I’ve written many articles about writing for the Web and feel like there’s nothing new to say. What worked a few years ago still works today… chunking text, short paragraphs, bold headers for scanning, and so on. Then I read “Resurrect Your Writing, Redeem Your Soul” and can tell you this is a different article than I’m used to seeing about writing for the Web. It was tempting to scan the article, but I took the time to read it… well, most of it anyway.
The pull quote explains it well.
“Bad writing that has been ‘Webified’ can look great on screen and to search engines, but to human beings, it’s still just bad writing. Applying the new rules of Web writing to muddled thoughts is a bit like hiding dirty hands in clean gloves.”
I love that. It perfectly states the problem with many sites.
I avoid corporate words like synergy (secret code for “layoffs”), utilized (c’mon! “use” does just fine), and implement. I’ve yet to find a good substitute for “best practices.” I mean there’s nothing that better explains — “the best way of doing something.”