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Writing for the Web

Listening to your webpage being read by a screen reader can be an educational experience. But this is not the only reason to modify one's writing style for the web. Reading from the screen is a different experience than reading from paper. Users often only scan text for interesting or relevant information rather than read it thoroughly. Therefore it is a good idea to break up text into smaller paragraphs, apply a logical order of headers and subheaders, and use bullet point lists.

Readability and 'scanability' can be increased by "front-loading" paragraphs, stating the topic of the paragraph in the first sentence, and by using a good amount of 'white space' on the page to separate chunks of text. Keep pages uncluttered and keep distractions to a minimum.

Here are some tips:

  • give documents a meaningful page title.
  • keep paragraphs short.
  • limit each paragraph to one main idea.
  • highlight keywords.
  • use meaningful headings and sub-headings.
  • use bullet lists.
  • use clear and simple language.
  • avoid or explain technical jargon.
  • avoid the passive voice.
  • use spell and grammar checkers (eyes often compensate for spelling errors, screen readers don't).
  • indicate language changes (see chapter on Content in the Techniques section).
  • be aware of sensitive cultural issues.
  • label abbreviations and acronyms (see chapter on Content).
  • provide alternatives to auditory and visual content (see chapter on Multimedia).
  • mark up documents with proper structural elements (see chapter on Structural mark-up).
  • give links descriptive titles (see chapter on Usability).
  • be consistent with link colours.
  • avoid underlining. It is understood as an indication for a hyperlink.
  • don't ever use 'Click here' or 'Click on the icon below'.

Don't use 'Click here'

Avoid the phrase "Click here", as it is not very descriptive. There are endless alternatives to using this phrase.

Learn more in the Techniques section.

Learn more :

The Techniques section contains a chapter on content and language that is more detailed than the information on this page.

A list of relevant links can be found in the Resource section.

Related Issues

[ Browsers ]
[ Usability ]
[ Writing for the web ]
[ Information Architecture ]
[ Submitting documents for web publication ]
[ XHTML ]

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