{"id":69,"date":"2012-10-22T14:21:15","date_gmt":"2012-10-22T21:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/acaldwell\/?p=69"},"modified":"2012-10-22T14:22:17","modified_gmt":"2012-10-22T21:22:17","slug":"writing-for-the-internet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/acaldwell\/2012\/10\/22\/writing-for-the-internet\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing for the Internet"},"content":{"rendered":"

When it comes to writing geared towards online publication, I never knew that I would have to so dramatically alter my style to conform to the demands that the online world wants. The article “Writing Style for Print vs. Web<\/a>” helped me understand how internet readers choose what information to engage.<\/p>\n

The article brings up an interesting distinction:<\/p>\n

Print publications – from newspaper articles to marketing brochures – contain linear content that’s often consumed in a more relaxed setting and manner than the solution-hunting behavior that characterizes most high-value Web use.<\/p>\n

Because I mainly use the internet to watch television (on sites such as Hulu, Netflix and Xfinity) the general formatting for text seemed irrelevant to me. I approached online writing the way I approach essay writing, and as a result my first few attempts were marred by what this article would see as errors.<\/p>\n

Web writing is much more focused, much more straight to the point. Readers are not looking for filler information, something that I have become used to adding because, for me, it helps clarify a point or give a different way of understanding. I didn’t understand that people reading online want to “construct their own experience” rather than have it constructed for them. This concept, I’ll admit, still confuses me. Maybe it’s because I don’t spend enough time online looking for information that I don’t understand the necessity of proper formatting. Either way, it’s something I will definitely have to work on.<\/p>\n

The second article I read was titled “Information Pollution<\/a>“. This article argues that less is more, a concept that I strongly disagree with, but understand as necessary in the context of the internet, where everything is accessible instantly. What I take from this article is the idea that “if users don’t need it, don’t write it”. However, this is a problem for me, because if that were the case, I feel like everything write would be no longer than 3 or 4 sentences.<\/p>\n

Studies of content usability typically find that removing half of a website’s words will double the amount of information that users actually get.<\/p>\n

I found this quote especially troubling, because we are in the information age, and I’ve often equated writing with the transference of information. Clearly I need to rethink how I view the internet.<\/p>\n

Writing online is a battle for attention. There are so many things going on in any given webpage that it’s almost impossible to fully gain the attention of anyone reading it, unless the information presented is exactly what they are looking for.<\/p>\n

As an added bonus, this YouTube video provides some excellent tips for online writing.<\/p>\n

[youtube]http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=f1n4QKOZ8D4[\/youtube]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When it comes to writing geared towards online publication, I never knew that I would have to so dramatically alter my style to conform to the demands that the online world wants. The article “Writing Style for Print vs. Web” … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":325,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"qubely_global_settings":"","qubely_interactions":"","kk_blocks_editor_width":"","_kiokenblocks_attr":"","_kiokenblocks_dimensions":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"gutentor_comment":1,"qubely_featured_image_url":null,"qubely_author":{"display_name":"acaldwell","author_link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/acaldwell\/author\/acaldwell\/"},"qubely_comment":1,"qubely_category":"Uncategorized<\/a>","qubely_excerpt":"When it comes to writing geared towards online publication, I never knew that I would have to so dramatically alter my style to conform to the demands that the online world wants. The article “Writing Style for Print vs. Web” … Continue reading →","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/acaldwell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/acaldwell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/acaldwell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/acaldwell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/325"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/acaldwell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/acaldwell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/acaldwell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions\/71"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/acaldwell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/acaldwell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/acaldwell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}