Location, Location, Location

As is the case in print layout, there's a psychology behind layout of content on the Web. Principal among principles: people won't scroll.

This is important, because the best web writing in the world is useless if nobody reads it. You have your main screen as a chance to hook people, and that's it. Put your money shot there: in the headline and the first couple of paragraphs.

The most useful, informative, super-awesome site in the world is absolutely valueless if no one knows it exists. How do people find websites? Most of the time, by searching google.

This little trend in internet user behavior has spawned the sub-science of search engine optimization- Optimizing websites to attain the highest possible page ranking in google and, to a far lesser extent, every other search engine in existence. One of the crucial parts of optimization is providing text content that will be best indexed by the "robots" sent out by google to crawl the web and find stuff.

So we're not just writing for other people, but for robots, too. It has to modify the way people use language to communicate across the web. This article gets more in-depth on this nebulous quasi-science.

From copy to content

Because of the Web, we've changed the way we view written language. We've dispensed with both prose and poetry. Even the term 'copy' is a relic from the pleistocene.

Today, it's all about content. Although it's been impossible to escape the fact that the Web is still inherently a text-based medium, many people would like to. So we see strong, persuasive paragraphs treated as little more than a shape; a square to be squashed in between tables. Deft insight is choked by pixel padding.

Of course, since everyone isn't a web designer, we still see plenty of the converse: oceans of text the line length of which stretches from screen edge to screen edge. Paragraph breaks lose all meaning, and reader attention peters out long before the writer's thoughts do.

Visual presentation is important, and both of these extremes illustrate how form (or lack thereof) can obfuscate function. The same psychology used to develop the modern newspaper (use of different text weights, sizes and typefaces, placement on the page etc.) applies to readers sitting in front of a screen. It's when we forget that viewers are readers and readers are viewers that the problems begin.

Writing like a wanker

When Originally planning this class, I had envisioned a course on how to write persuasive static copy that would best fit with the psychology and behavior of Web readers. Conversations with my mentor, however, illustrated that writing for the Web has become so much more than snappy static headlines and bullet points.

The web is fluid now, and serves not only as a medium through which people can interact with websites via scripts and databases, but also as way to interact with other people. When you use a web forum, blog, or comment form you're in a conversation, not necessarily with someone you know or even with a single indvidual, rather with a gestalt. Writing on the web is writing to the masses, and it's impossible to pinpoint your target group.

With this in mind, it's wise to firm up the fundamental rules of the English language and use them. Your words, and the ability to properly construct them, will be your main method of persuasion, and your primary expression of respect and courtesy toward others.

Matt Olson's 2002 article, How to Write like a Wanker is a biting look at some of the most annoying habits of people who write on the Web. It bears reading, then re-reading. And then, if you're still doing this stuff, you need to be taken out and shot.

A coffee table book about coffee tables

This blog is the practical part of a class on Web writing. Maybe it can benefit others as well as myself. As I learn, I'll be putting theory into practice on this very computer screen, exploring the various techniques, tips, and methods through which communication on the World Wide Web succeeds and fails.

Read along, if you're bored or curious.

-Mark