"It's not the 100 million who can't read who bother me -- it's the 150 million who can't
write!"
Rapidly writing really readable reading isn't a really radical
(though remotely related) writing requsite -- but it should be! |
Writing something that can be easily read has always been a challenge.
The popularity of the Internet and other interactive, screen-based media brings new challenges to the writer.
Documents destined for computer screens follow a different set of rules.
General Guidelines
The traditional rule of 10-15 words per sentence is out of the window. According to Jacob Nielsen, you should cut
text by at least 50% when moving it from print to screen.
Web users tend to scan text rather than read line-by-line.
Cutting overall length by half makes your writing easier to scan.
Short sentences of seven to ten words are ideal.
Gene Wales gave me (drilled into my head) a formula for effective communication.
In any communication, graphic, written or verbal, do it as if "You're Sending a Telegram to a Moron
at a Thousand Dollars a Word!"
Use short paragraphs.
A long paragraph, easily navigable on paper, is hopeless on screen. Your readers are scanners. A paragraph of more than
four or five lines invites them to skip past it.
Take this intimidating mindbender ...
Our concurrent master plan can no longer support a true creative regional methodology, but
does lend credence to pending commercial divisions. The unique supply side analysis of this effective administrative
trajectory clearly reflects the transience of the current pseudo-vertical environment. We will not return to
the regional cost effectiveness of the past unless a truly effective exchange centricity creates an environment
suitable for a heterogeneous real world up turn. Some would say that these manipulated growth oriented conclusions,
while based on a homogeneous home based centricity, bear a diverse management carry over. Our hypothesis, however,
is that a theoretical trial carry over can only result in a proven area-wide opportunity. |
Many (most) people's brains look at that block of words and shut down. It just looks like way too much to read.
By breaking text into paragraphs or blocks
you increase the chances of it being read.
Our concurrent master plan can no longer support a true creative regional methodology, but does lend credence
to pending commercial divisions.
The unique supply side analysis of this effective administrative trajectory clearly reflects
the transience of the current pseudo-vertical environment.
We will not return to the regional cost effectiveness of the past unless a truly effective exchange centricity
creates an environment suitable for a heterogeneous real world up turn.
Some would say that these manipulated growth oriented conclusions, while based on a homogeneous home based
centricity, bear a diverse management carry over.
Our hypothesis, however, is that a theoretical trial carry over can only result in a proven area-wide opportunity. |
(It's still gibberish, but at least now you know it is!)
Most paragraphs will have to stand alone as chunks. Cut all transitional phrases from beginnings and endings, such as
...
- "Secondly,"
- "Another point to consider,"
- "As we shall see in a moment,"
- "Furthermore,"
- "In addition,"
Breaking paragraphs into bulleted lists increases readability.
Bulleted lists may not cut actual length, but they permit faster reading.
A bulleted list of independent clauses should use Initial Capital Letters. A list of words or phrases should not.
The verbal equivalent of a bulleted list is the 'pause/loud phrase/pause' (plp) combination.
blah bla de bla bla bla etc ... [THE MARKETING ISSUES] On the Other Hand ... blah bla
de bla bla bla etc.....
Suggestions to help free you from old "print habits."
Bad:
In order for you to assure that your text will always be easily readable, you should always endeavor to make all
of your sentences as short and as concise as possible, eliminating all of the unnecessarily long words, the repetitions
and the redundancies.
(43 Words)
Better:
"Shorter words and sentences are easier to read on-screen."
(10 Words)
Brutal:
"Short words and sentences are easier to read."
(8 Words and we shot ourselves a hyphen in the process.)
Neanderthal
Keep it Short!
Tricks to help you chop the extra verbiage.
"There" is a dead word, except as an antonym of "Here."
Bad:
There are three questions that you should ask yourself before eating a live frog.
Better:
Ask yourself three questions before eating a live frog.
"There" sounds "singular," -- many people write -- "There is three
questions."
"There" can lurk in the middle of a sentence:
Bad:
We're sure that there will be a full analysis of the problem from our customer support staff.
Better:
We expect a full analysis from customer support.
Another 'gotcha' word is "it." Unless it's a pronoun with an antecedent in the previous sentence, "it" is
a waste of time and valuable real estate at the start of a sentence. "It" also puts the important
part of a sentence in a subordinate clause. This leads to more grammatical errors. Consider …
Bad:
It is a pleasure to welcome you to our site. (10 words)
Better:
Welcome to our site!
(4 words)
Still Better:
Welcome!
(1 Word)
Bad:
It is interesting to note that traffic on our site has grown by 60% in a month.
(17 words)
Better:
Our site traffic has grown 60% in a month.
(9 words, but avoid Passive Tense (has grown) when possible.)
Not passive:
Our site traffic grew 60% in a month.
(8 words)
Best
Traffic to our site grew 60% in a month.
(9 words but the subject is right up front and it's not passive.)
Please don't use words just to be using words.
You’ll make the acquaintance of the masters behind such impressive structures as the
Channel Tunnel, The Chesapeake Bay Bridge and a host of others.
You’ll meet the masters behind the Channel Tunnel, The Chesapeake Bay Bridge and other impressive structures.
