Rebecca Blakiston
Bob LiuNutrition profile
Learn best practices for writing web content that is easy to read and understand.
Perfect for
Making sure your websites are useful and usable, so that people actually read and understand them!
Prep work
Make sure you have identified your audience, their top questions, and their top tasks. Review our recipe. Before starting to write, it helps to first understand how people approach and interact with web content. There are studies that show how people read on websites, and it's useful to understand this before writing your content. (See: How Users Read on the Web by Jakob Nielsen).
How do people read on the web?
They skim, scan, and select. Studies show that on web pages, people:
- Browse
- Read in short bursts
- Make quick glances and very brief stops
- Read a little at a time
- Grab what they need and get on towards the goal.
(Credit: How Users Read on the Web by Jakob Nielsen)
Do users ever read whole passages on the web?
Yes, but only when:
- they are highly motivated to get the information.
- the goal is to get extended information, like a report.
If it is long, they might print it out to read it, or save it in some way to read later. Some people use apps for this like Pocket or Instapaper. Others might save the web page as a PDF.
Ingredients
- A content management tool like Drupal, Wordpress, or Libguides.
- Your web browser (more than one for testing, such as Firefox and Safari or Edge).
- A writing style checker, such as Hemingway or Grammarly.
- A smartphone or tablet for testing appearance on small screens (or just make your browser window very narrow).
- Another person to review your content.
Directions
Layer the details
- Put brief info on a higher level.
- Link to details on a deeper level.
Less is more
Include only what your readers want and need.
- Cut, cut, cut! Find the essence.
- Put it away for a day or two, look it over and cut again.
- With each sentence, ask: Do readers want or need that?
Morkes and Nielsen cut the words by 54% and people thought the site's treatment of topics was more complete. 😲
Chunk the content
- Keep sentences to one or two points.
- Keep paragraphs short. A one sentence paragraph is OK.
- Use lists.
- Use fragments and phrases.
- Use pictures and other visual elements.
- Don't write prose.
Writing guidelines
| Heading type | Example | Good for |
|---|---|---|
How do I borrow a laptop? | policies, FAQs, user guides | |
Borrowing laptops from the library | sections of a longer page | |
Borrow a laptop from the library | instructions | |
You may borrow a laptop from the library. | subheadings within a long article | |
Laptops | (only if it names something people are looking for) |
B. Catch the user in the first few words.
Think journalism, not academic writing. Start with the conclusion, then give the details.
C. Use active voice, personal pronouns, action verbs.
Write what you would say to them if you were talking on the phone. Treat it like a conversation between you and the person reading the page.
When people "think aloud" through a paragraph in typical academic style, they translate the passive, noun-based writing into scenarios.
D. Use lists.
Use them for:
- steps
- options
- conditions
- items
Because lists
- facilitate scanning
- create chunks
- separate ideas
- show relationships
- allow counting
(Credit: Nielsen lists improved usability by 47%)
To make instructions easy for users to follow:
- Use numbered lists.
- Use imperatives. "Do this."
- Put some space between the steps.
F. Use parallelisms.
People like patterns because
- they grasp the information more quickly if we can anticipate the pattern.
- they try to see patterns in information even when there are none.
- they use extra mental energy when they have to switch patterns.
For lists:
G. Use words people know (simpler words).
Your audiences are almost always broader than you think. Even highly educated people read simpler words faster.
- If your site is for the public, avoid internal language.
- If your site is internal only, consider how many different audiences you have inside.
- Avoid idioms.
- Spell out acronyms.
- Avoid (or explain) any jargon.
| 🛑 Instead of this | ✅ Try this |
|---|---|
get | |
before | |
buy | |
ask for | |
next | |
end | |
use | |
though |
| 🛑 Instead of this | ✅ Try this |
|---|---|
borrowing library items or checking out a book | |
Open Educational Resources (OER) | |
Interlibrary loan |
H. Use fragments
... but not telegraphic writing.
Space is always at a premium.
- Complete sentences are not always necessary.
- Distinguish between:
- fragments - coherent phrases
- telegraphic writing - leaving out words like "a" and "the"
- Telegraphic writing may be OK in navigation, but avoid it in text. It doesn't save time because the user has to mentally put the little words back in.
I. Make links descriptive.
Links that are descriptive are more useful than links that name categories. The words must be informative (not jargon). Avoid "click here" or "learn more" as links. They have no meaning on their own and those with screen readers often skip from link to linke, hearing them read out loud.
Combine the guidelines
Take a look at: Online Learning - Duke Learning Innovation
This page has:
- useful headings
- a bulleted list
- short paragraphs
- Parallelism (We can help you build ... We can help you create... )
- Active voice (We can help you...)
- Descriptive links (Contact us to get started) (Contact us for support)
See also their page: Learning Technologies for similar format with good web writing style.
Resources
Two excellent books:
- Janice (Ginny) Redish. Letting Go of the Words. Morgan Kaufmann, 2012.
- Steve Krug. Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited. New Riders, 2014.
30-minute presentation:
- Writing for the Web by Rebecca Blakiston