Writing Digital Content Lesson

Writing for Print

Print Vs Digital Image

Print
Once it is written, it is written. It becomes difficult to make edits.

Digital
Writing is ongoing and can be revised and republished easily.

Now that you've discovered that writing content for a webpage is a little different than writing content that will appear in print, we should discuss the process for writing our web content. Keep in mind that the writing process for a webpage is an ongoing process and the content can, will, and should change over time. Writing a book or even a newspaper article is different because once it is written, it is written. It is usually a major deal if edits need to be made or information needs to be changed. With digital content, it is simple to edit information and re-publish the product.

The writing process for printed information is pretty standard. It begins with the prewriting stage. This is the step where the author plans the writing and narrows down what they want to write. Drafting is the stage where the writing begins by creating a first version or draft. The ideas become more organized and ordered. The revising stage is when the author takes another look at what they've written to ensure that they are expressing the information the way they want to. Changes in content and order take place during this stage. The fourth stage is editing. The editing stage is devoted to making sure things are correctly formatted and that there are no errors. This is the stage where the copy is transformed in to a correct and clean format. A writing product can move between the revising and editing stages many times. The last stage is publishing. This is the final stage where the product is displayed in a final copy that can be shared with others.

Writing Digital Content

Writing digital content follows the same main steps, but there are many things to consider as you move through these steps. Your website will be a collection of webpages. Each webpage should be planned and written individually. Your website will have a main topic and the webpages should have more specific topics that relate to just that webpage. Each page should go through these writing stages. Focus on one page at a time.

Start with the main idea which will serve as the main topic of the website. Then move through the writing stages for each webpage. For example, let's say that you work at a car dealership and one of your responsibilities is to share information about new car models with the sales team. You could develop a website to present the new car models along with information about each one so the salesperson will be able to learn specific information about each model. The main topic of the website would be New Car Models. Then each webpage would be about one new car model.

View the information provided in the presentation below to learn more. Click each step listed on the left to display information:

Other Web Content Strategies

Inverted Pyramid Structure

Traditional mass media has used the inverted pyramid writing structure for many years. It makes sense to use this structure in digital design because catching the reader's attention is the best way to keep visitors on your page. Imagine a pyramid that is upside down. The base of the pyramid, which appears at the top of the structure, represents the most important details. Moving down the structure, the ideas support the main details, but become less important the further you move down the pyramid. The lead paragraph should present the most important details, including the "Who, What, Where, When and Why". The other paragraphs should present the supporting details, quotes from sources, background and other information with the least important information at the point of the pyramid, or at the end of the writing.

Chunking

Chunking refers to presenting information in small chunks so it is easier for visitors to find what they are looking for. A paragraph on the web should be short and consist of one main idea that is stated at the beginning of the paragraph. Think about how you read when you first visit a webpage. Do you read every word on the page? Not many people do. Visitors typically will read the first two sentences, bolded heading and subheadings, captions on images and the first couple of sentences in a small paragraph. Large paragraphs are often skipped over in favor of the smaller chunks of information.

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