Redundancies and dead phrases add to the word count:
- new and improved (Which is it? Is it really new or an is it an improved version of the old?)
- fair and equitable
- each and every
- begin to start
- component part
- at this particular point in time ... (Do you mean now?)
- at the present time --- (Do you mean now?)
- at that particular point in time ... (Do you mean then?)
- in close proximity = near
- my personal opinion, etc.
Among the worst dead phrases in English are "It goes without saying" and "Needless
to say."
If It goes without saying, then why say it? The entire sentence should get zapped.
If the sentence does need to stay, cut the useless phrases.
Starting a sentence with "Needless to say" is really saying, "I'm now going to waste your time
by saying stuff that doesen't need to be said."
A close relative of the above demons is the marvelously contradictory "Before
I get started ..." paradox. The very act of writing or saying those words means
you have already started!
Don't start a speech or a page with the word 'First.' If the first word is 'first', then it's redundant!
"Irregardless" is not a #$%&! standard word,
it's one of my major pet peeves! The word is "regardless".
The word irregardless is not correct in formal style. It is used chiefly in nonstandard speech or casual writing. Irregardless has
been considered a blunder for decades. It's also a waste of two perfectly good letters.
Sentence fragments are OK on web pages if they are not abused.
(Photo captions, etc.)
Write long to start - trim it later. If you know something can't be more
than 200 words, write 300, then cut it to 175. Now you can decide whether to "flesh it out," or leave it short.
If you can't cut it, try breaking it into chunks. If that's impossible, arrange the item so users can print it. Adobe
Acrobat is a "standard" for distributing print documents over the Internet.
Keep sentences simple.
Complex sentences like this one, with its introductory subordinate clause and parenthetical prepositional phrase,
are going to be troublesome.
Better to write: Complex compound sentences are hard to read.
Can you overdo it, and "abridge too far?" Yes, if your readers can't navigate, grasp what you're telling
them, or respond appropriately. If so, restore text only until your visitors are again comfortable.
Try to avoid ending sentences with prepositions. If you can't, however, who really cares?
Your readers will thank you for taking pains to do the absolute least you can do.
SPELING IS CRITIKAL
I recently received some SPAM from a company claiming to be an editorial house. For a lot of money they edit your documents.
Seven typos and misspelled words were on the home page.
Prior to committing your writings to the scrutiny of an unforgiving public eye, run them through a spelling checker.
If your web development tool of choice doesn’t have one, all you need do is preview the e-mail or web page, select
and copy the text. Open your word processor, (the one with the spell checker) create a new document and paste the text
into it.
Run that through the spelling and grammar checker and copy and paste between applications as needed to resolve any major
mistakes.
A mistake which is easy to make and hard to catch without a spell checker is:
“We have an un-ending comnnitment to accuracy in everything we do.”
Depending on the size of the screen font, the letters n, i, and m, when used consecutively, especially
in their lower case, are a mistake just waiting to happen. (As is the grammar in that sentence. “What the hey,
it’s not crinimal is it?’ Of course not. Give that man an ice crean come!)
It's NUCLEAR, not NUCULAR or any variant thereof, irregardless of how many
presidents pronounce it that way.
Since we are on the subject President and Precedent ... gramatically unrelated
(as are principal and principle, but you knew that, didn't you?)
IRREGARDLESS is NOT A STANDARD WORD!
-- If You Missed That Before --
Go Back To: Irregardless" is not a #$%&! Standard Word
and Deduct Two Points.
Your spell checker is only a first line of defense.
Many improper words will stall gut mist. (Still get missed)
Did I also mention that Center Justified Text,
without a specific design purpose,
can be difficult
and occasionally downright irritating to read?
Close only counts in hand grenades and horseshoes.
Some of the most common word confusions are . . .
- Silicon, Silicone - the "E" makes all the difference. The former is used in making integrated
circuits (it's sand) and the latter is a slippery goop used in lubricants and breast implants.
Silicon breast implants are all scratchy and painful, and silicone chips tend to drip/slip out of the computer.
- Capital/Capitol - maybe not so dissimilar after all...? (cynical comment)
- There, Their, They're - They're certain there is a difference in their meaning!
- GET IT RIGHT!
- Lose, Loose <- KNOW THE DIFFERENCE PEOPLE!
- Few, Less
Few is an adjective that means small in number, used with countable objects: “This department has few employees.”
Less is an adjective that means small in amount or degree, used with objects of indivisible mass: “Which jar
holds less water?
- It's, Its
It's is a contraction for it is, whereas its is the possessive form of it: “It's important that you know its
color.”
- Whose, Who's - Who's here that knows whose this is?
- Close, Clothes, Cloths
- Breathe, Breath - To breathe, one must take a breath.
- Least, Lease
- Then, Than, Thin
- Pin, Pen
- Lay, Lie
- Where, Were, We're - We're certain we knew where they were.
- It's a Web Site not Web Sight (Sight is seeing, and a site is where what you are seeing
sits -- see.)
Multiple Punctuation Marks At The End of a Sentence Are Sophomoric!!!!
(however)
Most Anything is OK if it REALLY Helps Communicate YOUR message!
(And doesn't make you look like an illiterate slob in the process) |
