Writing for the web allows us to design web pages that best-fit users' needs. Rather than reading them from beginning to end, people tend to skim or scan pages in an F-shape pattern. By creating our LibGuides with the following standards in mind, we can ensure that our users will find what they need quickly, easily, and without any confusion.

Use Plain Language

• Usability studies have found that terminology is one of the biggest factors in user success rates.
• Avoid jargon when writing and instead opt for terms that users will recognize.
• Use natural language equivalents to potentially confusing terms on top-level pages.
  • Within those pages, you can enhance or explain potentially confusing terms by putting them in meaningful contexts or defining them outright.
  • "Find books", "Find Articles", and other combinations using natural language “target words” are easier for users to understand

Be Approachable

• Write in an informal/conversational tone.
• Use pronouns! Using pronouns not only creates a cleaner sentence structure, but when paired with a conversational tone, it feels friendlier and more approachable. It helps users understand that there are actual people behind the scenes that can assist them 
  • The user is "you"
  • The library is "we"
• Avoid figurative language like idioms, cliches, and slang as it can be difficult for some users to understand, especially our international students.
• Use inclusive language.
  • See *Editorial Guidelines* for more information on using inclusive language!

Be Clear

• Use active voice.
• Omit redundant words.
  • Say this: The X and Y Departments worked on a project to improve…
  • Not this: The X Department and the Y Department worked together on a joint project to improve…
• Cut excess modifiers.
  • Say this: It is difficult to reconcile the differing views expressed by the management team.
  • Not this: It is particularly difficult to reconcile the somewhat differing views expressed by the management team.
• Avoid doublets and triplets.
  • Say this: information
  • Not this: knowledge and information
• Keep the subject, verb, and object close together.
  • The natural word order of an English sentence is subject-verb-object. This is how you first learned to write sentences, and it’s still the best way. When you put modifiers, phrases, or clauses between two or all three of these essential parts, you make it harder for the user to understand you.
  • Say this: The company may buy a retiring member’s interest.
  • Not this: If any member of the board retires, the company, at the discretion of the board, and after notice from the chairman of the board to all the members of the board at least 30 days before executing this option, may buy, and the retiring member must sell, the member’s interest in the company.

Be Organized

• Chunk content into manageable sections
  • This makes the page more scannable and less overwhelming
• Front-load important information, then expand on it afterward
  • Start with the content that is most important to your audience, then provide additional details
• Use short sentences and paragraphs
• Use lists whenever possible
  • List by order of importance rather than alphabetically
    • Users tend to use the first resources listed
• Use white space to break things up by visually separating information