Customer Reviews

The Web Content Style Guide: The Essential Reference for Online Writers, Editors and Managers

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

My initially reaction was "wow, this is really useful." But a closer read left me disappointed. The initial 32 pages are a half-decent set of Miss Manners for web publishing, but nowhere near as comprehensive (or, IMHO, useful) as e.g. Krug's "Don't Make Me Think". The remaining 200 or so pages are an attempt at a glossary/style guide alphabet-style. Some of the definitions are useful enough - it is nice to finally have the web site/website discussion solved in print.

But it is unclear what ground the authors wanted to cover, and the selections are an odd bunch, many of the definitions are incomplete. Why is there a specific entry for "Australian dollar"? The definition of "authentication" talks only about credit card authorization - there's nothing about user authentication. And why does ASP get its own definition, while PHP, ColdFusion, Perl and any number of other technologies are omitted?

I was very impressed with McGovern and Norton's "Content Critical", but their style guide is a bit of a dud.

I'm a huge fan of McGovern, but this book isn't worth the money. You can actually read the first section of the book - the part I really loved - at his web site for free: www.gerrymcgovern.com. The "sample web style guide" at the end of the book is woefully underwritten. Buy CONTENT CRITICAL instead.

This book is next to useless as a web style guide. Of the 224 pages only the first 35 pages are devoted to the topic of style. The rest of the book is a glossary of terms with little practical use. Most of the material presented in this book is available on the web for free and in greater detail.

My first glance through the book was a disappointment. Two days later I gave it a second chance but it confirmed my first impression so I sent it back.

This author is highly recommended, but the printing quality is worse than from an extremely poor fax machine. I really don't care about the quality of the content as trying to read it would be unbearable. It is going back immediately.

This book was useless to me, and also maddening because it purported to address issues with quality of content. I should have read the other reviews here and then steered clear of this book. The content is anemic: nothing of substance here. And the publication looks like someone took it to a copy shop and made a copy of a copy.

This book simply does not offer useful information or -- by virtue of content and presentation -- 'walk the talk' of the importance of quality content.

Can't comment on the content because both the first and second copies I received were not legible. What happened at the printer's? No quality control check, apparently, before these books were shipped for sale.

This book is written by people trained as writers and therefore should be viewed as a writer's view of web content development. In that capacity the book does provide a good general dictionary of internet terms, and a basic description of approaches to writing, and structuring content for the web.

What is disturbing about this book is its assumption that it can use its expertise in the area of writing to proclaim authority in other areas of web development, including site architecture and web site usability, while at the same time being only barely informed of the long development history of these disciplines.

The book goes as far as positing the notion that all highly trafficked web sites exist based on the same principles (or standards) of writing, architecture, and usability. To support this argument the authors go on to confuse site architecture and site usability with web graphic design-- all aspects of under the larger umbrella term: web design.

Confused yet?

The authors then reinforce this confused theory of standards by viewing only web sites that resemble each other in scale and function. One can then only assume that the standards here described don't hold up for the other types of web design which the authors have chosen to ignore.

This must be the case because the creators of those other types of sites are admonished as being irresponisble, and uninformed in the ways of web content style.

Has it has ever occurred to the folks writing this book that a web designer could be anything other than a graphic artist? It is in that assumption that authors show their age and bias. Only persons trained in traditional media would apply the same rules and relationships to this area of new media, as had been applied in the old.

Perhaps that's also why what's written here seems in many ways to be a zealous and curiously contrstructed attempt to reign in the vast variety of the web under a form of editorial control. While one would agree that such control is desireable, the lengths that this book go to to present that notion are extreme-- thereby adding additional confusion to an area that is already rife with misinformation.

This publication is split in three with relatively small, yet informative sections one and two entitled "Writing For The Web" and "Designing For The Web" respectively.

Area three, "An A to Z of Web Content Style" is what makes this book immensely valuable. This is knowledge I would love to have everyone in my company become familiar with.

Throughout the publication, the content is presented in a very straight-forward, non-technical way. It makes for an easy, enjoyable read.

Much of the content is common sense, keep sentences short, use descriptive headings, reading on a monitor is more difficult than on paper, so keep articles short etc. However, so few people are aware of the special writing requirements of the web, that there is a need for this information to be imparted.

One might comment that a style guide is a style guide whether it be a company house style guide, a newspaper style guide or one for the web. Yet, this book addresses issues truly related only to the web - accessibility and the use of W3C standards being good examples.

I found it somewhat annoying that there are frequent occurrences of one term in the book being presented, only to find that the content redirects you to another term for the definition. "Breadcrumb Trail" leading to "Classification Path Navigation" being one example.

Definitions are thorough with graphics presented to simplify explanation, where required.

All in all, this is an excellent guide, which would be a valuable companion for anyone writing for the web. Quality has become ever more critical in differentiating a successful website and the need for a professional approach to content is growing.

You are what you write - get it right!

If you're looking for a cybertized version of the Chicago Manual of Style, this isn't it. But if you need to migrate your writing and editing skills to the Web, there's no better place to start than the Web Content Style Guide. I frequently lecture on content development, usability, and information architecture. This book is always on my list of recommended reading.

In addition to great writing guidelines and advice, there's also valuable information about the related issues of usability, navigation, and design. This is particularly important since many writers ignore these subjects thinking they are too technical or outside their area of responsibility (think again!). Keep the WCSG close at hand and your work can't help but improve.

This book was disappointing. I had higher expectations--largely due to the title and my quest for a good online style guide. I was particularly disappointed with the spelling of website as one word verses the many other style guides listing it as two--Web site. No mention about this spelling difference was even listed.

If you read and keep up with tech. magazines and various Web sites, this book will provide information that you already know. It is well organized, however, and would serve as a good reference for those who really don't understand the latest tech. buzz words or abbreviations--hence the 3-stars. A similar book that serves this same purpose is Webster's New World Computer Dictionary.