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Re: URL's for writing for the web

for

From: Philip Kiff
Date: Feb 17, 2007 1:00PM

Patrick Lauke wrote on 16 February 2007 07:25 EST:
>> Does anyone have some good URLs for Writing for the web with an
>> emphasis on accessibility? thanks
>
> [....]JUST on the web? Does this not apply to ANY communication medium? If
> I do a leaflet, are the considerations not exactly the same?
> [....]
> So, instead of specific "for the web" courses, there should be "good
> writing...full stop" courses.

I agree with the general notion that good writing is always a question of
context, and that therefore it would be valuable to teach good communication
writing generally. However, there are a couple writing strategies that I
think come close to being specific to the web. These techniques relate to
the elements of the web that are specific to that medium: namely the
hyperlink, and linkable/machine-readable page structures. I have not seen a
good list of all of these written down anywhere in one place, and perhaps
the ones I list below are incomplete or incorrect, but there I think there
IS some kind of need for some short, web-specific writing guidelines.

Some suggestions then:

1. Hyperlinked text should be understandable when taken out of context in
order to facilitate skimming of links
(This is something that aids both visual and screen-reader users, but that
has no meaning for print writing. In print, one might choose specific words
to emphasize by colour/boldface/underlining, but it is not necessary for
such emphasized text to make sense when taken out of context.)

2. Sentences and phrases should be structured so that hyperlinks are located
at the end of the phrase where their context is provided.
(So, for instance, rather than saying: "The [url]Accessible Writing
Guidelines[/url] from organization ABC describe the best methods of writing
for the web by including recommendations for specific grammatical structures
as well as generalizations that apply to any good communications writing."
[Okay, that sentence is too long, but it will serve as an example in this
case]. An improved sentence structure for the web would be: "Organization
ABC provides guidelines on the best methods of writing for the web,
including recommendations for specific grammatical structures as well as
generalizations that apply to any good communications writing, in their
publication: [url]Accessible Writing Guidelines[/url]." The theory behind
this sentence-link-order recommendation is that because screen reader users
must listen to the sentence in a linear fashion, if you provide the link
before providing the context, then they may have to back up in their reading
process in order to access the link. Whereas if you provide the link at the
end of the relevant sentence, then when they hear the link notification
sound, they should already know enough about the link to decide whether they
want to access it or not. In a more general way, this simply takes
advantage of natural positions of emphasis, like any writing does. But in
standard, printed text, there is a natural position of emphasis at the
beginning of a sentence as well as at the end, and in the case of
hyperlinked (web) text, I am suggesting that it is preferable to tend
towards positioning such links (emphases) only in the latter positions.)

3. Headings and Titles should be chosen so that they include key words
related to their subject matter and they should be written so that their
subject matter is explained simply.
(Again, this is something that is not necessary in print or other mediums.
It is normal in much writing to create headings or titles that are evocative
and that contain some kind of hook, but it is not normal, except in "plain
language" writings, to expect that headings and titles be fully
self-explanatory. However, in order for some users to effectively "skim"
pages using headings, those headings should be self-explanatory, more than
playful, in most contexts.)

4. Links, Headings, and Title text should be selected so that they begin
with unique words, and in some cases, those words should begin with unique
letters as well.
(This assists with skimming the page or site using links-only,
headings-only, or titles-only reading modes. Users do not have to listen to
repeated words at the beginning of each heading/title/link in order to
differentiate it from other links. And in the case of navigation menu links
and other key sets of headings on a page, selecting words that begin with
different letters allows some users to jump directly to the menu/heading
link by accessing lists of links sorted alphabetically. On pages where each
key link begins with a different letter, a skilled screen-reader user could
jump directly to that link on each page with only one or two keystrokes.

Phil.