Customer Reviews

Writing for the Web (Geeks' Edition)

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This thin and flatly-written volume will disappoint anyone hoping for a Web writing manifesto. Kilian brings no new research and an unimpressive bunch of case studies. But by making the case once again for caring about Web text, Kilian's book serves a useful purpose.

Many pages of the book are taken up with advice applicable to writing for any medium: understand your reader's viewpoint, use the "active voice", avoid relying on your spell checker. Devotees of that classic writers' how-to manual, Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, will find a startling amount of familiar material. So will devotees of Web usability expert Jakob Nielsen and his Alertbox site. A substantial slice of Kilian's book could well have been gathered off a handful of well-known Web sites.

But Kilian also makes a series of points that have been missed or underemphasised in discussions of Web writing to date:

* The Web demands your writing deliver "joltage". A former chief executive of the Fairfax newspaper group liked to compare the newspaper-reading experience to a warm bath. Web reading, by comparison, is a 30-second shower - get in, get the job done, wake you up, don't hang around. As Kilian puts it: "Computers condition us for high joltage. A 'jolt' is an emotional reward that follows a prescribed action ... We feel deprived if we don't get some sort of jolt at regular intervals, so we go where we hope to find more stimulation which, on the Web, means web sites."

* Beware old-style marketers who see the Web as another opportunity to pump a message at a commercial audience. In most media, the marketer hunts the customer down and delivers a broadcast or printed spiel that can be hard to avoid. On the Web, the customer comes looking for the transaction, with a million other sites a single mouse-click away. Research shows Web users are uncommonly likely to bolt at the sight of an old-style marketing pitch. A very few good Web marketers, on the other hand, already understand that the message of a commercial Web site must rely on a more subtle link with a brand's values.

* The Web suits "response" writing which prompts the user to carry out an activity. In the offline commercial world an entire marketing discipline - direct response copywriting - has evolved to offer users spcific benefits if they carry out particular actions. Indeed, the long-established rules of direct response advertising copywriting often look remarkably like Web writers need to import these direct response lessons, in just the same way that Web interface designers need to understand how to convince users to click on the appropriate screen buttons. "The Web is a culture of impatience," writes Kilian. "Effective appeals offer quick and painlesss ways to respond".

Killian could and should have given his readers more insights on issues like these, rather than recycling better-known guidelines. His book does not deserve whole-hearted recommendation. But it's nice to see Web writing getting some of the attention it deserves.

Crawford Killian's book is packed with tips on how to structure information for a web page - how to format, how to edit for clarity and brevity - how to use navigation cues and hold reader interest. The section on grammar reviews the basics from a web perspective. He also covers persuasion, editing and marketing your writing, and offers lots of links to illustrate good writing.

If you're new to Web writing, or to writing generally, you may find Crawford Killian's Writing for the Web useful. Beginners will appreciate the discussion of the major differences between how readers process information online versus in print. And novice writers will benefit from the book's middle section, which focuses on essentials of good writing ("Opt for Strong Verbs over Weak Ones"; "Avoid Cliches"; "Use Simple Sentences"; "Subject-verb disagreements"; etc.). This discussion of writing and editing fundamentals represents more than a third of the book's 137 pages.

As useful as these general writing tips are, they're nothing new to anyone who has read Strunk and White's The Elements of Style or William Zinnser's On Writing Well. Similarly, I think I've learned much more about Web writing by reading non-Web-specific copywriting books. What I was looking for--and didn't get more than a surface treatment of--is a discussion about organizing information on the Web, taking full advantage of the power of hypertext to provide information, and learning more about ways to grab people's attention online.

If you want to write your first Web site and have limited writing experience, this book is a good place to start. You'll get a good overview of the many decisions a Web writer faces, and you'll also pick up a number of good writing tips. But if you're looking to move beyond the basics and develop a dynamically written, marketing-savvy site, look elsewhere for more detailed information.

If you can cram yourself into a time machine and magically go back to 1994, then this book will be a big help. If you're with the rest of us here in 2001, then find another source of help. The badly outdated information about the nature of the Web is only topped by the author's annoying choices of "catchwords" to use throughout the book. "Chunks," for example, apparently means blocks of text containing fewer than 100 words (it's also the author's recommended maximum page length). Not so bad by itself, but when used repeatedly, and with variation (chunk it, chunking), the practice gets a bit annoying. In the preface, the author reveals a bias to print media, which is unnecessary if you read the introduction. I'd suggest taking tips from someone who's worked regularly on the Web and finds it an engaging medium--instead of someone with a limited understanding of the Web's potential who works on it only as a sideline.

Writing for the Web written by Crawford Kilian will assist Web developers and Website content providers to craft better Web communication that will attract the attention of the Websurfing public and increase the likelihood of producing more favorable results.

