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
Better search results, higher clickthrough rates, more targeted traffic, improved usability… why every web writer should embrace standfirsts.
Posted by Catherine Toole to e-consultancy, headlines, standfirsts, Web writing, Writing for search
It’s worth being careful when you link to other sites, but don’t let over-cautious legal jargon get in the way of usability.
Posted by Jackie Kingsley to links, usability, Web writing
We’ll be at Internet World 2008 at Earl’s Court from April 29 - May 1, so please drop by and say hello. You’ll find us at stand E529, in the East building on the left hand side. We’ll be happy to discuss anything to do with web writing (actually, pretty much anything at all), from [...]
Posted by Martin Wake to events, Face to face, Internet World, Meatspace, Web writing
For those of you interested in learning more about web writing, there’s another series of our popular open courses coming up.
On 27 May and 1 July we’re running our usual double-whammy: Writing for the web in the morning, and Writing for search in the afternoon.
On 24 June we’re introducing a new course, Writing for email, [...]
Posted by Martin Wake to email, events, Tone of voice, Training, Web writing, Writing for search
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
Following the success of our October open courses on writing for the web, we’ve organised another series of half-day courses in January for those of you who missed out.
The courses run on 28 and 29 January 2008: Writing for the web in the morning, and Writing for search in the afternoon. You can book one [...]
Posted by Martin Wake to events, Training, Web writing, Writing for search
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
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