Formality On The Web

When writing for an online publication, whether it's a news article or a sports article, you must use a lower register than you would when writing for a paper publication.

Why is this? Are they not intended for the same audience?

The short answer is no.

Who Are These People?

While an online sports article and its paper counterpart may both be aimed at sports fans in general, they are aimed at completely different readers. The paper article is intended to be read in detail in someone's free time, maybe at breakfast. The online publication, on the other hand, is aimed at somebody who wants the headlines and a little bit extra. The reasons for this can be put down to some of the things that featured in my previous blog post such as distractions online.

How Do I Write For Them?

In any case, when your piece of writing is surrounded by the world of information it needs to make things easy on the reader. This can mean being more informal and conversational. Phrases that directly address the reader such as "Click here for more" or "Have you read..." keep the reader's attention for longer and entice them to read more. Making it all about the reader ensures that they get what they came for while being able to feel as though they haven't wasted their time.

What Does The Future Hold?

I personally prefer to read online articles because of this factor. I feel more efficient as a result of the short texts, while feeling more informed due to the increased amount of articles I can read through in the space of a few minutes.

I guess it simply suits my lifestyle better than traditional print, but is this the growing trend that, as we have all been warned against, will lead to the demise of the traditional paper publication? It certainly seems possible given the increasingly complex and fast-paced society in which we live.

I've never been one for fear-mongering though, so let's just sit back and enjoy the benefits of online publications.

Writing For The Distracted Online Reader

People generally tend to only read half the content online that they would on paper. I find this really interesting because there are so many factors that lead to this; studies have shown that computer screens make people tired after a certain amount of time and, of course, it's also a lot easier to get distracted with so much information at your fingertips.

What Can We Do?

Some of the most popular solutions to these problems are shortening text and making it scannable by adding features such as highlighted and underlined keywords, along with keeping the fonts and images consistent so as not to overload the reader. Having tested this by reading a newspaper article and an article by the online version of the same newspaper, I think that these methods are very effective. The online article was shorter and images, along with words in bold, helped keep my interest. 

So It’s That Easy?

It may sound like it's a lot easier to write for the web than for traditional print mediums: just shorten your text and make certain words stand out.

However, I think it may actually be more difficult. This is due to the fact that you have to be twice as selective when choosing how to phrase things and you must always have the reader's attention span at the back of your mind. In contrast to this, traditional print writers have the luxury of expressing themselves via long, uninterrupted articles in which they can word things how ever they like (with an editor's approval!). 

This, however, is just one aspect of writing for the web that I find particularly interesting. I hope to write about other aspects over the coming weeks.

P.S. If you've made it to this point in the article, please give it a like to show that I've managed to keep you're attention (market research!).