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Writing for the web isn’t the same as writing for a brochure or leaflet. When someone lands on your website, the majority of the time they are not sitting down for a leisurely read – they are scanning. They’re picking out key words and phrases, trying to find what they need as quickly as possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Imagine you\u2019re driving past a billboard at 60mph in the car. You can only take in a limited amount of information and there\u2019s no time to mentally process any complicated wording. Whilst the window of opportunity for a webpage is not quite so narrow, you need to bear in mind that your readers might be racing through your content rather than reading and digesting every carefully crafted word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We need to adapt our writing style accordingly. We don\u2019t want to confuse our readers by using words which are ambiguous, difficult to understand, or which act as obstacles to providing a clear message or straightforward navigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With this in mind, we\u2019ve listed below some words that you should avoid using as these reduce the readability of our content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These terms appear often on course pages, but they\u2019re not widely understood – especially by younger audiences like high school students (often our target market). If you wouldn\u2019t use these words when chatting to a 16-year-old about how assessments work, don\u2019t use them on a webpage. We need to use words that our target audience are familiar with, and don’t want to baffle or even put off these prospective students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most people also overestimate the knowledge and vocabulary of even their professional audiences and sometimes jargon is so ingrained you forget you are using it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Try simpler alternatives like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is another word which is often found on our course pages – for example: \u2018You will be fully equipped to develop your own career\u2019. However, it can sometimes make it sound as though we want to send our students camping! This word also tends to be used in the passive tense, which takes a reader longer to analyse (only microseconds, but it all adds up) and increases the word count of a sentence. Instead, go for a direct, active phrase like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are few university courses or departments which would not want to describe themselves as innovative and this is one of the most over-used words we find on our webpages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If something about your course is genuinely innovative it should sell itself. It is better to focus on particular features, and crucially, the benefits they provide, rather than using filler adjectives like this. Instead of using these words, try a format like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Give your readers the evidence and let them decide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These don\u2019t add anything to the message of your page but simply reduce the scannability of the text and add unnecessary bloat. If a sentence still makes sense without the adverb, leave it out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This phrase doesn\u2019t mean anything \u2013 it\u2019s the text after it that is important. When readers scan down the left-hand side of the page, they pick out keywords. Compare the following two phrases and see which jumps out at the reader:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once again, the phrase adds bulk to the page whilst reducing meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since readers will often be scanning the text on our webpages, we need to ensure that this process is as smooth as possible for them. Words such as ‘former’ and ‘latter’ mean that a reader will need to jump forwards and backwards in the text to understand it which disrupts scanning and increases the time it takes them to process the material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Never use \u2018click here\u2019 when you are including a web link. Link text should describe what the reader will find when they click on it. This makes it easier when someone scans the page. Example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, cu essent doctus deserunt per. Vidit nulla homero cu nec. Quas tacimates vituperata ut qui, ex eum nostrud evertitur, quaestio evertitur duo ei. Per ei sale labores, et vim amet corpora, cibo senserit vis et. click here<\/a>. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, cu essent doctus deserunt per.<\/p>\n\n\n\n