Scanability

Headlines / Subheads

When writing online it is a good idea to present the most important information first. Imagine reading an outline vs a full text article; the readability is far more simple in an outline. The outline is easy to read and conveys all of the information the full text does just in a bulleted way. You can easily locate what you are looking for in an outline and when you find it, you can go to the full text for the details. Links are like the full text. You should practice writing in headlines and subheads to make finding information easy, and link to other good sources to give what you have written more detail.

Headlines and Subheads are a great way to

1. Break up text
   • Reading a long paragraph will likely be off putting to an online reader, if you can visually breakup your text using headlines and even subheads then he reader is more likely to actually read the information.
2. Draw attention
   • Headlines can be presented in a different font, size or even color than the rest of the text and can early catch the attention of the reader.
3. Summarize
   • Often the information that you are resenting can be summarized in a few words, this is helpful so the reader can find exactly what they are looking for.

Links

Adding links to your online writing makes your work non-linear. If your writing is more like an outline than adding links can add more details without adding visual weight to what you have said. Your links should not interrupt your text they should go with the flow of your writing and unlike headlines shold not break up what you are saying.

When linking

1. Do not link the words click here
   • Doing this is redundant, if you are adding a link then you should link the words that are connected to the link.
2. Do no use the entire URL
   • URLs can be very lengthy and confusing, this adds unnecessary weight to your text and can confuse the reader
3. Know the sites linking policy
   • Each site may have a different way to format a link, make sure you know how to make all of your links correctly for each site you use.

You should keep all of your links up to date and working all the time. Broken links make your site non-crediable and add unnecessary weight to your text. All links should have a purpose, and the site linked to should also follow the other rules of good online writing.