Writing for the Library Web: A Checkup

摘要

Here's a myth for you: Creating content and writing for the web are straightforward tasks. If you've tried, you know that writing great content for online readers (or non-online readers, for that matter) is anything but simple. It takes knowledge of how people read—or don't read—in the online world as well as stylistic and layout conventions that ensure content is usable, and engaging, that it and communicates effectively. Without a doubt, libraries have many people who are excellent writers who are well-versed in the ins and outs of grammar and style. Most have cut their teeth on writing academic essays, informal emails, and texts, or they've written for business purposes. Some have invested in learning to write for online sites partly due to the widespread adoption of blogging. It's easy to see that library websites are writing more effective online content today than a decade ago. But is there more we could be doing? What can we discover by looking at some of the research related to writing for the web?