Writing for the web – assessing my own writing style

I love reading list articles. This one crossed my paths this week.

Just for fun, I’ll run thru the list and assess my own writing for the web style on this blog.

So let’s get started”¦

Provide a Reader’s Digest or Executive Summary version.
I don’t write a reader’s digest or summary for posts on this blog. But it’s definitely recommended/good practice.

Many of my Chiperoni blog posts tend to be short.

Next tip:

Key words in every post titles.
Good tip. Often the post title displays on its own. Key words that clear reflect what the blog post is about will help readers decide to click and read the article. And there’s the SEO aspect.

Self-assessment: I don’t spend much time on developing post titles for this blog. I often opt for descriptive titles. Copyblogger lists helpful formulas and categories.

Lead with the conclusion.
Answer the question “what is my benefit if I commit to read this post?”
Same applies for presentations. Straightforward advice. Often we tend to forget the reader’s perspective. Some posts may look confusing.

Chiperoni.ch is a collection of notes. More reviewing would be better.

Be sure and provide hyper links to your sources.
This is something I do diligently. It is only fair to provide a backlink to your source of inspiration. And it’s a way to document good online resources and build my own knowledge database.

Make your content scannable to the eye.
I try to keep paragraphs short and use bullets and headings. A further improvement would be to define H2s. I like the improved typography in web design.

Write in an Inverted Pyramid style.
Yepp. I don’t use this approach on my private blog. Again, the goal is to convey my main message in the top part of my post.

Use common language.
My writing style is simple and I tend to use common vocabulary. There are a lot of good reasons to use plain language.

Why use plain language?

Plain Language:

  • Shows customer focus
  • Communicates effectively
  • Eliminates barriers
  • Reduces time spent explaining
  • Improves compliance

 

Get to the point, quickly.
We’re all busy. Impatient.
Don’t meander.
Get to the point, quickly.

Looking at my own writing style at Chiperoni central, I don’t edit my posts enough. But, I don’t waffle on for pages and pages either

Make your post visually pleasing.
Again, very obvious advice. Add graphics. Add photos.

By nchenga

Nchenga-nchenga is my nickname. Chiperoni.ch is my online playground, scrap book, and on-going collection of bookmarks and interesting quotes. Chiperoni is a Malawian term for cold, grey, rainy weather. I am a bridge blogger somewhere between Basel and Blantyre. The opinions and comments expressed here are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in anyway. So far, this blog is free of advertising or paid articles or similar.

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