LibGuides at City St George's

People read differently online than they do in print, they tend to skim and scan the page reading only selected content.

Follow these guidelines for effective web writing:

• Less is more - use simple, direct and engaging language
• Chunk your content into manageable bits and use short sentences and paragraphs
• Use bullets and numbered lists
• Avoid library jargon. Terms like 'Resources’ and ‘Research Management’ are confusing to users. Use informative headings that users can scan
• Use the active rather than passive voice - "You can use this database to..." instead of the more formal "Students may use this database to...".

Further help:

• Writing Style Guide
• Hemingway App - Editor which lets you insert text and to see where you can simplify your prose.

The Marketing and Social Media Group maintain the CityLibrary Style Guide. This is a style guide for all library communications should be used in conjunction with the Writing Style Guide maintained by the Marketing Department.

• Be careful when copying and pasting content into the Rich Text Editor from any source. Hidden style code can be copied along with it.
• If you are copying content from another source (the web, a Word doc, etc.) make sure to strip out any invisible code.
• If you do not remove this hidden code, it may be difficult for screen readers to correctly read your guide and your fonts and link colours might look odd. Ever seen a bright red or blue link in LibGuides? That is probably due to unwanted code.

How to remove unwanted code:

Option 1: Paste then remove formatting. Paste your text into the Rich Text Editor then highlight the text and click 'Remove Format'

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Option 2: Paste as plain text.

To paste the contents of your clipboard as plain text (no formatting):

• In Chrome, or Firefox: press Ctrl + Shift + V (Windows) or Cmd + Shift + V (Mac)
• In Safari, press Cmd + Option + Shift + V

Option 3: Paste your text into Notepad before adding it into LibGuides.