Chapter 1. Writing for the Web

Writing for the Web is not the same as writing for print because people read differently on the Web. One of the impediments to online reading is physical: it’s harder to read on a screen than it is to read on paper. Even the best computer monitors are hopelessly fuzzy compared with the crisp images on a glossy magazine page, and the extra effort this requires from human eyes and brains slows readers down. The longer the document, the bigger the problem.

The physical impediment will lessen—and perhaps even disappear—in time. Today’s monitors are vastly better than the ones in use a decade ago, especially the latest generation with flat screens and liquid crystal displays. Better software is also helping. Microsoft, for instance, has created a superior family of type fonts specifically designed for online reading (Arial and Tahoma are two of the most widely used). Innovation continues.

But the more significant barrier Web writers must overcome is behavioral, not physical, and technological advances may never break it down. Everyone who’s observed, tested, or studied online reading agrees that people behave differently when online. When viewing a new page, they don’t read—they scan. They look at headings and subheadings first; they scan for hyperlinks, numerals, and keywords. They jump around, scrolling and clicking, their fingers never far from the browser’s “Back” button. The word that best describes their behavior is: impatient.

The challenge for the Web writer is to overcome readers’ impatience by keeping things as brief as possible. It’s a big challenge. Writing 250 breezy words on a given subject is usually harder than writing 1,000. The more experience you gain as a writer or editor, the more keenly you will understand what Blaise Pascal, the seventeenth-century French philosopher, meant when he apologized to a correspondent, “I have made this letter longer than usual, because I lack the time to make it shorter.”