Transcript Slide 1

Writing For The Web
SUNY Cortland
March 31, 2010
Ann Scholl Rinehart
Senior Writer
[email protected]
800-553-8878 ext. 5132
© Stamats, Inc. 2010
Agenda
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Embracing Language
Understanding your
Audience
Creating Visual
Content
Writing Persuasive
Web Copy
Improving your Writing
Developing Searchable
Web Copy
EMBRACING LANGUAGE
What are YOU looking for?
All Web Users Have Goals
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Complete a task
Locate knowledge
Keep up/keep current
Interact/connect
2009 E-Expectations Study
Survey of 1,000 college-bound high school seniors
How do they find a school online?
• Google or other search to find schools by name—41%
• Use a site to match me, like MyCollegeOptions or The College
Board—38%
• Enter words or phrases into Google—35%
• Refer to a printed document with a URL—13%
• Use NCAA or other athletic site—5%
• Guess until I get it—4%
• Research on MySpace or Facebook—3%
72% land on a school’s home page after conducting a search
Source: Noel-Levitz; used with permission
2009 E-Expectations Study
What do college-bound teens want to do on a college’s web site?
Source: Noel-Levitz; used with permission
Descriptions of programs/majors
are the most commonly sought after
items of interest for high school
students when visiting a college Web
site.
-Stamats TeensTALK
TeensTALK: Most Liked Web Features
Qualities
Percent
Description of programs/majors
Pictures of the college: dorms, classrooms, activities
Current student testimonials
Easy to navigate/use
31%
24%
9%
9%
General overview/basic information
9%
Admissions standards
8%
Financial aid/scholarships
8%
Athletics
8%
Activities available
7%
Tuition, cost to attend, fees
7%
Virtual tours
6%
Basic statistics: GPA, grads, admission rate, etc.
5%
Marketing Orientation for the Web
• Instead of a person or department, marketing is an
organizational function and a set of processes for creating,
communicating, and delivering value to customers and for
managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the
organization and its stakeholders (AMA, 2004)
– Create value
– Communicate value
– Deliver value
• Experience marketing
– What elements combine to form the educational
experience?
• The answer will involve becoming truly student-centric
Adults - Sources of Information
If you wanted to begin gathering information on enrolling
in college, would you…
Adult UG
Percent
“Yes”
Visit specific colleges’ Web sites
96%
Contact the admissions office at a specific college
89%
Conduct a general Web search for college-related Web sites
78%
Talk with friends or family members
70%
Get advice from someone in a career I’d like to pursue
63%
Get advice from an employer for whom I’d like to work
40%
Talk with my supervisor
32%
Talk with my company’s human resources staff
36&
Source: Stamats 2008
Adult StudentsTALK
2009 E-Expectations Study
When students arrive at a Web site, 85% said that they used links to find
answers to their questions instead of using a search box or site index,
and they expect links to take them directly to answers
15% said they don’t pay much attention to the link choices and head
straight for the search box or site index
80% said the content presented on a college or university Web site is
more important than how it looks
18% said the look and feel of a school site is more important than what
they find to read
Source: Noel-Levitz; used with permission
What Readers Often Find:
Bad Language
•Catalogs and brochures
http://www.houghton.edu/academics/programs/education/program
_overview.htm
•Information dumps
http://www.havenworks.com/
http://www.arngren.net/
•Non-visual text layouts
http://www.barclaycollege.edu/Information/
•Too many choices
www.classesusa.com
Just Plain Bad Writing
Your inquiry about the use of the entrance area at the
library for the purpose of displaying posters and leaflets
about Welfare and Supplementary Benefit rights, gives rise
to the question of the provenance and authoritativeness of
the material to be displayed. Posters and leaflets issued by
the Central Office of Information, the Department of Health
and Social Security and other authoritative bodies are
usually displayed in libraries, but items of a disputatious or
polemic kind, whilst not necessarily excluded, are
considered individually.
Why Does This Happen?
• Copy is institution-driven, not audience-driven
• Copy is an afterthought; not written in conjunction with/
developed independently of architecture and design
• Many don’t yet acknowledge that writing is a big part of
what online experience is about
– No editorial or review process
– Not enough writers
– Too many writers
– Content moves too slow or fast
– No single-source authority
Writing for the Web is Crucial
to Quality Sites
• Successful Web sites employ professional
writing, editing, and publishing strategies and
tactics.
• Successful Web sites make life easier for
readers, have large and loyal audiences, help
accomplish institutional goals, and present an
accurate and productive image to the world.
