Editorial Style Guide

Styleguide Contents

Web Style Suggestions

Web Reading Habits

People tend to skim when reading copy online, as opposed to reading line-for-line and word-for-word, as they might with a printed piece. Readers also tend to skip from one web page to another and from one link to another, rather than reading a page from top to bottom.

Writing for the Web

Many of these general guidelines apply to printed copy as well, but they are perhaps even more important for writing for the web:

Your homepage should immediately tell your visitors whose site it is and its purpose.
Outline and organize your information. Upper-level pages should be summaries of information that use links to take readers into deeper levels of a topic.
Make copy easy to scan. Use subheads, lists, and bullet points to break up long copy blocks. But please note: Whatever you’re using to delineate links should not also be used in other ways. For example, if your links are going to be shown with underlines, do not use underlines for emphasis on any non-link content.
Write short paragraphs and sentences. Avoid complex sentence structures and jargon. Use the active voice when possible.
People often perceive the Web as a more personal and informal medium than print. Speak directly to the reader, where appropriate.
Spell out abbreviations and acronyms the first time you use them on each page even if you’ve spelled them out on the homepage. Think of each page as self-contained; it might be the only page on your site that someone reads.
Remember to include your mailing address somewhere on the site. If you have room for it on the bottom-rail nav, you can place it there; if not, it should be included with the contact information.

Punctuation in Web-related Copy

Although it continues to change, for now it appears that the general consensus is that if a noun describes a specific thing with its own identity (the Internet, the World Wide Web) it is a proper noun and should be initial-capped. If the noun is a generic name or descriptor for a thing (internet protocols, webpage), use lowercase. We generally prefer one word over hyphenates for word combinations, except when employing a single-letter prefix.

Therefore:

the Web (but webpage, webmaster, website)
the Internet but internet protocols, internet services, internet architecture
homepage and subpage (but landing page)
e-mail, e-newsletter, e-communications, e-marketing, e-commerce (but email is also acceptable, even if you hyphenate the other words)

Because so much nomenclature in the area of electronic communications remains in a state of flux it would be perfectly acceptable to “email the URL of your website home page to the web master.” It is more important to be consistent in your treatment of these terms rather than worry about which variant you use.

URLs and E-mail Addresses

Do not add punctuation to an e-mail address or URL. However, if a sentence ends with an e-mail address or URL, do punctuate it as you normally would. Most people are now familiar enough with the Web that they will not be confused and think the punctuation mark is part of the address. It is best not to break a URL across two lines. However, if a URL won’t fit on one line, break it after a forward slash or before a period. Do not hyphenate words within URLs, even if they make for awkward line breaks.

Follow these guidelines for presenting URLs:

It is not necessary to use boldface or italic type for URLs (although these are acceptable options). Just be consistent in your treatment.
If the URL looks awkward in the middle of a sentence, rewrite the sentence to allow for placement at the end.
Leave off the http:// at the beginning and forward slashes at the end of URLs. Most browsers automatically insert these for you. An exception: a URL that starts with something other than www. The http:// prefix might be necessary in certain electronic communications, such as html e-mails.