Web Writing: It’s a Rush
By Melissa Donovan
One of the earliest bits of advice any aspiring writer will receive is know your audience. You don’t use the same language when writing for the business world as you would use when writing for young adult fiction readers. The same consideration must be taken into account based on the medium for which you are writing.The Web is often called the information superhighway. The amount of data that can be accessed on the Internet is astounding, and sometimes overwhelming. Most web surfers expect instant gratification; if they don’t find what they’re looking for within an instant, they quickly move on. A site must grab its visitors’ attention through clean, attractive design but more importantly, it must present brief, concise content.
Simply put, web writing needs to be short. Its objective is to get to the point as quickly as possible. Content designed for the online audience must use cleverly placed links and images that entice visitors to click to longer pieces, which explore a given subject in greater detail than a short 250-word piece can offer.
Of course, this is the rule rather than the exception. Some content naturally lends itself to greater length and scope, as would be the case on a site that provides online books or in-depth research material.
A writer’s first job in approaching any assignment or project is to understand their audience, and to take into account the medium through which the material will be published. Writing for the web offers new and exciting challenges for writers to explore, and the most successful web writers will know how to chip away the excess and get to the hard-driven point.
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