Writing for the web video
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but John McGarvey from 123-reg has produced a video that is worth two thousand. It covers the basics of writing for the web and why it is different from writing for print.
Useful articles (without videos - sorry) on this blog that deal with writing for the web include:
John Mc wrote:
You know how strange it is to hear your own voice being played back? Well, as someone who’s rarely been in front of a camera before, I’ve found that seeing yourself on-screen is much worse!
Hope I didn’t put too many readers off their lunch…
Posted on 18-Jun-08 at 2:40 pm | Permalink
quinncreative wrote:
This video is a great sample of a poorly-executed how-to video. The narrator is hard to understand, he speaks fast and points to a diagram that isn’t easy to see.
He also commits the first sin of training–he tells, doesn’t show. If he gave examples, compared, he would begin to have a point. All this lecturing with no meat really doesn’t accomplish much.
The worst part of it all is that he doesn’t talk about content. Bad Web writing lacks good content. It doesn’t speak to the audience so the audience can understand it, and it it doesn’t stick to the objective.
Of course I’m a trainer who teaches Writing for the Web, and maybe it’s just sour grapes that I think the class needs to be more than 3 minutes long.
Posted on 19-Jun-08 at 12:22 am | Permalink
Richard Pelletier wrote:
Maybe it’s just sour grapes period, quinncreative. A little generosity might go a long way toward making “your content” more engaging and worth our time.
Posted on 19-Jun-08 at 1:00 am | Permalink
quinncreative wrote:
You are right, Richard. No one asked me for my opinion. The airline lost my suitcase containing all my training materials for tomorrow, and I’m cranky. And generosity is a wonderful thing to bring to the table in any case. Thanks for reminding me.
Posted on 19-Jun-08 at 2:45 am | Permalink
Matthew Stibbe wrote:
quinncreative, if you would like to make a better video and let me post it, I’d be happy to.
Certainly, there’s more on John’s site and lots more on my site about writing but not everyone wants to sit through a 60 minute lecture when browsing and I think John’s done a good job of covering the basics.
I occasionally get comments and emails that complain about something on this site and I always refund in full what they paid to read it.
Posted on 19-Jun-08 at 5:50 pm | Permalink