You Will Learn How To
- Plan, draft and edit content to attract and keep readers
- Organize content to help readers find the information they are looking for
- Meet reader expectations by using appropriate language and style
- Capture audience attention with a user-focused message
- Fine-tune text for clarity and concision
- Adapt language for an international audience
Course Benefits
Writing for the Web is a unique skill, requiring the ability to create clear and concise content that allows readers to easily navigate sites and absorb information quickly. In this intensive course, you develop and sharpen skills to create compelling Web content that attracts visitors and provides value. You learn how to write for the online environment, including optimizing content for search engines and organizing information flow.
Who Should Attend
Those interested in creating, revising or maintaining Web content, including technical writers, Web content writers, managers, programmers, developers and other professionals.
Hands-On Training
Hands-on exercises provide practical Web writing experience and include:
- Identifying the characteristics and criteria of a good site
- Designing content structure using brainstorming tools
- Tailoring your writing to different audiences and needs
- Writing Web content from scratch
- Focusing your message with industry-standard editing techniques
- Editing text for clarity and concision
- Creating content for a global audience
- Persuading your reader by targeting key motivators
Course 221 Content
Thinking Before Writing
- How readers use Web sites
- Elements of a high-impact Web site
- Key differences between printed and online text
- Connecting good and bad Web site characteristics to the writer's responsibilities
- Profiling your readers with user personas
Structuring Your Content
Organizing information to answer user questions
- Capturing and focusing the reader's attention
- Writing from the bottom up
- Chunking information into topics with LATCH
- Integrating the inverted pyramid principle
Structuring for clarity and flow
- Creating cohesion with organizational techniques
- Implementing brainstorming methodologies
Applying an end-to-end Web writing process
- Expanding on the traditional writing process
- Developing best practice checklists
- Differentiating among programmer, designer and writer roles
Writing Content for an Effective Site
Creating pages that serve the audience
- Recognizing the order in which readers process a Web page
- Constructing zones of interest on a page to support the reader
Communicating your message with effective text
- Matching your style to your audience
- Comparing and contrasting writing styles
- Building credibility with effective research
- Cultivating an appropriate writing voice
- Enhancing audience focus
Maintaining focus
- Avoiding words, phrases and writing techniques that slow readers down
- Demystifying grammar rules
- English as a positional language
- Repeating key terms
- Expressing similar concepts in similar ways
Building effective sentences
- Sequencing words and phrases
- Keeping to the subject
- Employing active and passive voice
- Avoiding the inferential gap
- Grammar and punctuation considerations
Creating Compelling Content
Constructing sentences with a user focus
- Keeping your audience reading
- Crafting a powerful message
- Selecting the right words
- Maintaining meaning, concision and clarity
- Steering clear of ambiguous words and clichés
Writing to sell
- Creating text to persuade readers
- Constructing customer-focused persuasion
- Exploring the key motivators of psychological persuasion
Improving Your Text
Designing for clarity
- Exploiting value-added modifiers
- Incorporating clarity throughout a site
- Dealing with abbreviations
- Correct Only If Known (COIK)
- Qualifying pronouns and synonyms
- Avoiding negative terms and hidden verbs
Practicing concision
- Avoiding wordiness
- Eliminating noise words and phrases
- Simplifying text by removing adjectives and adverbs
Writing for the World
Composing English content for a global audience
- Identifying the style of your text
- Adapting your style to your audience
- Minimizing words without losing the message
Reducing ambiguity and complexity with controlled English
- The principles of controlled English
- Resources for making English accessible
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