Myths and Takes on Writing Web Content

by Ken Bresler

The Vocabula Review, May 2002

About a month after going online with my own website, I started writing for other people's websites. But first I canvassed the web to learn about writing for the web. That's how I learned that the writing on the web about writing for the web is mostly mistaken and myth driven. I don't have the stomach — and I like to think, the heart — to name names and cite sites. But a Big Myth and a Little Myth about web writing are circulating with little, if any, challenge.

Big Myth: Since the Internet Is a New Medium,
Writing for the Web Needs to Be a New Way of Writing

The Big Myth has two parts — the new medium part and the new writing part. Is the Internet a new medium? Well, relatively new, but let's not exaggerate its distinction from other media. An electronic document is only a mouse click away from a print document. What other medium converts so quickly to another medium? Your radio doesn't come with a printer.

We have conversion (an electronic document converts to a print document) and convergence (an electronic document resembles a print document). Ebooks have not caught on as quickly as their developers had hoped, but they are an example of convergence: an electronic page resembling a paper page.

Another example of convergence will be electronic paper. Electronic paper will consist of plastic sheets, as thin or almost as thin as pulp paper. Its text will be produced, manipulated, and changed electronically, by charging tiny particles that create text and images. E Ink and Xerox are working on separate technologies for electronic paper.

When electronic paper is widely used, the distinction between a print and electronic document will collapse. When the Internet is widely available on wireless devices, the distinction between online and offline documents will collapse. And then how distinctive will the Internet be as a medium?

But let's suppose for the sake of argument that the Internet is a different medium, and that it will stay different after it's no longer new. Does it necessarily call for a new way of writing?

No, for at least three reasons.

1. People are getting used to reading online.
2. The quality of website design and production is improving, making it easier
   to read online.
3. When documents and books are produced with electronic paper, there won't be a difference between print writing or web writing. The writing, whether on a screen, electronic paper, or pulp paper, will all be the same, or practically the same.
   

Little Myth: Web Writing Should Be in the Inverted-Pyramid Style

The inverted-pyramid style — put the most important information in the first paragraph, the next most important information in the next paragraph, and the least important information in the last paragraph — might have worked once for old-fashioned newspapers. The order of information met the needs of a busy reader, and also the needs of busy editors and newspapers with finite "news holes" to fill.

If an article ran too long, an editor didn't have to search for the least important information. Go to end; lop off last paragraph. Still short of space? Repeat procedure.

Inverted paragraph style is a rather inelegant way of writing, meant to survive a rather brutal form of editing. The style of choice on the web should not be inverted-pyramid, for at least four reasons.

1. Not all newspapers use inverted-pyramid style. I'll bet that most don't use it. Turn to any news article in your local newspaper. Is the first paragraph necessarily the most important? Does the article steadily progress from the big picture to trivial drivel? Does it finally peter out?
   
   Probably not. It might have a folksy introductory paragraph — even if it's about a tragedy — a definite middle, and a kicker at the end. If so, it isn't an inverted pyramid.
   
   
2. The web doesn't have the same strict space constraints as a newspaper on newsprint. Brute-force editing is no longer necessary. Using an inverted pyramid on the web makes as much sense as writing email in the style of TELEGRAMS PARENTHESIS REMEMBER THEM QUESTION MARK PARENTHESIS WHICH HAD NO LOWERCASE OR PUNCTUATION STOP
   
   
3. Not all web writing is journalism. So why adopt a journalistic style for the whole medium?
   
   
4. If inverted-pyramid style works so well, how come some websites and articles that advocate it don't use it?

In general, writers should get to the point. But that's not the same as advocating an inverted pyramid.

My Take 1: Make Every Word Count

Unfortunately, the principle of making every word count is being undermined by two factors on the web, one technological and one cultural.

The technological factor is that articles can be long — so long that if they were truly written in inverted-pyramid style, the thousandth paragraph would be crushingly banal.

The cultural factor is the pressure to continually update websites with new content. The same thing happens when major sports leagues feel the need to expand: talent and quality gets diluted.

Website content becomes filler. Writing for the web becomes an act of filibuster. Going online becomes the equivalent of receiving 500 TV stations through cable and satellite — and nothing's on.

In sum, the technological factor (lack of space constraints in cyberspace) means that content writers don't have to get to the point. The cultural factor (the pressure to add new content) means that content writers don't even have to have a point.

How do we make every word count on the web? Concede that not every website is a publication. An online brochure works for some websites, and the term brochure need not be so pejorative.

My Take 2: Don't Confuse Medium with Genre

The copy on a banner ad resembles that on a banner strung across a street; hence the name banner ad.

An online catalogue resembles a print one.

A fortune-cookie fortune is in the same format, whether it comes with an actual cookie or an electronic cookie.

An article in The New York Times on e-business is the same article online or on newsprint.

Yes, if you read a book of Charles Kuralt's essays, you can tell that they were written for TV. Books and TV are different media. But the genre is the story, and Charles Kuralt could tell a great story on TV, in print, or in person.

Sorry to demystify web writing. But good web writing has never been a secret. And good writing is good writing, no matter the medium.

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