How Web Writing Has Inherited Writing Techniques?

Writing techniques make it possible to construct a text that makes sense. What methods can the web editor take back?

Journalistic writing techniques, administrative drafting techniques, report drafting, writing a speech... The methods of writing are legion. They are, in fact, as varied as the trades and environments in which they fit.

What drafting techniques do they apply to the Web?

When we speak of writing, in the sense of writing, the action of writing a text, we designate the set of language tools that make it possible to construct a text that produces meaning.

It is, therefore, a question of arranging our contents so as to answer the grammatical, syntactic and semantic rules of the language. But also to maximize the understanding of our written communication, in form and substance.

Two musts: the inverted pyramid and the 5w method

To write according to the rule of the inverted pyramid is to treat the subject of the most relevant and universal to the most general and secondary. It's about starting the talk with the most important concepts.

In other words, it is necessary to attack the subject by the conclusion. Hence the idea of the inverted pyramid. Then come the developments, one by one, following the logical sequence of the introduction. We end with the details, the more specific elements.

This method is used among other things to maximize key information above the waterline on reading.

The 5W method, which is very important for journalism, is also used in report writing, for example in project management. It has 2 advantages:

1. It helps to structure a presentation into a minimum of questions and to follow the logical pattern of the human mind when it apprehends information.

2. It allows ranking the story according to the importance that the reader gives to different levels of information. In B2B, we often prefer to say who did what first, while B2C, we tend to treat the first thing before anything.

Writing techniques or formalized sense

In the end, these writing techniques formalize good practices and obvious principles: readability, presentation plan, prioritization of elements, writing for the reader, etc.

The usefulness of these methods of writing becomes obvious when considered as true tools of assistance to the transmission and the communication. Any editor can find the tips and tricks to better build his texts and make sure to respond as perfectly as possible to its original purpose: inform, educate, entertain, convert...

Writing techniques: a guarantee of efficiency

Knowing that most contributors today have not been trained in communication and writing, these writing techniques are largely ignored or overlooked by most editors. But they are essential to a good transmission of information to the target audiences.

In other words, any organization that entrusts some of its employees with the responsibility of contributing to the website, the newsletter and even the company's intranet or blog is better off by providing these writers with training in web writing that integrates these good editorial practices.