Ten Tips to improve your writing for the web

1. Important information should be at the top

   1. introductory sentence is key!
2. Start headings with significant words
3. Use active, not passive voice unless you want to ‘frontload’ the sentence
4. Avoid repetition
5. Replace jargon
6. Be concise
7. Keep it simple
8. Be brief – about 12 words per sentence
9. Don’t assume
10. provide links with further explanations where appropriate

11. Use inverted pyramid format

    1. conclusion
    2. explanation
    3. details

Remember:

1.    Page title and navigation title should match¹
2.    Write your headings first
3.    Don’t waste space welcoming people
4.    Use short paragraphs, preferably one sentence long
5.    Don’t use all caps or underline
6.    Use bold and italic sparingly, if at all
7.    Make link text meaningful
8.    Avoid the use of inline² links 

¹If I click on ‘People’, I want to be taken to a page with the title ‘People’, not ‘Staff’ – however, if you click on ‘About’, the title of the page should include what it is ‘about’ e.g. ‘About the department of History’.

²An inline link is a link in a sentence e.g. Henry VIII was first a lord, then a king.

Find out more about the UCL Style guide

• Style guide (pdf)