• Successful Web sites do not depend on
technology to be successful.
The Web is a Publishing Medium
A Web site publishes content targeted at a
group of readers and will benefit from an
editorial infrastructure:
• Managing Editor/Publisher: responsible for
whole site
• Editor (s): responsible for nature and
quality of content per section
• Author(s): creates content
• Copy Editor: ensures content is
understandable and readable
A Working Editorial Process
Delivers:
 Complete and accurate information
 Information in a user-friendly format
 Consistent and natural writing style
without errors
 Multiple writers drawing
variety of information
sources
from a
What Web Writers Do:
• Write new copy and creatively repurpose
existing material
• Guide audiences to information, education, and
action
• Convey right messages to right audiences at
right time and place (contextually appropriate)
• Create language that draws search engines
Rachel’s Advice
Parents and families are inextricably linked and we should be
talking directly to/with them — and often
The experience prospects have on your web site weighs heavily
in their decision whether to probe further into your programs and
offerings, and how they’d fit on our campus
We need to focus more on content. Content, content, content.
Make it readable, printable, reference-able, searchable
Focus on your navigation. Test it with collegebound students. Don’t use internal lingo
Source: Noel-Levitz; used with permission. With thanks to Rachel Reuben (rachelreuben.com)
Understanding Your Audience
Reader Characteristics
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Practical and impatient
Skeptical
Fickle
Seeking guidance
Web Writers Need to Appreciate…
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To whom are we communicating?
What are their tasks?
What is critical to them?
What are they not getting?
How do they consume content?
How can we help them be effective?
Web Readers are Impatient
• Six seconds—
that’s how long you
have to make an
impression on a
visitor to your
home page before
they will move
on…
Identify & Limit Readers/Audiences
• Prospective undergraduate students
• Prospective graduate students
• Prospective faculty
• Community leaders
• Alumni
• Donors
• Parents
• Current students
Create Personas
• Focus on a representative audience
member/type
• Identify their goals and tasks (1-3)
• Create fictional identities
• Build from usability
research
Personas Should Include:
• Personal Information
Home, age, hobbies, media habits, personality, creative
work and ambitions
• Alumni/donor Information
Major, grad year, career, age, location, aspirations
• Internet Usage
Experience, primary uses, favorite sites, hours online,
computer connection
• User Goals
Information preferences, academic goals, outside needs,
competitor information
Profile: Mary the International Student
It’s 7am Friday morning and Mary has been up for at least
an hour. She has been working on a paper for her professor,
Dr. Bishop, a world-renowned engineer. Plus, lately, she has
been thinking a lot about what she should do next year, after
graduation. She is torn between staying in the United States
and returning to Nigeria. She would like to be near her
family, but it is more important that she finds a good job to
help support her other siblings. Getting a good job after
graduation was ultimately why she chose to pursue electrical
engineering in the first place. Her whole family has sacrificed
a lot to pay for college in the U.S. and she feels obligated to
help her other siblings enjoy the same kind of higher
education opportunities.
Who is on your shoulder when you write?
EXERCISE:
REVIEW A SELECTED PAGE, IDENTIFY YOUR KEY
READER/AUDIENCE, AND SKETCH A PERSONA FOR ONE.
Creating Visual Content
Print Content
• Linear and provides pre-determined order
• Documents form a whole & provide entire
information
• Uses familiar conventions: table of contents,
prefaces, indexes, etc.
• Never changes
Web Content
• Non-linear and encourages visitor to take their
own path
• More flexible and up-to-date
• Content divided into multiple hyperlinked pages
• More informative and less conceptually driven
How People Really Read The Web
• Surveys and
studies consistently
show that around
80 percent of test
users always
scan a page first
before reading a
section word by
word.
Reading
• Progression is word by
word across the page
and down
• Key information is not
visually called out
• Meaning is gathered
from the syntax (the
way words are put
together to form
phrases or clauses)
vs.
Scanning
• Progression is rapidly
around the page as
user looks for key
words and phrases
• Key information is
visually called out
• Meaning clusters
around key words and
phrases as the
user finds them.
F-Shaped Pattern
Eyetracking Web Usability by Jakob Nielsen, Kara Pernice
So What Does this Mean?
