"next for text" - amy eisman, american university
TRANSCRIPT
8/3/2019 "Next for Text" - Amy Eisman, American University
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What’s next for web writing
Teaching Text
Amy EismanAmerican UniversityTeach-a-ThonJournalism InteractiveOctober 28, 2011
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15 tips5 minutes
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1. Yep, know the research
Ugliest site, best advice -- Jakob Nielsen’s useit.com
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html
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4Copyright Jakob Nielsen alertboxhttp://www.useit.com/alertbox
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But keep going back …
new research comes in all the time
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Copyright screen grab from Jakob Nielsen Alertbox, June 2011http://www.useit.com/alertbox/
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2. Note that clean writing is good business
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3. Use Yahoo! Style Guide for great tips
(See pages 297-304 for how to cut extraneous words)
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4. Practice visual editing
• Put key ideas in display type
• Break up blocks of type with subheads
• Break stories into scannable chunks
• Be consistent (past or present)
• Break copy into bullets
• Reach for strong verbs
• Don’t back into sentences with prepositional phrases
• Use simple sentence structure – subject verb object
• Write content that works with visuals
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5. Make every journalism assignment have …
1. A 5-8 word headline
2. A 10-12 word blurb
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6. Make every email subject line work
Bad subject line: Book
Good subject line: Why Jarvis book made me crazy
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7. Stop telling students …
to write short
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8. Web writing is …
More casual than print
Attribution summarized
Links
Enhancements
Archives
Interactivity
Follows consistent style
Says something!
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9. Study great web heds
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10. Do the same assignment, compare
• CoveritLive
• Storify
• Traditional web
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11. Focus on display type
Last thing writers write
First thing readers see
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12. Show examples
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13. Debate web text
Are typos OK on Twitter?
How many links are too many?
Does the mobile headline work?
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14. Say something
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15. A little humor doesn’t hurt