[thelist] Writing for the Web (fwd)

[Martin]

the head lemur wrote on 30/8/01 7:12 pm

>Re: Jakob
>Jakob's note was written in 1997.
>On the web in 1997 we were beginning in the infancy of development and
>presentation. There were not many good writers then, there are not many good
>writers now. 

Indeed, there are probably more poor *web* writers because more
offline writers have come into the industry without understanding
the medium.

It pretty much parallels those print designers (ie not all of them!)
who expect pixel perfection on all platforms...

>There are no rules for writing on the web outside of laws on slander, libel,
>plagerism and copyright infringment.

No, but there are reasonable guidelines based on HCI. Rule or no rule,
it's hard for people to read long, non-chunked copy off a screen.

Of course, Jakob's rules are largely good tabloid journalistic style
(minus the sensationalism) - inverted pyramid structure, short,
chunked with subheads etc. Tabloids are very, very carefully
written - it's hard to tell a story which can be read while standing
at a bus stop with distractions.

Cheers
Martin 

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