www.govt.nz
But (and there’s always a ‘but’)
• The tools are tools – the best work comes from:– exposure to many eyeballs– Taking the time to really think through the content, break
it apart and reform it– practise.
• Learn by doing!– Rigorous, multi-stepped review process
