Stickyblog

A comment I’ve heard a few times recently from content types of various kinds — especially writers with a print or advertising background — is that web writing isn’t creative. Is that true?

Posted by Dan Fielder to style, Tone of voice, Web writing

I notice that the customer service desk in every Sainsbury superstore now sits under a banner that says not “Customer service” but “Here to help”. It’s a reminder that real-world retailing often has some useful lessons for online best practice (they’ve been using eyetracking for years, too).
That Sainsbury’s sign is a great example of how [...]

Posted by Dan Fielder to style, Tone of voice, usability, Web writing

Digital copy is underappreciated, underrated and - astonishingly - still the poor cousin of the web relaunch process.

Posted by Catherine Toole to design, style, usability, Web writing

Stylistic variation versus writing for the web: fight!!
Many writers – journalists especially – find it hard to call something the same thing twice. If you’re writing about Michael Owen, for instance, you might refer to him as “Michael Owen” the first time round, then perhaps “the Newcastle striker” at the second mention, then perhaps “England’s [...]

Posted by Dan Fielder to style, Tone of voice, Web writing, Writing for search

Further to our attempts to rehabilitate the passive voice – or at least demonstrate that using the passive appropriately doesn’t make you a spineless victim type – we were intrigued to read Jakob Nielsen’s recent newsletter topic, “Passive Voice is Redeemed for Web Headings”.
The grand wizard of usability argues that the “active voice is best [...]

Posted by Dan Fielder to style, Web writing, Writing for search

It’s standard practice among dispensers of business writing advice to rubbish the passive. Examples like “mistakes were made…” and “the decision was taken to…” and “it has been decided that” paint the picture of a clunky verbal construction that produces language that is invariably woolly, bureaucratic, evasive.While it’s probably no bad thing to observe the [...]

Posted by Dan Fielder to style, Web writing