By Rachel McAlpine
So, management now understands the potential of the Web and intranet.
Word goes out: all important information must be loaded on to the web site or intranet. Forms must go online. The internet is the medium of choice. The big switch is now a necessity of government and corporate strategy.
So many words, so many writers!
In a typical business, 40 percent of resources go into communication. For some businesses – consultancies for example – it’s more like 90 percent.
Everything gets documented in a business or government organisation. We document what has happened, could happen, should happen, will happen and won’t happen. We document who does what and how.
We write memos, policy, procedures, instructions, discussion documents and legislation. Forms, charts, presentations, minutes, specifications, newsletters and schedules.
We produce reports by the squillion – weekly reports, annual reports, financial reports and incident reports. Mission statements, proposals and marketing material.
Then we quality assure all our documents (dreams are free) including our quality assurance documents, creating even more documents in the process.
How many people in your organisation write to the public as part of their job? How many write material that is circulated among staff? Certainly not just the people in corporate communications.
Consultants, managers in every area, IT staff, marketers, field workers, financial officers, customer service officers and HR staff are generating documents that may be viewed by the public or by staff. And that’s just for starters.
A great deal of that paper mountain should be online, eventually saving a mountain of money and time.
Online writing is now mainstream writing for businesses and government organisations.
When OK documents go bad
Trouble is, when the paper mountain goes online, it resembles a garbage mountain.
Those public or inhouse documents that seemed OK on paper can seem woefully inadequate on the screen. They look horrible, and they just don’t work for their target audience.
Online publication ruthlessly exposes the flaws of imperfect documents. And perhaps email has made many of us careless in the way we communicate.
But more important, the Web and intranet require different structures, styles and formats.
You can control how a document appears in print, so it’s natural to assume you can control how it will look online. But you can’t.
A document for the internet will vary hugely in appearance from one computer to the next, and it must be legible regardless. So the cruel fact is that even experienced writers require some new skills.
The web editors’ woes
Hear that mournful wailing in the distance? Yes? That’s the corporate web editors of the world discreetly expressing their feelings.
The responsibility for fixing paper documents often falls on the organisation’s online editors.
This is a good solution for small web sites and teeny tiny intranets. A handful of professional writers plus a legal adviser can control the quality of all the content on a small site.
However, by now, most big or biggish organisations see the advantage of making the intranet the sole repository for all inhouse communication. This means the intranet swells to 1,000 pages, 10,000 pages, 20,000 pages and more.
And at least in government, a vast amount of information must go on the web site. It’s not a choice, it’s virtually a requirement.
At this point, your little team of expert web editors is howling with frustration. They simply cannot fix every web page:
- The sheer number of pages is overwhelming.
- Many documents are copyright and must not be changed.
- Some documents are so bad they cannot be fixed.
- Some writers are offended because they see no need for change.
Train every writer
It’s time to bite the bullet and accept that everyone who writes documents for the public, or for staff, needs a new sort of training.
Don’t regard this training as a specialist add-on, exclusively for web or intranet writing. Regard it as the new norm for all business and professional writing.
After all, from now on, a large percentage of normal business documents is likely to be published online:
- Documents complying with web guidelines will usually work well in print with a few editorial tweaks.
- But documents written for print rarely work well on the Web.
- And every single-source document should be written with the Web in mind.
A training course in web writing can focus on report writing, policy writing, marketing copy — any area of business writing.
Inhouse courses should focus on the organisation’s own web or intranet pages. These should be the primary training resource for a unique programme. Otherwise, people do not truly realise the extent of their own writing problem — because all those bad pages came from somebody else.
Show me, don’t tell me
Experienced writers rapidly grasp the requirements of writing for the Web – but only if they can see how their own documents might appear online. Otherwise, it’s only natural to resist instruction. After all, they’ve been writing all their working lives!
You can tell them what to do until you’re blue in the face, but it won’t sink in until they *see* what you mean. I learned this from my son Ben when he was nine years old.
Like all parents, I was a trainer from day one. I repeatedly told Ben, “Tidy your room!” Despite his sweet nature and dazzling intellect, it never happened. One day he said, “But how, Mum?” He genuinely did not understand.
Picture the before-and-after demo. “You pick up clothes from the floor, like so. The clean ones go back in the closet, like so. The dirty ones go to the wash-house, like so. The toys go in the toybox, like so. Hey presto: a tidy room, no more tripping up, everything easy to find.” Ben is not born-again tidy, but he has never had a tidiness problem since that long-ago day.
Today I follow the same principles with my training. “See this mess? See this problem? Now do this, and this, and this. Hey presto!” Even a 4-hour training session with a large group can improve results dramatically.
Inhouse training can be consolidated with a short, clear, style guide, and a bunch of model documents online.
Spend money to save money
Ample research has proved that companies can save many thousands of dollars by rewriting key documents in plain English.
Poor communication on the Web and intranet are squandering the time and money of many an organisation. Money is not gently dripping away, it’s gushing out into cyberspace. A new tap washer won’t stop the wastage: a dam is required!
Now is the right time to start on this problem. It’s big, sure – but it will only get bigger.
About the Author:
Rachel McAlpine (BA Hons, Dip Ed) is known internationally for her work in promoting quality web content. Since 1996, Rachel has been an independent consultant in all aspects of online content. Rachel McAlpine’s 31 books include six about writing. Write Me A Web Page, Elsie! and Crash Course in Corporate Communications are widely used in New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Region. Rachel is a forthright and entertaining conference speaker. She tackles many aspects of web content, from accessibility to search engine strategies. You can reach Rachael on [email protected]
