Writing Well On The Web

by Taryn Gerhardt

For most part, writing for the web or hypertext writing is different than for print. A simple way to look at it would be to say the distinction between web and print writing is that hypertext is more succinct and is shorter—but that makes it almost too simple. Editing down the length is not the complete formula for creating effective hypertext.

That technique fails to acknowledge the possibilities for detail and explanation that are unlimited when writing for the web. For example, hypertext links add another dimension and detail not possible in print. However, just because a site uses a lot of links, doesn’t necessarily make it good hypertext writing. Good hypertext writing has many aspects. A few of these include: following the rules for good grammar; breaking down the information into chunks, so it is easily scanned; and re-organizing the information so that reader can read in a non-linear manner.

While web writing has many facets, this section will look at the structural components such as: use of words, sentences, paragraphs, headlines and hypertext links. To more fully understand how to use those tools, it would be helpful to understand how people read and remember on the Web.

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