Chapter 1 - Introduction

We believe in the following statements. Although the Internet is a visual medium, much of the valuable information on the web is textual. Therefore, one of the most important elements of a good website is good writing.

Writing quality is somewhat subjective, but basic rules of good writing exist. If you follow the basic rules, people might read your message and stick with your website. Good writing benefits even non-text based sites like art or photograph portfolio sites. When people view photos or paintings on the web, they want to learn something about the graphics displayed and the artists who created them. A picture is worth a thousand words, but one word can start a riot.

This course describes the fundamental rules of good writing and tackles the special challenges we face when writing for the web. We hope that the course makes you think about good writing when you design your website.

Golden Rules of Writing For the Web

Visual Rules

• Use a typical font like Arial or other sans-serif font.
• Use size 2 or 3 font for main content.
• Use headers, paragraphs, and other skimming aids.
• Organize sentences into proper paragraphs.
• Maintain proper spacing and use "white space" for text layout.
• Keep text well within the width of a single screen
• Avoid excess vertical scrolling
• Avoid excess vertical scrolling
• Avoid underlining text unless you intend to add links.

Content Rules

• Avoid spelling errors and typos.
• Choose simple words over fancy words.
• Use an average of 25 words per sentence.
• Avoid putting too many messages in one sentence.
• Invert your sentences for variety or emphasis.
• Use parallel construction.
• Use powerful verbs.
• Use the verb "to be" correctly.
• Exterminate compound prepositions.
• Use the active voice most of the time.

Avoid too many negative expressions.

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