WLLS 102 Assignment, April 2, 2004
Rewrites of
Cut it down and open it up by Charlie Morris, July 5, 1999
Original text:
"Brevity is the soul of wit," 'tis said, and it's certainly a rare virtue on the Web.
Freed from the constraint of paper costs, prophets, pundits, boosters and just plain
windbags go on and on and on about every conceivable subject. Perhaps because of this
barrage of information and pseudo-information, most Web readers seem to skim through
Web pages, devoting a lot less attention per word than they would if they were reading
a print publication. Most folks seem
to agree that people's attention spans shorten when they go online.
When writing for the Web, therefore, it's wise to write a little tighter and meatier than
you would for print. Remember that your readers can click away at any second, and try to
keep their attention by sticking closely to your topic. Avoid repetition and superfluous
clauses. Of course you don't want to economize so much that your prose becomes
stilted and humorless. Really talented writers find a good balance, and are able to cover
a lot of hard information in a readable, entertaining way.
In addition to cutting out excess verbiage, it's good to organize your text in a bit
more open, loose format than you would in print. Be generous with paragraph breaks and
headings - they make pages a little more eye-friendly and easier to scan quickly.
If appropriate, don't be afraid to use things like bulleted lists and tables - anything to
make the information jump out at the reader, instead of making them sift through long
paragraphs to get at it.
When writing for the Web, keep in mind that you're writing for an international audience.
If you want your work to be comprehensible to visitors from around the world, avoid
Americanisms (such as metaphors like "batting average," "drop back and punt," etc.)
and/or Britishisms ("close of play," "sticky wickets" [I just had to get that one in there]).
Puns and plays on words can definitely cause problems. People whose first language is
not English may be confused or misled by them.
Main points:
"Brevity is the soul of wit," 'tis said, and it's certainly a rare virtue on the Web.
Freed from the constraint of paper costs, prophets, pundits, boosters and just plain
windbags go on and on and on about every conceivable subject. Perhaps because of this
barrage of information and pseudo-information, most Web readers seem to skim through
Web pages, devoting a lot less attention per word than they would if they were reading
a print publication. Most folks seem
to agree that people's attention spans shorten when they go online.
When writing for the Web, therefore, it's wise to write a little tighter and meatier than
you would for print. Remember that your readers can click away at any second, and try to
keep their attention by sticking closely to your topic. Avoid repetition and superfluous
clauses. Of course you don't want to economize so much that your prose becomes
stilted and humorless. Really talented writers find a good balance, and are able to cover
a lot of hard information in a readable, entertaining way.
In addition to cutting out excess verbiage, it's good to organize your text in a bit
more open, loose format than you would in print. Be generous with paragraph breaks and
headings - they make pages a little more eye-friendly and easier to scan quickly.
If appropriate, don't be afraid to use things like bulleted lists and tables - anything to
make the information jump out at the reader, instead of making them sift through long
paragraphs to get at it.
When writing for the Web, keep in mind that you're writing for an international audience.
If you want your work to be comprehensible to visitors from around the world, avoid
Americanisms (such as metaphors like "batting average," "drop back and punt," etc.)
and/or Britishisms ("close of play," "sticky wickets" [I just had to get that one in there]).
Puns and plays on words can definitely cause problems. People whose first language is
not English may be confused or misled by them.
Version 1: 230 words
Brevity is a virtue on the Web. Freed from constraints, people go on about every subject. Because of this barrage of information, Web readers skim through Web pages, devoting less attention than they would if they were reading a print publication. Most agree that people's attention spans shorten when they go online.
When writing for the Web, it's wise to write tighter and meatier than you would for print. Readers can click away at any second, so try to keep their attention by sticking to your topic. Avoid repetition and superfluous clauses. Don't economize so much that your prose becomes stilted and humorless. Talented writers find a balance, and cover hard information in a readable, entertaining way.
In addition to cutting out excess verbiage, it's good to organize your text in an open, loose format. Be generous with paragraph breaks and headings - they make pages eye-friendly and easier to scan quickly. If appropriate, use things like bulleted lists and tables - anything to make the information jump out at the reader.
When writing for the Web, you're writing for an international audience. If you want your work to be comprehensible to all visitors, avoid culture-specific metaphors. Puns and plays on words cause problems. People whose first language is not English may be confused or misled by them.
Version 2: 107 words
Web readers skim through Web pages, devoting less attention than they would if they were
reading a print publication. When writing for the Web, write tighter and meatier than you
would for print. In addition, keep in mind the following:
- Readers can click away at any second. Stick closely to your topic.
- Avoid repetition and unnecessary clauses.
- Be generous with paragraph breaks and headings - they make pages eye-friendly and easier to scan.
- Use bulleted lists and tables where appropriate
- You are writing for an international audience. Avoid Americanisms, Britishisms, puns and plays on words. People whose first language is not English may be misled by them.
Version 3: 102 words
When writing for the Web, it is crucial for Web writers follow these simple guidelines:
Don't be too wordy. Web readers usually skim through the Web pages, a long page
causes readers to lose interest.
Make sure that pages are clear and stay on topic. Pages should also be informative,
easy to understand and pleasurable.
Don't be afraid to use paragraph breaks and headings, they are both useful the
readers.
Remember the Web is used throughout the world, do not use language that is popular
in certain countries. Example: “that shirt is hot” or “the lights are on no
one is home”.
Version 4: 87 words
Most Web readers seem to skim through Web pages, devoting a lot less attention per word than
they would if they were reading a print publication. People's attention spans shorten
when they go online.
Things to do to keep your readers’ attention:
- Cut down on the number of words.
- Stick to your topic.
- Avoid repeating yourself and extra clauses
- Keep your writing entertaining but informative
- Make your writing easy to scan (you can include lists and tables)
- Keep it basic, so that the international audience can understand.
Version 5: 72 words
When writing for the World Wide Web, keep the following in mind:
Web readers:
- Skim web pages
- Have shorter attention spans
Good web writers:
- stick close to the topic
- don't repeat
- don't use fancy language
- balance humor & information
Good web pages:
- have many paragraph breaks
- have many headings
- use bulleted lists
- use tables
Caution: Web writing is international. Don't use idioms.
Version 6: 55 words
Web readers read web pages more quickly than print material and their attention
spans are shorter. Consider the following.
- Be concise and stick to your topic to keep audience attention
- Help readers scan a page with :
- headings
- shorter paragraphs
- bulletted lists, and
- tables
- Keep your work accessible to an international audience by avoiding national
cliches
Version 7: 42 words
The ways to make text brief for the web are:
- Cut out excess verbiage.
- Organize the text. You can use things such as bulleted lists and tables.
- Be careful to use words on the web because you are writing for international audiences.