Web Manager University - Fall 2007
Class Title: Transforming Web Content With Plain Language
| Class Format: | Webinar | about our webinars |
| Instructor: | Rachel Mc Alpine, CONTENTED | |
| Date/Time: | October 11, 2007 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm (EDT) |
| Place: | Online webinar* |
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| Fee: | $30 federal, state, or local U.S. government; $50 for non-government |
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*If you’re at an agency that has multiple people who want to participate, we encourage you to register one person and view the webinar together in a conference-type setting or shared workstation.
Webinar Description
As a web manager, you are managing more content writers than ever before. You have explored all the options for training content writers. And still that rubbish content comes pouring in! Investment in a CMS is futile when the content lets you down.
Today, web content writing is not a task for specialists: it's a core competency for most government employees. Chances are that if you write for work, you write for a website or intranet. Naturally writers also feel frustrated if their documents don't succeed online.
Yet learning how to write excellent content need not be arduous. Usable, accessible, readable content is within reach, and ordinary content writers can produce it. Great content is based on the tried-and-true principles of Plain Language.
A few key skills make all the difference. This webinar shows exactly what those skills are. We'll also talk about basic resources for content writers, including a training method that is focused, scalable, economical, practical and always on tap.
Why You Should Attend
Research repeatedly shows that usability doubles when web content is edited correctly. Obviously, all web authors need training. This webinar shows exactly what they need to learn, and how you can provide training without tears.
What You'll Learn
- How plain language guidelines reinforce the very latest usability research
- Which four skills have maximum impact
- How editing a single headline can pay off eight times over
- How to make content scannable, objective, and concise-the kind of editing that can literally double the usability of a website
- What training, support and resources staff need if they are to produce consistently high quality content.
With the four key skills, staff can web-proof everything they write. When the number of trained staff increases, so does the usability of the web site.
Who Should Attend
- Web and intranet content writers, editors, and managers
- Training managers
- Anyone who writes content that may end up on the web
Webinar Format
This is an online webinar. Participants will have an opportunity to ask questions and share examples at the end of the presentation.
We'll use plain language, simple tips and tricks, Q&A, and examples of content before-and-after editing. Expect to gain knowledge that you'll use immediately.
About the Instructor
Rachel McAlpine has been doggedly working on a single unpopular topic ever since 1995: the quality of writing on websites and intranets. She has performed content reviews and audits, trained individuals and groups, acted as consultant, and written and edited a ton of content. Her main clients have been government agencies, universities, banks, businesses, and not-for-profit organizations in New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines, Japan, and China.
Author of plays, novels, and poetry, Rachel's publications naturally include some key books for web content writers. They are Better Business Writing on the Web (August 2007), Web Word Wizardry, Crash Course in Corporate Communications, and Global English for Global Business. QWiC was Rachel's influential e-mail newsletter from 2001-2006. She writes a blog, Contented: content that makes people happy.
Nowadays Rachel concentrates on the untrained writers who produce online content as part of their regular job—subject experts rather than marketers or corporate communications staff. With the rise of content management systems, many intranets contain millions of web pages and other documents. The number of staff writers involved is rocketing, even in smaller organizations. Training these on-the-job writers can be a logistical and financial nightmare. That's the problem Rachel has chosen to solve with CONTENTED.com.
Rachel lives in Wellington, New Zealand.
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Page Updated or Reviewed: August 3, 2007
