Since it is a very Scottish Saturday here in not so sunny Barcelona, I finally get round to writing the book review of “Letting go of the words – Writing web content that works” by Janice (Ginny) Redish.
Having carried out a number of web copywriting courses over the years and also adviced and written content for clients, I thought I had a pretty good understanding of what is important when compiling web content. Surprisingly the book still had a few insights, which I think would be valuable for anyone working in the internet industry or who is responsible for website content.
Redish, who is also an usability expert, explains all stages of preparing, writing and structuring content in detail, referring to many useful resources and websites to find out more about certain topics, such as accessibilty and usability issues. The book is divided into 13 chapters, each focusing on topics such as how to understand your web audience, getting to grips with your home and pathway pages, what to consider when designing a page, how to best write the content and integrate lists, tables, headings and how to write meaningful link text and compile a style guide.
Every chapter has “before” and “after” examples, outlining problems of certain pages and what was changed to get their purpose across, whilst being reminded of usability and accessibility factors.
In overall a great book whether you are a seasoned web professional or just starting out on a smaller scale in-House project. I recommend this book highly and will certainly keep it handy as a reference at work.
