 How To Write Well:
Section 1 - Introduction
The phrase "Plain English" (although widely used) is a little misleading. It is nothing to do with the English language as such. The principles outlined here apply to writing in any language. A more accurate expression is "plain language".
Learning how to write effectively is an important skill. No matter what you are writing, or to whom, the principles outlined here can be applied.
This is especially important on the web. People tend not to read long screens of text with no paragraphs, long sentence lengths and poor punctuation. On a web site, language can mean the difference between ease of use and user irritation (or worse). The tone of a site can make or break the experience for the user. So, if you want to attract and keep a site visitor's attention, read this guide and make your writing work for you and your web site.
The guide is a fairly long document, so I have split it into 9 sections. But if you like, you can print out the whole guide as one document. That will make it much easier to read and absorb.
This guide was produced from many different sources. I am indebted to the Metropolitan Police, The London Fire Brigade, the 'Clear Writing' campaign and various other publications. Whilst you may use and copy this Guide however you wish, please do acknowledge the sources. Thank you.
Comments and feedback on this guide are most welcome.
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© ziskadesigns. Date last modified: 10.10.00
Suggested Reading:
If you are interested in writing well, or writing for the web, these sites and articles may be of interest:
How To Write for the Web - More good advice from web site usability guru Jakob Nielsen at http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/writing.html
Writing for the Web - the Basics. Start from the beginning with Web Novice's ground-level writing tips at http://www.webnovice.com/webwritept1.htm
The Writing on the Web. An overview of why web writing requires a different approach from the excellent Web Monkey team at http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/99/32/index0a.html
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