No doubt we have “freedom of speech” and we have learnt to believe that rules are meant to be broken for a good cause. Yet, without rules we would not be able to communicate. If the alphabets “t”, “r”, “e”, “e” put together in a sequence meant “tree” for one person and “table” for another, then the world would be in a chaos! I would say one thing and you would understand something else.
Rules are necessary. With a common understanding among us, we have decided that the alphabets “t”, “r”, “e”, “e” when put together signify a “tree”. Similarly, when I say “sky” it means the same thing to all English speaking people. Rules define our existence, even though sometimes we need to break them, because rules are born out of ‘need’.
So, why web content writing would be an exception to the rules of writing? It is an accepted fact that writing for the web is entirely different from writing for the print or the audiovisual media. Most of us are aware that no rules are followed in web content writing. There is much scope for creativity in this medium.
Yet, wouldn’t it be great if we made some rules and followed them? Don’t forget the ultimate purpose. It is after all better communication that all of us are seeking.
I got to know about this book that I thought would be very interesting in this context. It is called “The Web Content Style Guide: An essential reference for online writers, editors and managers”. Published by FT Press in 2002, it has three authors: Gerry MacGovern, Rob Norton and Catherine O'Dowd.
If you want to write effective content for the web then this book can be really useful as it covers all the rules and standards of writing for the web. It is surely a must have for all those who are involved in web publishing.
Who’ll find this book useful?
- Online writers
- Editors
- Designers
- Managers
- Anyone involved in web publishing
This book is definitely different from the existing style guides as it focuses only on web writing. From grammar and punctuation to documentation issues it covers all. Here’s a brief list of topics that is covered by this book:
Accessibility
Animation
Fonts
Forms
Information Architecture
Intranet
Navigation
Newsgroup
Search
Style Guides
And a lot more
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