Writing for the Web Workshop

I was an English major the first time I went to college. I do well writing papers. People tell me that they find my writing interesting. So I wondered why I was signing up for a workshop on writing for the web. It can't be that different, can it?

Yes! It IS different. In more ways than I could have imagined. I was impressed by our workshop presenter who helped me learn to think in a whole new way. Few words. More pictures. Fewer words. Different layout. Fewer words. Think about navigation. Fewer words.

As we worked out way through the exercises, I began to get the idea that I should try to be succinct and use fewer words but be more clear. Something to work on. I am not known for paucity of verbiage. Girls in general are talkers more so than most men, pardon my stereotyping. I remember chatting away endlessly when I sat on my great grandfather's lap. How did I know that he had turned his hearing aid off and was blithely unaware of my chatter?

We shall see how well I manage to translate ideas into pithy short sentences. I am learning to use fewer words when I text though. Its just too much work to be long winded on those tiny keyboards! So maybe if I text the web page ideas to myself, I will figure out how to say a lot with little. Another necessary 21st century skill to acquire.