Readers will learn that the Internet has produced different demands in publishing. While cool Web graphics, video clips, sounds, and creative HTML programming may have their place in Web development, Kilian believes that the content of HTML - plain text, has been geatly overlooked. He points out that the real purpose of publishing on the Web is to publish text to communicate. Other elements of Website design serve primarily as decorations and have clouded the true purpose of Web publishing. They can also become distracting and actually inhibit Web content comprehension.

Kilian encourages his readers to use the Web for a variety of purposes such as publishing e-zines and finding employment and he shows readers how they can create Web content that will get attention. His emphasis is clearly placed on composing and displaying text. Readers will learn the importance of targeting their specific audiences, how to determine content subject matter, how to structure and display content for maximum visual impact, how to compose effective sentences, choosing the right wording, and selecting appropriate font styles.

This book is a concise guide to Web writing that will provide readers with ideas and encouragement to advance their own literary pursuits. Sample content, writing resources, and the focus on textual content make this book a good choice to jumpstart a Web-writing career - perhaps yours! Highly recommended!

My heart sank when I saw the huge margins and the "what is hypertext?" explanation on page 1. I thought "oh no, lightweight nonsense ahead". Thankfully I was (mostly) wrong. This is a reasonable overview of the subject. If you're looking for more chunky material I can only suggest www.useit.com and old Jakob's words of wisdom. BTW, "Writing for the Web" has the WORST cover ever - it's a joke, right?

A couple of decades ago I spent a year being rough-handled by two punitive and pedantic professors of freshman English composition. The was experience was painful enough that, although I have written a lot in the intervening years, I had not picked up a "how to write" book until this one.

I had been having some trouble getting a web site I was doing to read "just right", and this book came up as a possible source of help. It was - and in many respects. It gave me not just ideas for the site I had problems with, but also things that I'll take to other sites I wrote and still maintain.

It's great to see a professorial ego that permits the author to provide so many links to other people's stuff! And it's also useful to see a recommendation about how to cite a web site in scholarly writing.

I filled my copy with marginal notes, highlighting, underlining, and sticky notes, and turned down about a third of the pages for future reference. It's that good.

This book reminds me of the internet boom days - lots of fluff, but no substance. Crawford Killian's book covers web site structure, organizing content, writing style, editing, corporate writing, yet there is no mention of any actual web sites he has worked on.

Yes, the author mentions his print bias, but if I were interviewing Mr. Killian to work for me as web/technical writer, the first thing I would ask:

Name me three URL's (not your home page) you have worked on as a paid professional writer. Not as a contributor, but as somebody who had to take a collection of badly-written material and make a *real* client happy.

Simple question, and I think this would reveal Mr. Killian's real audience for this book: people who don't know *anything* about writing, let alone writing for the web.

Mr. Killian makes a good case for better writing on the web, but his lack of professional experience and academic perspective make Writing for the Web useful only to the dilettante.

The "Geek" edition of "Writing for the Web" by Crawford Kilian was written for Web developers who are more adept to programming than sitting at the keyboard of a computer and cranking out written Web page content. This book will help them to write better content that will effectively communicate the purpose of their Websites, to inform their readers, and to achieve desired results.

To become more effective communicators online we must adopt certain writing guidelines that will appeal to readers, that will inform them, and then persuade them to act upon what they have been exposed to. Crawford Kilian assists Web developers to do just this. His thoughtful instruction will help Web developers to craft their content around guidelines that includes minimalization, coherence, clarity, accuracy, and correctness. This requires Web developers to know their audience(s), to generate reader interest and interactivity, writing for international readers, properly organizing content, choosing words carefully, avoiding biased and otherwise problematic terminology, and respecting spelling, grammar, and sentence structure.

Topics covered in the book that will contribute to better Web writing includes instruction on organization, choosing the right words, editing existing Web content - with examples, persuading readers to respond, marketing on the Web, understanding copyright matters, and FAQ's about launching Web-writing careers.

This concise guide to Web writing is packed with excellent writing instruction that will set new Web developers straight on the art and science of writing with the online community in mind. The focus on written content makes this book a good choice for those persons desiring to start a Web-writing career or wanting to advance their existing writing pursuits. Recommended for new Web developers, small business operators, and for classroom use!

Writing For The Web: Geeks' Edition is specifically designed for those who aspire to utilize the Internet as an outlet for their writing. Internet veteran Crawford Kilian draws upon his years of experience and expertise to provide the reader with a convenient, easy-to-use Webwriter's style guide that will prove invaluable for dealing with the rules governing abbreviations, biased terms, capitalization, compound words, and cliches. The proffered exercises will develop webwriting techniques and a wealth of practical advice will enable the aspiring webwriter to adapt content from print to Webtext; avoid common grammar and usage errors; develop content for corporate websites; even edit material for an international audience. Whether writing for a personal or corporate website, or writing for an on-line publication, Writing For The Web will enable anyone to be an effective Internet wordsmith.