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Sunday, July 15, 2012

Writing for the Web: Five (or Six) Questions | OneWorldsee

I like this short article. It emphasizes what I believe about writing for the Web, as a former journalism student, newspaper editor/reporter, and journalism instructor. I also continued using these writing methods for other types of documents when I went into public relations/community relations for nonprofit and public agencies.

The inverted pyramid method for writing news articles is ideal for the Web. It puts the most important information in the first (lead) paragraph and then provides more details in descending/declining order of importance.

An article can have internal inverted pyramids, each with its own subheading, with sections of the article also providing information in declining order of importance. On the Web, those sections can get their own page.

As for the focus of this article -- the 5 W's and H -- they are the key questions a reporter and a Web writer needs to consider and answer, starting with the the lead paragraph.

The inverted pyramid method also fits well with plain-language principles of writing. For more information on plain language, check out Garbl's Plain English Writing Guide.

You also could check Garbl's Action Writing Links. It's an annotated directory of websites that can help you get people to read your writing, keep readers interested and persuade them to respond while they're reading or afterward. It links to other websites that also provide advice on help people reading and use our Web sites--without clicking away.



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