Web Writing and Editing Basics |
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By
Chris Harvey, online bureau director,
Many of the rules you're already familiar with from writing for print or broadcast outlets also apply to Web storytelling. Write tight. Use short words, short sentences, short paragraphs. Use action verbs and concrete nouns. And some lessons from broadcast and feature writing are especially pertinent. Write conversationally, as if you're explaining a story to your spouse or mother. Use present tense when possible. Get rid of the jargon. But fortunately, the Web also allows you to meld the best of the other mediums into a product that will grab viewers on a number of sensory levels. The best Web stories explain partly with words, partly with photos and graphics, and partly with video and sound. They provide interactive features -- polls, quizzes, searchable databases, blogs, discussions -- that allow for audience participation. And in a departure from the standard inverted pyramid story, which jams the most important information at the top of a story, Web stories sometimes inform in a nonlinear fashion. There sometimes is no clear middle or ending. The reader can choose the pieces of information he wishes to sample from--diving in deep, or simply skimming the surface. Journalism professor Mindy McAdams of the University of Florida uses the expression "the inverted pyramid--blown apart" to describe the unfolding of some online stories. What she means is that some stories are created in such tiny bits that they can be read or watched in multiple directions. The reader, not the writer, determines that direction. A story about witnesses' reactions to a shooting at a public school, for instance, might start with a few paragraphs of summary text, then quickly lead to multiple links. Each link could give text and photos--and perhaps audio and video--from one witness. A reader could read one witness' account, two, three, or more, in any order. onathan Dube - who's worked as a reporter at ABCNews.com, an editor at MSNBC.com, and now is editorial director of CBC.ca - argues that even online chats, when moderated thoughtfully, can tell a story--tantamount to a smartly done Q&A in a traditional magazine.To see what he means, read the online chats Watergate reporter Bob Woodward (http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/zforum/97/bradlee.htm) had with washingtonpost.com readers, as part of an online commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the bungled break-in that eventually led to President Nixon's resignation from office.
Other online storytelling forms?
They
include:
Studies by Web consultants have shown that online readers are likely to quickly scan a page, scrolling down it, before deciding whether or not they'll read it. Thus when you package content for the Web, it's wise to
make it easy to scan.
A study by Web consultant Jakob Nielsen showed that less boastful or slanted language is
also more likely to be read and remembered. His credibility study on this can be found at http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html To quote from Nielsen: "...promotional language imposes a cognitive burden on users who have to spend resources on filtering out the hyperbole to get at the facts. When people read a paragraph that starts
'Nebraska is filled with internationally recognized attractions,' their first reaction is no, it's not, and this thought slows them down and distracts them from using the site."
Headlines reign supreme on Web sites, according to eye-tracking studies conducted by the Poynter Institute. Their studies have shown that readers' eyes gravitate to the main headline on the opening screen first -- ahead of the dominant photo or graphic. And the first few words of the headline have the greatest impact; readers will often move on to another element on the page after processing the first few words. It's important to note that there are some key distinctions in headline writing for print and Web. A newspaper headline is meant to appear on the same page as a story. If that same headline is used on an Internet home page or section front, a click away from a story, it can look strangely out of context-- or, worse yet, meaningless. Rewrite the print headline with enough specificity so that it makes sense as a free-standing bit of text. Example: Dating and mating on the Internet (a MSNBC home page link on May 12, 2004) was better written for the Web at another spot on the site: MORE WOMEN SEEKING ROMANCE ONLINE The second version is more specific, and easier understand, when separated from the text of the story. It also follows a noun-verb-object format, which readers are accustomed to processing. In addition, because many readers now enter stories through search engines --and not just from the home page of a site -- some news Internet companies are also training headline writers to use words that are specific enough that they will be found and ranked high through a search. This search engine optimization, or SEO, steers clear of witty but vague headlines, in favor of clear, specific ones. (For more on SEO, see "This Boring Headline Is Written for Google," in the April 9, 2006, issue of The New York Times, and "Newspapers search for Web headline magic," in the Feb. 2, 2007, issue of C/Net News.com.) As Larry Kramer, president of CBS Digital Media, told The New York Times last year: "... there's nothing wrong with search engine optimization as long as it doesn't interfere with news judgment." Fortunately for copy editors who spent their early years at newspapers, there are rules of print headline writing that work well online as well. Do write headlines that are
Most headlines on news stories have a subject, verb and direct object--although this is not ironclad. (Headlines over feature stories are sometimes written as phrases, without a verb.) Headlines should not have an unintended double meaning. They should only include names or acronyms that are easily recognized. You can have more fun with headlines over feature stories than those over news stories, sometimes using rhymes or repetition of words for effect. Rather than use cliches, however, try to turn a cliche on its head. Other tips: Headlines should not repeat the lead. They should be better than the lead. They should not give away trick endings on feature stories. They should be in good taste. Be sure to attribute headlines that convey opinion. If the lead needs attribution, there’s a good chance the headline will, too. Often the attribution can be set off by a colon, as in: Kerry: Bush Offers Nothing on Health Costs (from MSNBC.com on May 10, 2004.) Or, the attribution could follow the main words of the headline, to give more emphasis to what’s happening, rather than to who said it. (Bush Offers Nothing on Health Costs, Kerry Says) Use commas to replace “and,” and semicolons to split two-sentence headlines. Use single quotation marks in place of double quotation marks. Avoid words that could be read as either a noun or a verb. They will lead to confusion. Try to avoid headline jargon: With someone eyeing a bill, or someone else heading to the Mideast. Take a minute to think about why these headlines are less than desirable: · From the DesMoinesRegister.com, April 13, 2004: “Race helps hone writing, math skills.” Here’s the lead: “Students in Johnston are using the Iditarod sled-dog race to learn about math, writing and even logic.” · From CNN.com on April 14, 2004: “Teen gets 50 years for hitting jogger on purpose.” Here’s the dateline and lead: “GREAT FALLS, Montana (AP) – A teen who wrote about wanting to do “horrible things” was sentenced to 50 years in prison for trying to kill a woman by driving up onto a sidewalk to hit her with his sport utility vehicle.” Copydesk.org has links to several good tip sheets on headline writing, including one from John Schlander of the St. Petersburg Times and another from Joel Pisetzner of the Newark Star-Ledger. And Poynter.org's Howard I. Finberg writes about the importance of Web headlines.
Many rules of traditional caption writing
apply to the Web. For instance:
On the Web, you should also when possible put additional useful photo
information inside the "alt" attribute in your <img src> tag in your html
code. This gives users something more to read as your page is loading in their
computers; it gives search engines another term to look for, and it gives users something to read if they're looking at your page
in a text-only format. This "alt" text also shows up as you hover your mouse over the photo when viewing
it in a Web browser. So write it carefully. If space is limited on a page or a headshot or thumbnail photo is extra
small, you may choose to put all your photo information into the ALT attribute, abandoning
the traditional caption below the photo altogether. Mindy McAdams of the University of Florida inks to stories about online writing and to examples of fine writing at: http://Mindy.McAdams.com/write/linklist.html#short. Sun.com includes important information on search engines' reliance on Title tags and Meta-tags, in its "Writing to be found." Webreference.com gives grammar and style tips (and pitfalls to avoid) in "Overcoming the Most Common Mistakes: Writing Well for the Web."
Confused about when to use "who" or "whom," "I" or "me?" Copydesk.org provides quizzes on word usage, editing and AP style. Created February 2001. Last updated: Oct. 7, 2007.
Copyright © 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007
Chris Harvey. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Feel free to link to this
resource page, but do not cut and paste it onto your own site.
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