Download Web Style Guide

CUF60501 Certificate III in Media (units 3 & 4)
CUFWRT301A Write content for a range of media
This assessment determines competency in the unit elements listed below:
• Evaluate and select most appropriate content ideas and writing styles
• Collaborative approach to work
• Conceptual skills sufficient to generate a range of text-based content ideas in response to a brief
• Content written in a way that engages the target audience
• Sound knowledge of grammar and punctuation
This worksheet introduces you to a new topic, Writing Content for a Range of Media.
In working with electronic media, writing styles have adapted to new screen environments due to:
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Difficulty of reading Text on Screen and the ever changing resolution of our screen worlds
New ways of navigating between content (Hyperlinking)
Explosion of online storytelling; animation, short films for instance and their ease of
distribution
Proliferation of Webblogs
Advent of new technologies shaping text – eg Twitter
Growth of Portable reading devices and their varying screen sizes.
Emails and Text Messaging and their language short cuts.
We will look at some aspects of these during this course
For starters (and because I’m away), I’ll introduce you to 4 relevant topics
1)
2)
3)
4)
Web Style
Usability
Technical Writing
Narrative
Web Style
Yale Web Style Guide
1
Look at the Web Style Guide on-line site
http://www.webstyleguide.com/wsg3/index.html
a)
What does the Web Style Guide have to say about text on the screen and legibility? Talk
about the relative difficulties of reading text on the screen compared to text on the printed
page.
b)
Should web text be written differently because of these differences in legibility?
c)
Is it appropriate to use either right-justified or left-justified text on a webpage? Explain
your choice.
d)
How many characters should you use in a line length of text on a screen?
e)
What are appropriate fonts to use on both the Macintosh and Windows platforms for a Web
Site? What is the most important feature of a typeface that makes it easy to read on the
Web?
f)
Should you use different fonts for the body text and headings, and if so, what fonts make
appropriate choices?
Holmesglen: MJ DMA 29-Apr-2015 H:\2015 OUTLINES & ASSESSMENTS\VETIS CERTIII in MEDIA\Units 3 & 4\SAC 2\SAC2_1_worksheet.doc
(6 Marks)
Exercise on Using Condensed Style
Take the example I’ve given you of National Parks Visitation Rates in America. Have a look at the
manner in which style is condensed to make it ready for the internet.
Read it carefully observing the points made.
Now take imagine you are working in a travel bureau and are given some information on Flying
cheaply to Japan. Rewrite it in the same style as the National Parks one, ready for internet
publication.
(2 Marks)
Usability
Jakob Nielsen describes on the Nielsen Norman group website:
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/usability-101-introduction-to-usability/
“Usability is a quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use. The word
"usability" also refers to methods for improving ease-of-use during the design process.”
1)
Explain why you think usability in web site design is important?
2)
What are the consequences of a designing a web site with poor usability?
(2 Marks)
Technical Writing
Read the document “techWriters.pdf”
1)
As a Technical Writer, list 4 questions you must ask yourself when writing a technical
document for a user group
2)
List 10 writing jobs which may typically be assigned to a Technical Writer.
(2 Marks)
Narrative
1.
2.
3.
Something that is narrated
The art or practise of narration
The representation in art of an event or story; also: an example of such as a representation
Stories or narrative are used often in Digital Media. The reason is because we can all relate to a story
and therefore the message
Examples in Western Literature: Epic, Gospel, Romance and Essay.
Narration not limited to text. Relationship between text and narrative ranges from complimentary to
competitive.
It is the interpretation of meaning which makes reading a story worth the effort.
Narrative can include magazines, television, the Internet, newspapers, dashboards, money, clocks,
comics, packaging, advertising, clothing, maps, games and even email.
Can you think of how a story is told (narrative) exists within each of these products?
Holmesglen: MJ DMA 29-Apr-2015 H:\2015 OUTLINES & ASSESSMENTS\VETIS CERTIII in MEDIA\Units 3 & 4\SAC 2\SAC2_1_worksheet.doc
Storytelling is one of the oldest experiences and still one of the most powerful because
it organizes information in a way that allows us to draw personal meaning and create
knowledge. There are as many different ways to tell a story as there are storytellers.
The two most important aspects of telling a story are that they are authentic and that
they are relevant.
Storytelling must take into account perspective – whether it is first person (as if something happened
to the storyteller personally) or the third person (he or she did this or that).
Most stories have a beginning (to understand context) middle (story itself) and an end (conclusion).
The ending often has a ‘moral’ or ‘lesson’ from which others can draw a relevance to their own lives.
Settings, characters, styles, dramatic purpose and themes are all important but without the basis of
purpose and flow, no story can be told well.
Multi-path storytelling is difficult because for most people, the less variables they need to control the
more successful the stories they create.
Stories can be used not just as entertainment but as a way to make difficult concepts, information, or
instructions more accessible.
Stories also require action, even when there are no characters. All experience that strives to be
interesting, engaging, entertaining or informing must be designed to act – even react and interact- on
some level. The action is also the best place to start development and design(as opposed to the
environment the characters , or the props)
If we distinguish stories from storytelling, I’d say that lots of games have stories, but not
many games do a good job of storytelling. A story can be very simple, summed up in a
screen of even a single line of text. You read it, forget it, and wade into the game. But
storytelling is the deliberate crafting of a narrative, with attention to rhythm and pacing,
revelation and detail (see p 212 in Garrand)
As a narrative, what would a person’s neat garden tell you about that person?
"...all forms of human communication can be seen as stories, as interpretations of aspects of
the world occurring in time and shaped by history."
(Fisher, 1989)
Stories of Advertising
Marketers and advertisers want to speak directly and as personably as possible to the readers.
“A picture is worth a thousand words”
General Links Page
Ad Awards
http://awardonline.com/
Gruen Planet
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/programs/gruen-planet/
Can you think of simple stories which convey a message?
Exercises
1.
2.
3.
What Is the Inverted Pyramid style of Story Writing? Why should you use it?
What is the difference between the Acitve and the Passive voice in copywriting?
Give an example of the same phrase written in the two different styles.
List the 4 main purposes of advertising copy
(3 Marks)
http://www.articlesphere.com/Article/Ad-Copy-Tips--9-Crucial-Things-To-Be-Aware-Of-WhenWriting-Ads-Or-Sales-Copy/210391
Holmesglen: MJ DMA 29-Apr-2015 H:\2015 OUTLINES & ASSESSMENTS\VETIS CERTIII in MEDIA\Units 3 & 4\SAC 2\SAC2_1_worksheet.doc
Working in Groups of 2 or 3, do you think you could come up with a short and original narrative (a
couple of paragraphs at the most) for
a)
b)
c)
d)
An advertisement selling “Candles in the Home instead of electric lights”
The benefits of winter at home over a summer holiday at the beach
The beauty of “Growing Old”
Why your brother or sister deserve your pocket money more that you do
(5 Marks)
In advertising circles this could be called The Pitch.
If you’ve ever seen The Gruen Transfer you may have been inspired by The Pitch before
We will discuss your ideas in class next week.
(Total = 20 Marks)
Holmesglen: MJ DMA 29-Apr-2015 H:\2015 OUTLINES & ASSESSMENTS\VETIS CERTIII in MEDIA\Units 3 & 4\SAC 2\SAC2_1_worksheet.doc