Writing on the Web vs. Writing on Paper

Writing on the web and writing on paper have a lot of the same characteristics. In both styles the author's voice and opinion come across to the audience. Naturally, the author will have a specific goal he or she is trying to communicate to the audience. Whether the web or paper document is an argumentative piece or a persuasive piece there is some message being presented along with a substantial amount of information. Both of these types of documents need to be organized and not contain grammatical or spelling errors. The most important thing for both types of pieces is for them to be proofread.

Writings on the web need to be very concise. The audience also needs to be able to navigate easily through the document. In other words the author needs to be able to get the main idea of the document in the first few sentences. The hyperlinks should enhance the reader's ability to fully understand the presented information. Writings on the web should also contain white space so that the reader will be more interested in the document. Writings on paper need to be more formal and require extensive organization. Unlike writings on the web, writings on paper do not need all of the white space within the piece. Writings on paper also do not need to explain the main idea in the first part of the piece.

When transferring a document on paper to the web, it is important for the document to be formatted correctly. The author must also take into account how the reader will view the document. If all possible, the author must take into consideration what type of computer or technology the audience will view the document on, so that it will not change from how the author views it. To solve any formatting issues, I suggest that the author transfer the paper document to a PDF file before before putting it on the web.

I hope that by having this class, I will be more confident about writing on the web and writing formally on paper.