Authors

Overview

The U.S., Canada and Europe have produced several renowned authors of books about web writing. Among those are Jakob Nielsen and Crawford Kilian.

U.S. and Canada

U.S. engineer Jakob Nielsen provides the basic studies for writing differently online: reading on-screen is harder and web users are highly impatient.

Canadian teacher Crawford Kilian goes beyond: the web text should engage the user into a sequence of orientation, information, and action.

Nick Usborne, an e-marketing specialist, adds a twist: on corporate and e-commerce sites, the text should speak to the user as a real person.

U.S. technical writer Jonathan Price broadens all the horizons: web writing should aim at personalizing content and making it customizable by users.

Europe

U.K. journalist Susannah Ross insists on identifying what the user would like to know about what we want to say.

Belgian e-consultant Jean-Marc Hardy questions the North American consensus on the specificity of web writing, but acknowledges its efficiency.

Quebec

University professor Michel Cartier refutes the early assertion that most web users scan text; this behavior should be considered as only the first step of his reading process.

From examining the sum of North American and European web writing guidelines, web writer François Hubert proposes a process of adapting existing content by summarizing, restructuring, reviewing, and rewriting.

U.S. and Canada
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Web writing authors Crawford Kilian, Jonathan Price and Nick Usborne each have developed a unique and comprehensive set of writing guidelines.

Jakob Nielsen

In his highly influential book Designing Web Usability, Nielsen asserts that the chronic impatience of users requires a content that will promptly answer their questions.

On his Writing for the Web site released in 1998, the Sun Microsystem’s engineer presents a rationale on why we need to write differently for the web: on-screen reading is 25% slower than print, and 79% of users scan text instead of reading it word for word. Web text should therefore be 50% shorter than its print equivalent.

For Nielsen, web writing consists of three main guidelines: concision, scannability and content chunking. Nielsen’s early studies regarding on-line reading are still referenced as the basis and the basics for repurposing print material for the web.

Crawford Kilian

In 1999, Canadian teacher and fiction writer Crawford Kilian launched the first professional web writing guide to refer to Nielsen’s studies. In Writing for the Web, Kilian proposed a three-principled writing approach: orientation (subject, structure), information (audience, objectives), and action (the action desired from the user).

In-depth knowledge of audience should help determine whether the appropriate web structure should be narrative, hierarchical, or thematic. Thematic has been proven to be the most common structure.

Kilian proposed two structuring methods: Chunking/Hit and Run Information Retrieval and Scrolling/Information Retrieval by Downloading.

Jonathan Price

In 2002, U.S. technical communication specialist Jonathan Price created a more comprehensive set of web writing guidelines. In Hot Text – Web Writing That Works, this Ph.D. graduate details a global writing approach that not only aims at personalizing content for users, but also allows users to customize it. The latter requires a sophisticated content management system (XML) with an extensive collection of data on user needs. Such data gathering would allow us to display, at any given point of a user’s visit to a site, the unit of information that will best respond to the user’s objectives and needs.

Nick Usborne

Later in 2002, e-marketing guru Nick Usborne added a new dimension to commercial web writing – the authentic and personal voice. In Net Words – Creating High-impact Online Copy, Usborne encourages us to scrap corporate speak for a more personal and credible voice, similar to that used in an on-line forum. Engaging in a humanized dialog with the user to respond more sensitively to his or her needs can help us create commercial relationships that are based on trust.

Europe
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In the United Kingdom and Belgium, experienced journalists like Susannah Ross and Jean-Marc Hardy have elaborated on a set of guidelines derived from news editing.

Susannah Ross

According to BBC-veteran Susannah Ross, a web site should be created based on the point of view of the user. We should spend all of our time identifying what the user wants to know on a particular subject. Before writing anything, Ross suggests we answer three questions:

- Why this subject?
- Who is this subject for?
- What should the content be?

In her handy book Chambers Desktop Guide to Writing for the Web (2001, 2007), this BBC trainer in interactive media recommends a simple exercise to clarify the purpose of a Web site: express that purpose in no more than 10 words.

She also insists on these ways to optimize writing on the web:

- Use the shortest and simplest terms
- Review the functions of all your words
- Replace adverbs and adjectives with a stronger verb
- Activate the passive voice
- Turn negative expressions into positive ones

Jean-Marc Hardy

Even though he considers web writing to be a mere adaptation of traditional writing, e-consultant Jean-Marc Hardy fully acknowledges its efficiency. His thorough analysis of its constituents is eloquent: hypertext, multimedia, interactivity, and customization – all the latter in a network that provides services.

On his French-language site Redaction.be (2001), Hardy objects to the Anglo-Saxon theory that proposes an over-simplification of style for reading-friendliness: factual writing can include humour and nuances. But he does conclude that good e-journalists need more organizational skills than writing skills.

Therefore, Hardy advises structuring an article as a “package” that offers multiple angles rather than just one. According to him, journalists, not filters, should ensure customization of content.

Quebec
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If French-speaking professor Michel Cartier insists on the other stages of online reading besides scanning, Web writing trainer François Hubert propose a web writing process that addresses these stages of reading.

Michel Cartier

In his study titled Le Web de 3e génération – Le pourquoi et le comment (2002), IT specialist Michel Cartier invalidates the early assertion that web users mostly scan text. Users would rather read texts closely but only after completing a searching and scanning stage. Cartier explains that Web visitors commonly use three stages of reading, depending on their intent for the material: locating information (overview), scanning (overview and summarizing) and in-depth reading (analyzing).

François Hubert

On his Web site Cortexte (launched in 1995), web writing trainer and author François Hubert shares his own web writing process, based on the sum of already acknowledged guidelines in North America and Europe. These include summarizing, restructuring, reviewing, and re-writing. Hubert also proposes four basic web structures and three ways of summarizing content.

The four structures are categorical chunks, FAQ type, conclusion-summary one-pagers and magazine-like series. Hubert hosts a blog on web writing guidelines.