[Sigia-l] Re: [Sigia-l]: Writing for the Web

[John R. Howe]

>On 10/27/03 9:12 AM, "Richard Law" <rlaw at cisco.com> wrote:
>
>I'm not sure where it happened in the replies to my original query, but my
>name is Richard, not John. ;.)
>
>We have many different style guides at Cisco, but none are very focused on
>the writing for the web. So at this point we're consolidating the style
>guides and integrating best practices for writing for the web for all
>documentation and communications.

Richard,

Whoops, sorry about the misnomer--and good luck with your 
"consolidation."  I'm still not clear, though, whether you only plan 
to consolidate your existing *in-house* guides or if you plan to use 
those to supplement a few selected, *published* guides (e.g. 
Associated Press Stylebook, CMS).  I highly recommended the latter 
strategy to avoid the time/expense of 're-inventing the wheel', 
re-training already competent (style-wise) writers in 'the Cisco 
style' of writing, and/or confusing users with idiosyncratic styles 
that damage your brand.  Much of what makes for effective, consistent 
written English has already been figured out and well documented over 
the past 4-500 years.  Net-specific editorial style issues are 
beginning to be published in standard manuals (e.g. AP Stylebook; MS 
Manual for Tech. Pubs.).  I venture to suggest that most of the rest 
that you decide are unique to your company can go in a glossary or 
will belong in the UI and/or usability section of  your 
*comprehensive* Web style manual as much as in the 'editorial' 
section--e.g. page titles, embedded link placement, headline style, 
etc.  In my experience, graphic and UI designers and IAs have to deal 
with those kinds of 'editorial' issues almost as much as content 
providers do.  In other words, I'm all for Web writers losing the 
idea that all they have to do is to fill "buckets" designed by 
someone else.  They should be almost constantly aware of IA 
(structure, navigation) and usability issues--or *should be* to cut 
development costs and increase ROI.

[Let's go off-list with this if you'd like; I fear I've strayed too 
far from standard "IA"]
-- 
John R. Howe, Web Writer and Information Architect
Clearwater Communications I 22 Fayette Street I Cambridge MA 02139
http://www.cwatercom.com