Writing something that can be easily read has always been a challenge. The popularity of the Internet and other interactive, screen-based media brings new challenges to communicators.

The Prime Directive: Know Your Audience

General Guidelines

Documents destined for computer screens generally follow a different set of rules than those written for print.

The traditional rule of 10-15 words per sentence is out the window. According to Jacob Nielsen, you should cut text by at least 50% when moving it from print to screen.

Web users tend to scan text rather than read line-by-line.

Cutting overall length by half makes your writing easier to scan. Short sentences of seven to ten words are ideal.

Gene Wales drilled the following formula for effective communication into my head in the 60's

In any communication, graphic, written or verbal, do it as if

"You're Sending a Telegram to a Moron at a Thousand Dollars a Word!"

Write long to start - trim it later. 

If you know something can't be more than 200 words, write 300, and then cut it to 175. Now you can decide whether to "flesh it out," or leave it short.

If you can't cut it, try breaking it into chunks. If that's impossible, arrange the item so users can print it. Adobe Acrobat is a "standard" for distributing print documents over the Internet. 

Keep sentences simple 

Complex sentences like this one, with its introductory subordinate clause and parenthetical prepositional phrase, are going to be troublesome.

Better to write: Complex compound sentences are hard to read.

Can you overdo it, and "abridge too far?" Yes, if your readers can't navigate, grasp what you're telling them, or respond appropriately. If so, restore text only until your visitors are again comfortable.

Try to avoid ending sentences with prepositions. If you can't, however, who really cares?

Your readers will thank you for taking pains to do the absolute least you can do.

Use short paragraphs

A long paragraph, easily navigable on paper, is hopeless on screen. Your readers are scanners. A paragraph of more than four or five lines invites them to skip past it.

Take this intimidating mind bender ...

Many (most) people's brains look at that block of words and shut down. It just looks like way too much to read.

By breaking text into paragraphs or blocks you increase the chances of it being read.

(It's still gibberish, but at least now you know it is!)

Tricks to help you chop the extra verbiage.

Most paragraphs will have to stand alone as chunks.
Cut all transitional phrases from beginnings and endings, such as ...

• "Secondly,"
• "Another point to consider,"
• "As we shall see in a moment,"
   Wherever possible, lay the foundation first.
• "Furthermore,"
• "In addition"

Breaking paragraphs into bulleted lists increases readability.

Bulleted lists may not cut actual length, but they permit faster reading.

A bulleted list of independent clauses should use Initial Capital Letters. A list of words or phrases should not.

Please don't use words just to be using words. 
         (even if you get paid that way -- no -- especially if you get paid that way!)

Bad: You’ll make the acquaintance of the masters behind such impressive structures as the Channel Tunnel, The Chesapeake Bay Bridge and a host of others.

Better: You’ll meet the masters behind the Channel Tunnel, The Chesapeake Bay Bridge and other impressive structures.

---

Bad:

In order for you to assure that your text will always be easily readable, you should always endeavor to make all of your sentences as short and as concise as possible, eliminating all of the unnecessarily long words, the repetitions and the redundancies.
(43 Words)

Better:

"Shorter words and sentences are easier to read on-screen."
(10 Words)

Brutal:

"Short words and sentences are easier to read."
(8 Words and we shot ourselves a hyphen in the process.)

Short Enough:

Keep it Short!

From 40 words to three. If the shorter version successfully communicates your message, keep it. If not, only add enough verbiage to do so.

Among the worst dead phrases in English are "It goes without saying" and "Needless to say."

If It goes without saying, then why say it? The entire sentence should get zapped. If the sentence does need to stay, cut the useless phrases.

Starting a sentence with "Needless to say" is really saying, "I'm now going to waste your time by saying stuff that doesn't need to be said."
 

A close relative of the above demons is the marvelously contradictory "Before I get started..." paradox.

The act of writing or saying those words means you've already started!

Don't start a speech or a document with the word 'First."

If the first word is 'first', it's redundant!

"There" is a dead word, except as an antonym of "Here."

Bad: There are three questions that you should ask yourself before eating a live frog.

Better: Ask yourself three questions before eating a live frog.

"There" can lurk in the middle of a sentence:

Bad: We're sure that there will be a full analysis of the problem from our customer support staff.

Better: We expect a full analysis from customer support.

Another 'gotcha' word is "it."

Unless it's a pronoun with an antecedent in the previous sentence, "it" is a waste of time and valuable real estate at the start of a sentence. "It" also puts the important part of a sentence in a subordinate clause. This leads to more grammatical errors. Consider …

Bad: It is a pleasure to welcome you to our site. (10 words)

Better: Welcome to our site! (4 words)

Better Still: Welcome! (1 Word)

Bad: It is interesting to note that traffic on our site has grown by 60% in a month. (17 words)

Better: Our site traffic has grown 60% in a month. (9 words, but avoid Passive Tense (has grown) when possible.)

Not passive: Our site traffic grew 60% in a month. (8 words)

Best: Traffic to our site grew 60% in a month. (9 words but the subject is right up front and it's not passive.)

In Case You Forgot ...

Redundancies and dead phrases add to the word count.

