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Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works (Interactive Technologies) [Paperback]

Janice (Ginny) Redish
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (69 customer reviews)

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Book Description

June 29, 2007 0123694868 978-0123694867 1
"Redish has done her homework and created a thorough overview of the issues in writing for the Web. Ironically, I must recommend that you read her every word so that you can find out why your customers won't read very many words on your website -- and what to do about it."

-- Jakob Nielsen, Principal, Nielsen Norman Group

"There are at least twelve billion web pages out there. Twelve billion voices talking, but saying mostly nothing. If just 1% of those pages followed Ginny's practical, clear advice, the world would be a better place. Fortunately, you can follow her advice for 100% of your own site's pages, so pick up a copy of Letting Go of the Words and start communicating effectively today.”

--Lou Rosenfeld, co-author, Information Architecture for the World Wide Web

On the web, whether on the job or at home, we usually want to grab information and use it quickly. We go to the web to get answers to questions or to complete tasks - to gather information, reading only what we need. We are all too busy to read much on the web.

This book helps you write successfully for web users. It offers strategy, process, and tactics for creating or revising content for the web. It helps you plan, organize, write, design, and test web content that will make web users come back again and again to your site.

Learn how to create usable and useful content for the web from the master ? Ginny Redish. Ginny has taught and mentored hundreds of writers, information designers, and content owners in the principles and secrets of creating web information that is easy to scan, easy to read, and easy to use.

This practical, informative book will help anyone creating web content do it better.

Features
* Clearly-explained guidelines with full color illustrations and examples from actual web sites throughout the book.
* Written in easy-to-read style with many "befores" and "afters."
* Specific guidelines for web-based press releases, legal notices, and other documents.
* Tips on making web content accessible for people with special needs.

Janice (Ginny) Redish has been helping clients and colleagues communicate clearly for more than 20 years. For the past ten years, her focus has been helping people create usable and useful web sites. She is co-author of two classic books on usability: A Practical Guide to Usability Testing (with Joseph Dumas), and User and Task Analysis for Interface Design (with JoAnn Hackos), and is the recipient of many awards.

* Clearly-explained guidelines with full color illustrations and examples from actual
web sites throughout the book.

* Written in easy-to-read style with many "befores" and "afters."

* Specific guidelines for web-based press releases, legal notices, and other documents.

* Tips on making web content accessible for people with special needs.


Editorial Reviews

Review

"Redish has done her homework and created a thorough overview of the issues in writing for the Web. Ironically, I must recommend that you read her every word so that you can find out why your customers won't read very many words on your website -- and what to do about it."

-- Jakob Nielsen, Principal, Nielsen Norman Group

"There are at least twelve billion web pages out there. Twelve billion voices talking, but saying mostly nothing. If just 1% of those pages followed Ginny's practical, clear advice, the world would be a better place. Fortunately, you can follow her advice for 100% of your own site's pages, so pick up a copy of Letting Go of the Words and start communicating effectively today.”

--Lou Rosenfeld, co-author, Information Architecture for the World Wide Web

Book Description

Ginny Redish, the technical communication guru, gives the most practical and useful advice about writing for the web.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann; 1 edition (June 29, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0123694868
  • ISBN-13: 978-0123694867
  • Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 0.8 x 9.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (69 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #62,151 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Janice (Ginny) Redish has been a passionate evangelist for plain language and usability for many years. She is an internationally-renowned consultant and speaker, widely-recognized for her pioneering work in bring clarity to web sites, documents, and software interfaces.

Ginny is co-author of two of the classic books on usability and author of numerous papers and book chapters on plain language, user research, writing for the web, and other topics. Reviewers have raved about her most recent book, Letting Go of the Words - Writing Web Content that Works.

Highly sought after as a speaker and workshop leader, Ginny is a dynamic instructor who has trained thousands of writers and subject matter specialists in the U.S., Canada, Asia, and Europe in how to write clearly. Ginny has keynoted conferences in the U.S., China, England, Finland, Norway, The Netherlands, Slovenia, and Spain.

As President of Redish & Associates, Inc. in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, Ginny works with private companies, government agencies, and non-profit organizations to help them make their web sites meet both their business goals and their site visitors' needs.

Customer Reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars
(69)
4.8 out of 5 stars
It's easy to understand language and visual examples really make this book a great read. Melissa Mcavoy  |  28 reviewers made a similar statement
I highly recommend this book to anyone new to designing web pages. C. Kohler  |  23 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
64 of 69 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent resource for all online communication September 12, 2007
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
My company is a consultancy that creates interactive learning programs for large corporations. I am especially interested in blending the best practices of instructional design/performance support, technical communication, and web site design. For the latter, this book is an indispensible resource!

I shared the book with our Content Director, who, at first, was too busy to really pay any attention to it. Once he cracked the cover, he immediately wrote me back and raved! The book compiles so many of the basic concepts that he and I desire our entire writing team to incorporate into their projects.

We purchased multiple copies and assigned one chapter to each of our team to present to the team as a whole. These weekly presentations have been refresher for some, but new material for others, and now we are finally all level-set on basic writing/presentation concepts for online delivery. Hooray!

