Letting Go of the Words Writing Web Content That Works by Janice Ginny Radish.

Letting Go of the Words Writing Web Content That Works by Janice Ginny Radish.

This book focuses on how to write content for the web.  It is more than just writing content. Janice Radish describes how to write links, describe pathways between different parts of websites, include images with text, and write specific types of informational pages.

Writing for the web is different than writing on paper.  Communication occurs in shorter paragraphs with more concise language.  Because it is more visually oriented, headings are more important, and paragraphs are often broken down into bulleted or numbered lists.

The examples in this book are mainly commercial pages.  There are many full color diagrams, photographs, and web page captures with explanations . This makes the book very easy to follow.  There is also a bibliography and index.

I found some of the things she describes quite useful.  For example, she tells us how to create an ideal user profile, and break apart large blocks of written text into shorter paragraphs with bolded headings and links. 

If you are writing a commercial or informational site this book should be quite helpful.  There are discussons on how to write a frequently asked questions page, add text to images, and create easy to follow directions between home, pathway, and information pages.

I found this book because I was reading about content strategy. Content strategy is about planning for all the different content that will go into a website including words, images, sound, and other media.  It is an emerging field of practice in web development.  It is often aligned with information architecture.