• new and improved (Which is it? Is it really new or an is it an improved version of the old?)
• fair and equitable
• unexpected surprise
• each and every
• last and final (i.e. my last and final offer)
• begin to start
• component part
• at this particular point in time --- (Do you mean now?)
• at the present time --- (Do you mean now?)
• at that particular point in time --- (Do you mean then?)
• in close proximity = near
• Penetrated through -- "the bullet penetrated through the window, striking a customer inside." Penetrated, by nature implies 'through' so scrap the extra word.
• Fell down -- "He fell into the well" is acceptable. "He fell down on the sidewalk," the word 'down' is redundant since down is the only direction he could fall.
• My personal opinion
• Your personal opinion

Close only counts in hand grenades and horseshoes.

Invest in a dictionary or go online to double check the use and meaning of any word about which you are in doubt.

Some of the more common word confusions are . . . 

• Silicon, Silicone - the "E" makes all the difference. The former is used in making integrated circuits (it's sand) and the latter is a slippery goop used in lubricants and breast implants.
  Silicon breast implants are all scratchy and painful, and silicone chips tend to drip/slip out of the computer.
• Capital/Capitol - maybe not so dissimilar after all...? (cynical comment)
• There, Their, They're - They're certain there is a difference in their meaning! - GET IT RIGHT!
• Lose, Loose <- KNOW THE DIFFERENCE PEOPLE!
• Few, Less
  Few is an adjective that means small in number, used with countable objects: “This department has few employees.”
  Less is an adjective meaning small in amount or degree, used with objects of indivisible mass: “Which jar holds less water?
• It's, Its
  It's is a contraction for it is, whereas its is the possessive form of it: “It's important that you know its color.”
• Whose, Who's - Who's here who knows whose this is?
• Close, Clothes, Cloths
• Breathe, Breath - To breathe, one must take a breath.
• Least, Lease
• Then, Than, Thin
• Pin, Pen
• President, Precedent
• Principal, Principle
• Lay, Lie
• Where, Were, We're - We're certain we knew where they were.
• Deep-seeded vs. Deep-seated - Deep-seeded is a method for planting crops.
  Deep-seated means that something is ingrained or embedded.
  "This crop must be deep-seeded if it is to bloom in the fall"
  " He has a deep-seated compulsion to correct your grammar."
• It's a Web Site not Web Sight
  (Sight is seeing, and a site is where what you are seeing sits -- see?)

Don't make up new words when an existing word works.

Our government is primarily responsible for this one., but the media had a hand in it.

The pace of change, especially in technology and entertainment is such that new words are constantly entering the language, first as slang, and eventually as "Webster Approved."

Of course, language evolves along with culture. I can write that I 'tweeted' something I 'Googled' to the people I 'friended' in 'cyberspace,' including my BFF, and most people know what I am describing.

Why, however, invent a new word, "incentivise," for example, meaning "to motivate?" The existing and still politically correct 'motivate,' or even the phrase 'provide incentives for,' works quite well.

What this leads to is further corruption by the invention of conjugations, synonyms and antonyms to the new but redundant words. "Disincentivise" and "Reincentivise" are only two examples.

These lead further down the word clutter road to absurdities like; incentivisation, disincentivisation and a very disturbing pseudo-disincentivisation, meaning 'to pretend to demotivate when your purpose is actually to motivate.

We used to call that "reverse psychology," and nobody misunderstood what we meant.

Big words impress only shallow people unless they are both understood by the audience and essential to the topic.

Just Because Other People Abuse The Language Doesn't Give You Permission

While on the subject of widely abused words, I'd like to point out a few more of my pet peeves.

You may have it for free!

NO NO NO x 103 NO!

You may have it free! The word for implies in exchange for something, and that something should be a noun. Free is not a noun, it's an adjective.

This will impact our bottom line.

NO AGAIN

Impact is a noun! There can be an impact on the bottom line.

The suspects escaped in a Blue van.

NO NO NO! The PERPETRATORS escaped. When they catch someone whom they think may be a perpetrator, that person will be a suspect.

The police are searching for three suspects ...

NO AGAIN!

The police are NOT looking for suspects, they are looking for perpetrators.

This one irritated me to the point of giving it a page of its own here.

"Irregardless" is not a #$%&! standard word!

It is, however, one of my major pet peeves! The word is "regardless".

The word irregardless is not correct in formal style. It is used chiefly in nonstandard speech or casual writing. Irregardless has been considered a blunder for decades. It's also a waste of two perfectly good letters.

Sentence fragments are OK on web pages if they are not abused. 

Sentence fragments are usually acceptable in photo and Item captions and Image ALT tags if they communicate the desired message to your target audience.

 

Multiple Punctuation Marks At The End of a Sentence Are Sophomoric!!!!

 

SPELING IS CRITIKUL 

I recently received some SPAM from a company claiming to be an editorial house. For a lot of money they edit your documents. Their home page contained seven typos and spelling errors.

Prior to committing your writings to the scrutiny of an unforgiving public eye, run them through a spelling checker. If your web development tool of choice doesn’t have one, all you need do is preview the e-mail or web page, select and copy the text. Open your word processor, (the one with the spell checker) create a new document and paste the text into it.

Run that through the spelling and grammar checker and copy and paste between applications as needed to resolve any major mistakes.

A mistake which is easy to make and hard to catch without a spell checker is:

“We have an unending comnnitment to accuracy in everything we do.”

Depending on the size of the screen font, the letters r, l, n, i, and m, when used consecutively, especially in their lower case, are a mistake waiting to happen.

 

Your spell checker is only a first line of defense.

Many improper words will stall gut mist. (Still get missed)

And one more time ...