Book description
Web site design and development continues to become more sophisticated. An important part of this maturity originates with well-laid-out and well-written content. Ginny Redish is a world-renowned expert on information design and how to produce clear writing in plain language for the web. All of the invaluable information that she shared in the first edition is included with numerous new examples. New information on content strategy for web sites, search engine optimization (SEO), and social media make this once again the only book you need to own to optimize your writing for the web.
- New material on content strategy, search engine optimization, and social media
- Lots of new and updated examples
- More emphasis on new hardware like tablets, iPads, and iPhones
Table of contents
- Cover image
- Title page
- Table of Contents
- Praise for Letting Go of the Words
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Introducing Letting Go of the Words
- 1. Content! Content! Content!
- 2. Planning
- Interlude 1. Content Strategy
- 3. Designing for Easy Use
- 4. Starting Well
- 5. Getting There
- 6. Breaking up and Organizing Content
-
7. Focusing on Conversations and Key Messages
- Seven guidelines for focusing on conversations and key messages
- 1 Give people only what they need
- 2 Cut! Cut! Cut! And cut Again!
- 3 Think “bite, snack, meal”
- 4 Start with your key message
- 5 Layer information
- 6 Break down walls of words
- 7 Plan to share and engage through social media
- Summarizing Chapter 7
- Interlude 2. Finding Marketing Moments
-
8. Announcing Your Topic with a Clear Headline
- Seven guidelines for headlines that work well
- 1 Use your site visitors’ words
- 2 Be clear instead of cute
- 3 Think about your global audience
- 4 Try for a medium length (about eight words)
- 5 Use a statement, question, or call to action
- 6 Combine labels (nouns) with more information
- 7 Add a short description if people need it
- Summarizing Chapter 8
-
9. Including Useful Headings
- Good headings help readers in many ways
- Thinking about headings also helps authors
- Eleven guidelines for writing useful headings
- 1 Don’t slap headings into old content
- 2 Start by outlining
- 3 Choose a good heading style: Questions, statements, verb phrases
- 4 Use nouns and noun phrases sparingly
- 5 Put your site visitors’ wordsin the headings
- 6 Exploit the power of parallelism
- 7 Use only a few levels of headings
- 8 Distinguish headings from text
- 9 Make each level of heading clear
- 10 Help people jump to content within a web page
- 11 Evaluate! Read the headings
- Summarizing Chapter 9
- Interlude 3. The New Life of Press Releases
-
10. Tuning up Your Sentences
- Ten Guidelines for Tuning up Your Sentences
- 1 Talk to your site visitors – Use “you”
- 2 Use “I” and “we”
- 3 Write in the active voice (most of the time)
- 4 Write short, simple sentences
- 5 Cut unnecessary words
- 6 Give extra information its own place
- 7 Keep paragraphs short
- 8 Start with the context
- 9 Put the action in the verb
- 10 Use your site visitors’ words
- Summarizing Chapter 10
-
11. Using Lists and Tables
- Six guidelines for useful lists
- 1 Use bulleted lists for items or options
- 2 Match bullets to your site’s personality
- 3 Use numbered lists for instructions
- 4 Keep most lists short
- 5 Try to start list items the same way
- 6 Format lists well
- Lists and tables: What’s the difference?
- Six guidelines for useful tables
- 1 Use tables for a set of “if, then” sentences
- 2 Use tables to compare numbers
- 3 Think tables = answers to questions
- 4 Think carefully about the first column
- 5 Keep tables simple
- 6 Format tables well
- Summarizing Chapter 11
- Interlude 4. Legal Information Can Be Clear
-
12. Writing Meaningful Links
- Seven guidelines for writing meaningful links
- 1 Don’t make new program or product names links by themselves
- 2 Think ahead: Launch and land on the same name
- 3 For actions, start with a verb
- 4 Make the link meaningful – Not Click here or just More
- 5 Don’t embed links (for most content)
- 6 Make bullets with links active, too
- 7 Make unvisited and visited links obvious
- Summarizing Chapter 12
-
13. Using Illustrations Effectively
- Five purposes that illustrations can serve
- Seven guidelines for using illustrations effectively
- 1 Don’t make people wonder what or why
- 2 Choose an appropriate size
- 3 Show diversity
- 4 Don’t make content look like ads
- 5 Don’t annoy people with blinking, rolling, waving, or wandering text or pictures
- 6 Use animation only where it helps
- 7 Make illustrations accessible
- Summarizing Chapter 13
- 14. Getting from Draft to Final
- Interlude 5. Creating an Organic Style Guide
- 15. Test! Test! Test!
- For More Information – A Bibliography
- Subject Index
- Index of Web Sites Shown as Examples
- About Ginny Redish
Product information
- Title: Letting Go of the Words, 2nd Edition
- Author(s):
- Release date: September 2012
- Publisher(s): Morgan Kaufmann
- ISBN: 9780123859310
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