Resources: Editing for the web
Mindy McAdams: Tips for Writing for the Web
A compact list of guidelines for writing and formatting text and links.
Nicole Hennig: Writing for the Web: Guidelines for MIT Libraries
A concise guide with good examples and references
Jakob Nielsen & Jonathan Fox: Writing for the Web
You can double the usability of your web site by following these guidelines: for two sample sites studied in Sun's Science Office, we improved measured usability by 159% and 124% by rewriting the content according to the guidelines.
Jakob Nielsen: Microcontent: How to Write Headlines, Page Titles, and Subject Lines
Microcontent needs to be pearls of clarity: you get 40-60 characters to explain your macrocontent. Unless the title or subject make it absolutely clear what the page or email is about, users will never open it.
Jakob Nielsen: Inverted Pyramids in Cyberspace
Journalists have long adhered to the inverted pyramid approach: start the article by telling the reader the conclusion ("After long debate, the Assembly voted to increase state taxes by 10 percent"), follow by the most important supporting information, and end by giving the background. This style is known as the inverted pyramid for the simple reason that it turns the traditional pyramid style around. Inverted-pyramid writing is useful for newspapers because readers can stop at any time and will still get the most important parts of the article. On the Web, the inverted pyramid becomes even more important.
John Morkes and Jakob Nielsen: Concise, SCANNABLE, and Objective: How to Write for the Web
Studies of how users read on the Web found that they do not actually read: instead, they scan the text. A study of five different writing styles found that a sample Web site scored 58% higher in measured usability when it was written concisely, 47% higher when the text was scannable, and 27% higher when it was written in an objective style instead of the promotional style used in the control condition and many current Web pages. Combining these three changes into a single site that was concise, scannable, and objective at the same time resulted in 124% higher measured usability.
Constance J. Petersen: Writing for a Web Audience
Studies show Web visitors don't read; they skip and scan. Will your Web site accommodate them? Also, solid, well-written, grammatically correct Web content is crucial to gaining the user's trust. Following are 10 tips to help you write for the Web in a way that gains the trust of your readers and supports their style of Web browsing.