•Users won’t read your content word by word
•The first two paragraphs are crucial for
conveying information
•Subheads, paragraphs and bullet points are
crucial for guiding readers to the information
they are seeking
Typical Web Page
• Lots of running copy
• No visual call-outs
• Left-to-right, top-tobottom progression
Scannable Web Page
• Headers and short intro paragraphs
• Photos and graphics
• Bulleted lists, boldface copy, boxed copy
For Scannable Copy, Write:
• Short
paragraphs
• Heads and
Subheads
• Bulleted
Lists
• Highlights
and
boldface
• Quotes and
sidebars
Long vs. Short Copy
• Short copy invites, introduces, and persuades
– Top-level pages
• Long copy should be deeper on site
– Two clicks in
• Long copy needs to be well-written and relevant
– Compelling message, info, etc.
– Gives readers what they want to hear
• Long copy doesn’t need to look long
– Break up text into small paragraphs with heads,
subheads
What are your Goals?
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Establish institutional/departmental identity
Exchange information
Inform
Instruct
Motivate
Persuade
Provide news
Provide technical support
Recruit
Request information
Readers’ Web Preferences
• Users can enter a site at any page and move any way they
choose
• Online version of a given topic should be about half word
count of print version
• Users read about 25 percent more slowly from screens than
from paper
• Users don’t like to scroll through blocks of text
To Meet Reader Preferences
• Make every page
independent & able to
explain itself
• Link to background or
explanatory
information
• Place most important
information at top of
page
• Give them only what
they want/need to
know
Start With Good Heads
• Main idea of the
page and clearly
indicates content
• No longer than
seven words on
average
• Clear to reader
why it’s important
Break Up Text
• Short paragraphs divide information into useful chunks
• Each paragraph should contain one main idea; second
paragraph contains second main idea, etc.
• Sometimes one or two sentences per chunk
• Be careful not to go overboard: Breaking up text into too
many chucks can frustrate readers
• Links are for readers who want to learn more about the
topic
Love Subheads
• Keep readers
moving forward
• Emphasizes word,
phrase, or idea
from copy
• Breaks up blocks
of copy into
readable chunks
Depend On Lists
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Best way to highlight important information
Eases reading and slows down scanning eye
Satisfy the list-hungry
Use more lists than print, but keep lists short - limit items
to 9
• Use numbered when sequence is important
• Use bulleted when sequences is not important
How to Map Copy
• Study site architecture and content inventory
• Study the template—layout, design elements, position of
images & photos, links
• Write in relation to visual environment
Write Classic Newspaper Structure
• Header that
summarizes
• Lead/intro paragraph
delivers the
conclusion
• Body copy delivers
the details
• Who, what, why,
where, when, how
www.latimes.com
Paragraph Structure 101
• Start paragraphs with topic sentences:
• Use topic sentences in combination with specific heads
and subheads
• Follow topic sentence with 1,2,3 structure based on
cause and effect
– Writing for the web is challenging for most people.
• The web works differently than print
• Web audiences are impatient
• The Web is constantly changing
EXERCISE :
EDIT/REVISE A PAGE OF “READABLE” TEXT TO MAKE IT “SCANNABLE.”
Writing Persuasive Web Copy
What Marketing Copy Can Do
• Balance institutional integrity with the need to appeal
to various audiences
• Send consistent messages
• Extend institutional brand and build/enhance
reputation
• Communicate character
How to Write Marketing Copy
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Avoid bragging
Avoid cheese and sleaze
Make a case
Emphasize benefits over features
What’s in it for me?
Features-driven Copy
“At X college, we pride ourselves on the personal
attention our professors give their students. Our studentto-faculty ratio is 13:1, and our class size averages 22
students.”
Benefits-driven Copy
“The only teacher/student ratio that matters is 1:1. Many
colleges talk about small classes and how that facilitates
interaction. Well, elevators are small too, and not much
communication happens in there.
The point is this: real interaction happens not just when
you’re in the same proximity as your professor, but when
she actually takes the time to get to
know you and how you learn best.
That’s what happens at SUNY Cortland.”
About ACC - Before
About ACC - After
Marketing Tips
• Get reader’s attention right away and be specific
• Avoid hyperbole, negative constructions, and
superlatives (most, best, perfect, greatest)
• Make calls to action clear: what should readers do
• Convey experience: what does it feel like to be here?
• Appeal to emotion and intellect
• Use human voices: tell real stories
Keep in Mind
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It’s not an essay
It’s not about you
It’s not a brochure
It’s not a catalog
EXERCISE:
REWRITE A PAGE OF YOUR SECTION TO EMPHASIZE BENEFITS.
Improving Your Writing for the Web
Web Copy Should:
• Be direct, clear, and concise
• Balance information and appeal
• Speak to different audiences differently, yet maintain
consistent tone
Follow Writer George Orwell’s Rules
1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of
speech that you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word when a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it
out.
