WebJunction

The four basic principles of writing for WebJunction are:

• Friendly: The tone of your writing should be conversational, not formal. We want people to feel that we are here to help.
• Relevant: WebJunction is a community of practice, and therefore content shared in this community should be relevant to the needs and practice of librarians and library staff.
• Authoritative: Our readers should know that the information on WebJunction is reliable. Make sure your facts are well-supported and there is a balance between personal opinions and objectivity.
• Clear: Clear writing style is precise, concise, scannable, and consistent.
  

Top 10 Things to Consider When Writing for the Web

• Put your key points up front.  Make the first sentence count.
• Let your voice sing out.  Write as if you were speaking to a colleague.
• Use active voice and positive statements.
• Support information with real examples and relatable stories.
• Use pictures to help illustrate information.
• Break lengthy documents into short sections or paragraphs and use lists.
• Avoid jargon.
• For a how-to document, offer a manageable number of action steps.
• Don’t call attention to the Web. "Click here," "follow this link," and "this Web site" are just a few self-referential terms to avoid.  If unavoidable, add descriptive text, such as “Click here to listen to an audio file.”
• Grammar, punctuation, and other usage considerations that apply in a print environment apply in the web environment as well.  See For more reading section for links to Grammar and Usage guides.

For more reading …

Style guides:

John Morkes and Jakob Nielson.  Concise, SCANNABLE, and Objective: How to Write for the Web

http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/writing.html

Writing for the Web: List of short articles on various aspects of web writing

http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/

Writing for the Web

http://www.sun.com/980713/webwriting/index.html

Writing Style for Print vs. Web

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/print-vs-online-content.html

Grammar and Usage guides:

Strunk & White’s Elements of Style

http://www.crockford.com/wrrrld/style.html

Do you have guidelines or best practices on writing for the web that you want to share with others?

You can:

• upload a document,
• recommend, rate, or comment on an existing document, or
• contribute to a discussion about a writing for the web.