Traditional academic writing Pyramid style – NOT FOR WEB WRITING

• Lays the foundation with lots of supporting research
• Builds to a logical conclusion
• Takes a lot of reading to get to the point

Inverted pyramid – YES FOR WEB WRITING

• Catch your readers’ attention in the first few words
• Start with the conclusion, follow with the details
• Focus on key facts: who, what, where, when, why and how
• Only one idea per paragraph
• Use half the word count of traditional writing

Language

• As simple as possible
• Never use a long word when a short one will do
• Beware of acronyms (PLE? LMS? LO?, OER?, …)

Layout and formatting

• Small chunks
• Subheadings
• Use bullet points whenever possible
• Use bold intelligently and sparingly
• Avoid italics
• Write numbers as numerals (5 instead of five) 

Writing headlines

• Short, specific, tell the story
• Include keywords
• Include place names
• Don’t use metaphors and wordplay
• Needs to make sense on its

Writing links

• Links should be self-explanatory
• Don’t waste words writing click here or follow this link
• Web addresses shouldn’t be used as the text for links: You can book online
• If the link takes users to a different section or website, make that clear

Keep it short

• Headlines: 8 words or less
• Sentences: 15 to 20 words
• Paragraphs: 40 to 70 words
• Break long articles / documents