c. What is plain language writing for the web and in detail and in your own words, why is it important? (4 Marks)
In my own words, plain English writing for the web is writing copy that the reader can skim, process, and understand as quickly as possible. The online reader doesn’t read, they skim. Knowing this, we need to use plain English language to write content that is to the point and provides value to the reader quickly and efficiently.
Writing plain English language for the web can be achieved by following these 5 guidelines that we discussed in class:
- Write for your audience
- Organize information logically
- Write for action
- Keep the text as short as possible *
- Design for reading (headings, action words, bullets)
(Briscoe, W8 – A – Plain Language Writing (W25).pdf, Slide 39)
When writing in plain English writing for the web, we want to focus on headings, bullet points, and white space to highlight the most important information in a way that is scannable and skimmable (Briscoe, W8 – Writing Website Copy & Plain Language Writing (W25).pdf, Slide 27). We also want to use persuasive and positive language to motivate and empower our audience through benefits, tapping into emotions and using actionable CTA’s.
Writing in plain English writing for the web is extremely important because we have a very short amount of time to capture their attention and convince them to read more. In class, we learned that people spend “15 seconds or less deciding on whether to engage with a page” (Briscoe, W8 – Writing Website Copy & Plain Language Writing (W25).pdf, Slide 3). So, we need to get our point across as quickly as possible before they’re gone for good.
Plain English writing is also important in web because it helps us save money (Briscoe, W8 – Writing Website Copy & Plain Language Writing (W25).pdf, Slide 4). Writing in plain English helps us save money by focusing on what’s important and not on writing unnecessary lines of copy that no one will read anyway. As I stated previously, time is money, especially in our industry. So, the less time we spend writing unnecessary copy, the more money we save!
Writing in plain English in combination with the F-pattern is what allows us to write web content that puts the experience of the reader first.
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