Only negative feedback I can give is that I did hear a bit of grumbling that the author broke her own rules in a couple places - using a few headings that were too long, for example, when there is a chapter specifically on writing good headings. I should probably have docked the rating a bit for that stuff, but overall we got so much good from this little book that I feel I must give it full praise!
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101 of 113 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Impractical for Business Websites & Google January 30, 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
[Update at bottom] Letting Go of the Words is a terrific book with respect to site structure and usability, but is extremely inadequate in regards to Search Engine Optimization and content that actually sells.

Dr. Redish's experience with web content is largely related to government agencies. In that respect, I couldn't ask for a better book on the basics of site structure and usability. The author presents a solid primer on helping your visitors find the information they seek as easily as possible.

The book, however, largely ignores issues that are important to business websites that wish to rank well on Google and other search engines. As an SEO guru, I was surprised that a book on writing web content completely ignores the fact that Google absolutely loves keyword-rich content. While some web purists believe in designing sites as though search engines never existed, it's impractical to cut short the very content that would ultimately deliver visitors to your site.

Government sites will generally rank well by virtue of their number of (quality) inbound links. Business owners aren't looking to simply provide information, they're looking to get traffic and motivate visitors to perform an action (purchase, contact, subscribe). Some of her tips ("don't embed links" - chapter 12) are in opposition to what designers should do to encourage Google to "spider" relevant pages and categorize them better in its results.

If this book teaches you the architectural skills of constructing a physical store that's easy to get around, it does so without mentioning how to encourage walk-ins to buy your products, nor how to get them from the street into your business.
... Read more ›
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73 of 82 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Everyone who writes web content will benefit from reading this book with its clear guidelines and extensive examples. The book is well organized and its format makes it easy to find specific ideas.

However, this book will be most useful for writers working on information sites. The book presents only limited discussion and examples for e-commerce sites and does not address important issues for those sites, such as guiding customers to a sale or writing for search engine optimization.
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26 of 28 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars the best book on writing for the web October 23, 2007
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
i've read several books and countless articles on how to write well for the web. Ginny Redish nails it perfectly. This is hands-down the best book on writing for the web out there. The book is beautifully laid-out, with easy to grasp, common sense advice - all backed up by solid research data and straightforward examples.

If you're a fan of usability, good user-centered design, and easy-to-read helpful books, and you'd like to improve your site's performance with better writing, definitely get this book. I'm already reworking the content on my sites with many of Ginny's suggestions, and I have no doubt my readers will be happy.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Primer on Writing for the Web January 29, 2008
By V. Beck
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Writing for the Web is not like writing a college term paper -- or even print ads. It takes understanding what your audience is seeking when they come to your website and presenting it in a manner that allows them to find it easily. Letting Go of the Words is a brilliant, easy-to-read book that explains how you can write usable copy for projects of any size.

Redish writes about the difference between the three major types of pages and what should be on them (and what shouldn't).

1. Home pages
2. Pathway pages
3. Information pages

She also gives useful advice on
* Focusing on your essential message
* Making your design easy to use
* Using lists and tables
* Using headings and illustrations effectively
* Writing links that get clicked, and perhaps most importantly,
* Fitting this all into a process that allows you to set expectations and meet deadlines.

Anyone involved with building websites (or writing blogs) can find value in this book. I learned a lot from it, and I think you would, too. I strongly recommend it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book for web writers
I'm a professional advertising copywriter and this book has given me some wonderful advice. Better still, it has given me the ability to speak more authoritatively at input... Read more
Published 9 days ago by D. Bratman
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book about writing for the web
I think there are a ton of people that really need a book like this. First of all, most of the web is about words. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Toni
4.0 out of 5 stars Letting Go Of The Words: Writing Web Content That Works Janice Ginny...
I purchased this book because I am a current college student, and I am taking an Online English writing class. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Shree
4.0 out of 5 stars Helpful...
This book has a narrow focus but helpful nevertheless offering insights into communication via the web and back to hard copy if you can relate the examples. Read more
Published 5 months ago by J. Broughton
5.0 out of 5 stars Let go of the words; keep the book
When I purchased this book, I did not have high hopes. I usually find books like this to give vague solutions to vague problems. But Author Janice Redish really surprised me. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Steve G
5.0 out of 5 stars Great for the post Penguin world
Bought this in Oct. 2012 after one of my sites took a huge hit from the "Penguin" series of updates at Google. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Paul
5.0 out of 5 stars Be sure to get the second edition!
Just a heads-up: This is an amazing book that anyone who works on a Web site should read. (That's why I wrote the foreword for it. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Stephen Krug
5.0 out of 5 stars This is like the filet mignon of how to write for the web.
It's the best stuff out there --

The author (Ginny Redish) got her doctorate at Harvard, wrote stuff for the US government/large corporations/non-profits, and has... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Brian Sun
4.0 out of 5 stars Great book...but two quibbles
This is a really excellent and detailed guide that drills down deeply into the nitty-gritty, and is loaded with dozens (maybe hundreds) of useful examples and critiques of web... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Curmudgeon
5.0 out of 5 stars Even the pros should read this one!
I've been a Web writer for about six years now. I picked up Ginny's book the other day (it somehow escaped my radar until then!). Read more
Published 24 months ago by Chris Williams
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Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works (Kindle edition)
Amen to that! I own the paperback version which I paid about $30.00 for and there is no way in heck I'm going to pay nearly the same for the Kindle version!
Jul 13, 2010 by Adria Richards |  See all 3 posts
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