Reading online is very different from reading print. According to research studies, people read 25% slower from computer screens than reading from paper.¹ That's when they read at all: many people typically scan online text, searching keywords, headlines and captions.² An eyetracking study cosponsored by Stanford University and the Poynter Institute illustrates how online readers are drawn to more brief abstracts, and even when reading "full" articles tend to cover no more than 75% of the material - reading "shallow but wide".³

Therefore, writing for the web needs to be customized for online readers to be most effective. Good web writing is short, concise, and employs a variety of "landmarks" to highlight key ideas. Here are a few web writing basics.

Keep it short.
Online readers are impatient, so be succinct: use 50% less text than you would use in print, maybe 500 words per page maximum. Try to keep most if not all of your text "above the fold" on each page to reduce the need to scroll. Retain plenty of white space around your text.⁵

Group related information.
For longer documents, clump the information into self-sufficient segments and link by topic, chronologically, by audience, or however makes the most sense to your readers. ⁵ More details . . .

Keep it fresh.
Inaccurate or outdated information reduces the credibility of the entire site.⁴ If you don't plan to update often, avoid time-dated language, like "later this year" or "last semester" (use "academic year 2004-05" or "spring 2002 semester" instead). Flag time-sensitive material to remember to remove once it's outdated.

Make it 'scannable'.
Because online readers tend to scan, simple and direct headlines and subheadings can help people find what they want quickly. Descriptive headlines with verbs convey the most information.⁵

Use bulleted or numbered lists.

• Get your key points up front and center.
• Keep it short
• Clump information and link
• Keep it fresh

Use "inverted pyramid" style.
Start with the most important information, followed by short supplementary information. Stick to one main idea per paragraph, and keep sentences and paragraphs short. Edit ruthlessly.⁶

Related information details.

Make text short without sacrificing depth of content by splitting the information up into multiple nodes connected by hypertext links. Long and detailed background information can be relegated to secondary pages; similarly, information of interest to a minority of readers can be made available through a link without penalizing those readers who don't want it.⁵

Footnotes
¹Jakob Nielsen, 1997, Be Succinct! (Writing for the Web)
²Jakob Nielsen, 1997, How Users Read on the Web
³Stanford-Poynter study, 2000
⁴Stanford web credibility project
⁵Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox: Be Succinct! (Writing for the Web)
⁶Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox: Inverted Pyramids in Cyberspace