4. Never use the passive [voice] where you can use the
active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a
jargon word if you can think of an everyday English
equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything
outright barbarous.
Omit Unnecessary Words
• Too many Prepositions
– Wrong: The most important part of the functionality of the site is
meeting the marketing goals.
– Right: A site’s most important function is meeting marketing
goals.
• Intensify words and vague adjectives (very, really, a bit, mainly)
– Wrong: IPods are very common and very popular.
– Right: IPods are common and popular.
• Redundant adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, and phrases
– Wrong: This revolutionary new product adds audio to your site.
– Right: This revolutionary product adds audio to your site
• Verbs converted to nouns
– Wrong: Take into consideration the cost of maintaining data.
– Right: Consider the cost of maintaining data.
Active Voice
• Emphasizes person or thing acting
• Built on strong verbs instead of forms of “to be,” past
participles, and strings of pronouns
• Active voice:
– You can use graphic frames to keep footers visible at
all times.
• Passive voice:
– Graphic frames can be used to keep footers visible at
all times.
Word Choice
• Avoid buzzwords and clichéd modifiers
– “State of the Art,” “Cutting-edge,” “Academic
Excellence”
• Favor simple words over ten-dollar words
– “Use” instead of “utilize”
– “Ease” instead of “facilitate”
• Use concrete, precise, definite, specific words
– “Ten” instead of “a lot”
– “Bright orange” instead of “colorful”
– “Blue-eyed” instead of “beautiful”
Key Editing Questions
• Is this clear?
• Is there a simpler
way to say this?
• Is there a shorter
way to say this?
• Is this necessary?
EXERCISE:
REWRITE/REVISE A PAGE OF YOUR SECTION
BY IMPROVING YOUR PROSE.
DEVELOPING SEARCHABLE
WEB COPY
“It all starts with Google, from there
I can go wherever I want.”
- Prospective student
I added this
83 percent
of adult students would
use a search engine to find
out information on
enrolling in college
Search – Be Discoverable
• Important, and will be for a while
• 80 percent of web traffic starts
with search
• Google still the dominant search
engine
I added this
This is Your Search Engine Visitor
• Hopefully, they’ll be back
• Search Engines don’t care if
the result helps or hurts you
• Metadata feeds the machine
• Relevant content feeds the
visitor
Your Job: Links, Page Titles, Footers,
Contact Info, Forms, Instructions
 Help readers understand
where they are and why
they are there
 Help readers know what
to do next
 Simple, clear, and
obvious and compelling
 Should work like good
signage
Web Writers Write Metadata
• Metadata is language linked to the search process
• Works on keyword phrases and one word metatags
embedded in HTML
• Connects to the Web Community
To Write Searchable Copy:
 Do keyword research with services like
WordTracker™
 Use real text, not graphics (PICTURE)
 Work into heads and subheads
 Employ keyword phrases throughout entire page
Establish Standards
• Develop a web style guide
• Standards & accessibility issues
• Content/copy guide
• AP or Chicago Manual of Style for
language
• “Web site” vs. “web site”
• “Home page” vs. “homepage”
• Graphic design interface/identity guide
In Closing, Remember These Copy Tips
• Users read
language first
• Visualize the
language you
use
• Persuade,
don’t sell
• Write well
• Write for the
community
…and
Keep in Mind
• Knowledge (content) is heart of a college or university
• You publish more, read more, communicate more than
anyone/anything
• Academics are original information workers
• You should be good at writing and publishing Web
content
Resources
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Content Strategy for the Web; Kristina Halverson
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Letting Go of the Words; Janice (Ginny) Redish
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Nielsen & Pernice Eyetracking Web Usability
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Neuro Web Design: What Makes Them Click? ; Susan M Weinschenk, Ph.D.
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Content Critical: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through High-Quality Web Content; Gerry
McGovern and Rob Norton
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The Web Content Style Guide: An Essential Reference for Online Writers, Editors and
Managers; Gerry McGovern and Rob Norton
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www.useit.com (Jakob Nielsen)
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Information Architecture for the World Wide Web; Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville
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Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability; Steve Krug
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Designing Web Sites That Work: Usability for the Web; Tom Brinck, Darren Gergle, & Scott
D. Wood
Thank you!
Ann Scholl Rinehart
Senior Writer
[email protected]
800.553.8878, ext. 5132
www.stamats.com
©Stamats, Inc. 2010