Writing for the web

When newspapers first started Web sites, journalists envisioned it as a place where reporters could write long, putting back into stories what was cut.

That view didn’t last long. Writing for the web requires shorter, tighter writing. People scan Web articles, and they’ll leave a story quicker than they can turn a newspaper page.

Crawford Kilian writes Adapting Print Text for the Web urging shorter sentences, shorter overal lengths, more bulleted lists and being careful of color choices with text.

He has a 1,300-word “print” version and a Web “chunked” version about one-third as long. Tip: Steve Outing.

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