Saturday, June 14, 2008

Connecting Paper Style

There are many similarities in rules for "web style" and "writing style." When we write a paper, or anything else, we should always write for our audience. If you were writing something for your job and you were a professional, your writing style would most likely be different than if you were writing a love letter to your significant other. The same rules apply when you are writing something for a website. You should write in a style that is appropriate for the audience that will be viewing your site.
Also correct "writing style" uses correct English. The same is true for proper "web style." Just because things are sometimes abbreviated and shorted on a web site for simplicity, this does not mean that proper grammar usage should be abandoned. This is also true with punctuation. Text on a website should be punctuated correctly, just as if you were writing a paper for an English course.
When you are writing a paper, you should introduce your topic in your first paragraph. This is your thesis statement. The same thing goes for a website. People want to know right away what your site is all about; they don't want to have to go to a second page or to read too far into the first page to figure out if the website they have opened will be useful for them.
There are also many differences in "web style" writing versus every day "writing style." When you are writing text for a web site, you should keep your sentences short. People who are visiting a website are looking to read information quickly and are taking only a short time to digest this information. This does not always apply in every day writing. It is not always possible to keep sentence short when you are a writing a paper for a class or even in a personal letter or an email.
There are both similarities and differences when writing for a website versus everyday writing style. Whether designing a website or maintaining a website, attention should be paid to both the similarities and the differences for maximum clarity for your website audience.

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