The Web Content Style Guide: The Essential Reference for Online Writers, Editors and Managers

By Gerry McGovern

"The first chapter alone of The Web Content Style Guide is worth the price of the book. Great ideas on writing for either traditional or web viewers. Easy to read and insightful."

Phil Matous, CEO, Taylor Community Credit Union, Michigan, USA

The definitive how-to guide for all writers, editors and publishers of web content. Good writing is the exception rather than the rule on the Web. One reason for this is simply that good writing is hard to do. Another is that many of the people who've been involved with the Web from the beginning have been slow to realize that writing is a very big part of what the online experience is about.

While the Web has important non-textual uses, most people who use it spend an overwhelming amount of their online time reading words on a page. It's not an accident that we call them webpages. It follows that quality content--well written, well edited--is essential for the success of any website.

In addition to quality content, the design of websites must facilitate finding and reading that content. Web design is about content design. It's about laying out content so that it can be easily read. It's about organizing content so that it can be easily navigated and searched.

The number-one design principle for the Web is simplicity. Quality web design should be all about making life easier for the reader to find content, and then making it easy for them to read that content.

The Web Content Style Guide aims to codify the rules and standards that make for effective web writing. It also aims to give nontechnical guidance to all those involved in designing and running a website, from the chief executive officer to the junior writer. It examines topics from accessibility to animations, from fonts to forms, from information architecture to intranets, from navigation to newsgroups, from search to style guides.

Every entry is written from the perspective that a website must get the right content to the reader as quickly as possible, in the most readable manner. The fonts entry, for example, discusses the font sizes and types that work best onscreen.

The Web Content Style Guide covers some of the same ground as the offline style and usage guides, but is tailored specifically for online managers, writers, and editors.

Grammar and style issues of particular relevance to the Web that it focuses on include: the key differences between American and British English; how the Web accentuates plagiarism; what sort of dash looks best onscreen; the difference between data, content, information, and knowledge; and when and how to date documents.

If you are involved in a website, whether as a manager, designer, writer, or editor, The Web Content Style Guide is essential for you. It is packed with examples, and is written in a clear, concise, and friendly manner.

Based on the authors' 40-plus collective years experience in traditional publishing, and 15 in designing content-rich websites, it is always practical. It champions best-practices in web content writing and design, and is not afraid to kill off a few Internet myths along the way.

Like a famous ad for a paint company, The Web Content Style Guide "does exactly what it says on the tin."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0273656058
• ISBN13: 9780273656050
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Pearson FT Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.08 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.8" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Intelligent and informative. A superb reference.

If you're looking for a cybertized version of the Chicago Manual of Style, this isn't it. But if you need to migrate your writing and editing skills to the Web, there's no better place to start than the Web Content Style Guide. I frequently lecture on content development, usability, and information architecture. This book is always on my list of recommended reading.In addition to great writing guidelines and advice, there's also valuable information about the related issues of usability, navigation, and design. This is particularly important since many writers ignore these subjects thinking they are too technical or outside their area of responsibility (think again!). Keep the WCSG close at hand and your work can't help but improve.

A must on any web gurus desk!

This publication is split in three with relatively small, yet informative sections one and two entitled "Writing For The Web" and "Designing For The Web" respectively. Area three, "An A to Z of Web Content Style" is what makes this book immensely valuable. This is knowledge I would love to have everyone in my company become familiar with.Throughout the publication, the content is presented in a very straight-forward, non-technical way. It makes for an easy, enjoyable read.Much of the content is common sense, keep sentences short, use descriptive headings, reading on a monitor is more difficult than on paper, so keep articles short etc. However, so few people are aware of the special writing requirements of the web, that there is a need for this information to be imparted.One might comment that a style guide is a style guide whether it be a company house style guide, a newspaper style guide or one for the web. Yet, this book addresses issues truly related only to the web - accessibility and the use of W3C standards being good examples.I found it somewhat annoying that there are frequent occurrences of one term in the book being presented, only to find that the content redirects you to another term for the definition. "Breadcrumb Trail" leading to "Classification Path Navigation" being one example.Definitions are thorough with graphics presented to simplify explanation, where required.All in all, this is an excellent guide, which would be a valuable companion for anyone writing for the web. Quality has become ever more critical in differentiating a successful website and the need for a professional approach to content is growing.You are what you write - get it right!

i was waiting for a style guide - here it is

for years I was an enthusiastic users of the economist style guide - it is very crisp. It doesn't tell you how to write - just sets out some issues about commonly mispelled and misused words, helps you avoid cliche and pomposity. It quietly makes you a better writer.The web though was different. It pulled you into all kinds of cod-cool flourishes and pointless-demotic. Now McGovern, who also has a useful email column, has filled the void and helped set us straight, providing for the web what the economist did for print. He points out that the style and quality of our writing is as important on the web as it is in print, because whatever you are told, people come to the web and whatever they think they do, they read. The way you write is different, and McGovern makes some useful pointers about how to do it, but he also points out how to screw it up, with all the usual web stuff - odd and changing colours, excessive flash - achingly slow intros - and tells you how to avoid it.It isn't as if he wants all sites to look like the front cover of the wall street journal - just acres of windy prose - but he knows how to make a site readable - and that's what we want.I think it worth every tax-deductible penny - and I'm tight.

Web-Publishing With Ease

This book is an essential guide in helping people plan an effective web-publishing presence through a simple A-Z format. The reader can use this book as a good source of reference. On a personal note, the book has encouraged me to rethink my portals' attractiveness to my target audience.I strongly believe that this book is the best of its kind around. A must read from novice to expert.

It's worth you time and money.

The first chapter alone is worth the price of the book. Great ideas on writing for either traditional or web viewers. Easy to read and insightful.