How we view words
on the web
Scanning or reading word for word
The results of online reading studies by web usability guru Jakob Nielsen are now well known — that 79% of readers scan rather than read and only 11% read word for word. But they were possibly taken too seriously because they were not compared with print.
Although it is easier to read print word for word, initial scanning takes place in most print media. Often we read even less in print than we do on the web.
The Stanford-Poynter study found that internet users would read as much as three quarters of a news article, while newspaper and magazine readers read only one third.
Lacking the wider context of print, web readers depend more on the wording of headings, summaries and hyperlinks to tell them what's available and how to get there. Once they've found what they're motivated to look for, they may well read word for word — depending on how the material has been written and laid out.
Shel Holtz suggests two possible approaches to online writing. Either to make your writing so compelling that, after a quick scan, the reader is just dying to read what you have written. Or else to make your material scannable so that the key message can be understood without word for word reading.
To make writing easy to scan, you need to get straight to the point in your first few words. Then concentrate on breaking text down into short linked sections with headings, subheadings, summaries, bullet points, lists, etc.
Column widths and typography should aid readability, while occasional use of bold can emphasise key points.
If, however, you want to stop readers scanning and compel word for word reading, one of your best tactics — apart from your lead — is the style of writing you adopt.
The most effective online style is friendly, direct and comparatively informal.
The first steps are to know your audience, think 'one-to-one' as far as possible, and 'converse' with them. Try to find a suitable balance between corporate stiffness and online friendliness.
Steve Morris points out that 'the wired environment presents a unique opportunity for remaking corporate identity and personality with language at the centre'. In short, companies should develop a 'brand voice'. Part of Morris's criteria for 'voice' is that online material should sound as if a real human wrote it.
Effective online communication goes one step further. It combines the rhythms, emphasis and personality of spoken English with the organised flow of tight writing. And, when practical, it invites feedback and interaction.
Next: Writing for international audiences
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