3 Common Mistakes in #HigherEd Web Writing (and Their Easy Fixes)

Teaching Web Writing for Higher Ed & spotting mistakes since 2004

In addition to working in higher education for nearly a decade, I’ve taught Web Writing for Higher Ed since 2014. My students—from recent college graduates to seasoned journalists—have a range of writing experience when they begin the course.

Web writing, they soon learn, has its own rules, etiquette, and best practices. I’ve seen newbies and professionals alike make some of the same web writing mistakes. (I’ve been known to make a few of them myself occasionally.)

Fortunately, a little awareness, education, and practice go a long way when it comes to writing and editing content for the web.

Let’s review a few common mistakes we writers sometimes make on the web, and then look at how to fix them.

Mistake #1: Putting two spaces after punctuation

“But my teachers told me to put two spaces after a period!”

School’s out, my fellow writers. There was a time when two spaces after a period was de rigueur. But that time—one of manual typewriters, monospaced fonts, bouffant hairdos, and bellbottoms—has passed.

Read any recently and professionally produced publication in print or on the web. Do you see gaping holes or rivers of white space? Probably not. That’s because no modern publisher, typographer, or graphic designer puts two spaces after punctuation (or uses fully justified alignment on the web, but that’s another story).

This mistake is even more egregious on social media. Twitter, for example, only gives you 140 characters per tweet. Why waste one of those precious characters on a needless and useless extra space?

I could go on, but instead defer to Slate, which explains in detail why you should never, ever use two spaces after a period.

Easy Fix #1: Break the habit

OK, maybe that’s not the easiest of fixes. But there’s good news! Modern typing systems—the ones in our Word processors and content management systems, for example—have the correct amount of space automatically built into the fonts.

The system does the correct spacing work for you, so why not let it?

Mistake #2: Overusing weak verbs

Some verbs add to the word count without necessarily adding meaning to the copy. Using them occasionally is fine; overusing them is not, especially when you can replace several words with one. For example:

• Original: The university is the home of the Institute for Performing Arts.
• Instead: The university houses the Institute for Performing Arts.

• Original: We utilize an approach that emphasizes holistic care.
• Instead: We emphasize holistic care.

Easy Fix #2: Choose strong, active verbs

Less is more when it comes to web writing. Take the following sentence:

You will have opportunities to study with leading scholars, journalists, and commentators.

Remove “have opportunities” and we’re left with:

You will study with leading scholars, journalists, and commentators.

Better! Now pare it down further:

Study with leading scholars, journalists, and commentators.

Our final version features an active verb and the imperative mood, which implicitly uses “you” in the copy. Admittedly, we’ve lost the nuance of the original. But the tradeoff is clearer, more concise prose—a must in web writing (and in stark contrast to most academic writing).

Mistake #3: Asking readers to click here

Using Click here makes the webpages or documents you are linking to less usable for readers and screen-reading software. Why? Because when scanning a webpage, “click here” doesn’t tell users what clicking gets them. Today’s site users recognize links as such, so “click here” is redundant and distracting.

Easy Fix #3: Create meaningful links

Users should know what to expect when they click on a link. So tell them! Hyperlink the relevant phrase or description in your web copy. This way you’re creating meaningful links for your readers and cutting unnecessary words. It’s a twofer!

Here are some examples from my institution’s style guide:

• Original: Click here to apply to Rochester.
• Instead: Apply to Rochester online.

• Original: To see a full description of services, click here.
• Instead: For information about our services, see the Complete Service Description (PDF).

• Original: Click here to register.
• Instead: Register online through our secure system.

Experience Is the Best Teacher

Practice makes perfect. That’s true of most skills, including writing. I also believe that to become a better writer, you have to become a better reader. That means reading a lot, in terms of volume and variety.

So to become a better web writer, consume lots of web content and on a variety of platforms. Slowly but surely, you’ll get a better feel for what works and what doesn’t when it comes to writing for—and reading on—the web.

Meet the Faculty: Sofia Tokar

Higher Ed Experts is a professional online school for digital professionals working in universities and colleges.

When you take a professional certificate course with us, you get a chance to upgrade your skills by working on your projects, interacting with classmates just like you and getting detailed personalized feedback from your instructor.

Sofia Tokar Sofia is the web writer and communications officer for Arts, Sciences and Engineering at the University of Rochester. As part of the web team, her work includes creating, editing, and curating content for the university’s homepage and top-level pages, departmental web pages, and social media accounts. She regularly co-hosts on-campus presentations and workshops about strategic and tactical web communications.

Sofia earned her master’s degree in English language and literature from Queen’s University in Canada. She is currently pursuing her master’s in online teaching and learning at UR. She is also a graduate of the Higher Ed Experts web writing certificate program.

Sofia teaches Higher Ed Expert’s 4-week online course on Web Writing for Higher Education.