{"id":1513,"date":"2016-02-17T15:03:42","date_gmt":"2016-02-17T15:03:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/web\/?p=1513"},"modified":"2016-02-17T15:03:42","modified_gmt":"2016-02-17T15:03:42","slug":"nicely-said-a-book-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/web\/2016\/02\/17\/nicely-said-a-book-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Nicely Said &#8211; a Book Review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the introduction, Erin Kissane calls <strong>Nicely Said: Writing for the Web with Style and Purpose<\/strong>\u00a0(by Nicole Fenton and Katie Kiefer Lee) \u2018a writing guide that grounds its wealth of practical advice in empathy for readers and their needs\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>If you read our blog regularly you\u2019ll know this <strong>focus on the user<\/strong> resonates with us.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the perfect introduction for anyone new to writing for the web. It also offers valuable tips and advice for experienced web editors looking to develop their writing.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s get in to some of the advice for writing for the\u00a0web with style and purpose.<\/p>\n<h2>Do your research<\/h2>\n<p>In our training we\u2019ve been hammering home <strong>the need to plan your content<\/strong>. In a chapter on &#8216;getting your bearings&#8217; this book offers some key points you should\u00a0consider when preparing to write:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>understand the material<\/li>\n<li>define your goals and mission<\/li>\n<li>identify your audience and address their needs<\/li>\n<li>decide how you want to talk to your audience<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Writing guidelines<\/h2>\n<p>To achieve a good level of writing the authors recommend you regularly practice this set of guidelines:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>be clear<\/li>\n<li>be concise<\/li>\n<li>be honest<\/li>\n<li>be considerate<\/li>\n<li>write how you speak<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We provide a similar list of <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/web\/2015\/03\/16\/top-5-tips-writing-for-the-web\/\">top 5 tips for writing for the web<\/a> to our editors. If you get these right you\u2019ve got a good foundation to build on to develop your writing style.<\/p>\n<h2>Writing style<\/h2>\n<p>Something I found incredibly useful about this book was the <strong>clear definition of voice and tone<\/strong> \u2013 and the difference between them.<\/p>\n<p>Voice is your personality; it influences how people perceive you and doesn\u2019t change much.<\/p>\n<p>Your tone changes depending on the situation; it\u2019s directed by the audience you\u2019re writing for.<\/p>\n<p>Voice + tone = writing style.<\/p>\n<h2>The power of words<\/h2>\n<p>I want to round of this review with a quote from the book. In a single sentence it conveys a clear message about the power of your words and the importance of good writing:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cYour words can guide readers, bolster their decisions, and encourage them to take action.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2>Read more<\/h2>\n<p>I&#8217;d encourage you to read this book to get more detail on the topics I&#8217;ve introduced, and so much more. I&#8217;ve definitely picked up some valuable advice that will improve my writing.<\/p>\n<p>You can find out more about the book and its authors on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nicelysaid.co\">Nicely Said website<\/a>. There\u2019s also a good list of free resources, including articles and essays, for you to read around the subject.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the introduction, Erin Kissane calls Nicely Said: Writing for the Web with Style and Purpose\u00a0(by Nicole Fenton and Katie Kiefer Lee) \u2018a writing guide that grounds its wealth of practical advice in empathy for readers and their needs\u2019. If &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/web\/2016\/02\/17\/nicely-said-a-book-review\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":755,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[77,107,26],"class_list":["post-1513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-content","tag-reading","tag-review","tag-writing-for-the-web"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/755"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1513"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1518,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1513\/revisions\/1518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}