Home > Yahoo Style Guide – Interview and Initial Review

Yahoo Style Guide – Interview and Initial Review

You’ve probably seen all the publicity about the new Yahoo! Style Guide – a guide that, according to the publishers, is ‘the first of its kind to address questions about online writing’. I got the chance to look at a review copy and it certainly covers a lot of ground in six sections and about 500 pages:

• Write for an online audience (4 chapters)
• Speak to your entire audience (2 chapters)
• Write UI text, email and mobile friendly content (3 chapters)
• Manage the mechanics (3 chapters)
• Clean up your copy (3 chapters)
• Resources (4 chapters)

I got the chance to do a short  interview with Senior Editorial Director, Chris Barr, about the Yahoo! Style Guide:

Chris, why have you decided to bring this book out now?

Because there was a glaring need for this book. While excellent style guides exist for print publications, none addresses writing for the Internet exclusively, or even in depth. Two popular sellers are The Chicago Manual of Style, and The Associated Press Stylebook, each with millions in print. Neither offers much guidance for writing and publishing for the Web.

This guide started out as an internal reference on how to write “Yahoo!” and was used by Yahoo! Web content developers to attract and build audiences. Little by little the guide grew as Yahoo! ventured into new areas, and was asked for by writers, marketers, editors, programmers, community managers, and product managers. Today it provides guidance for all writers in the company network, whether they’re bloggers, video producers, reporters, newsletter copywriters, or documentation specialists.

We’re happy to share these best practices with the world because everybody benefits when content is concise and easy to read.

This book seems to cover areas that go beyond style – what’s the rationale for that?

We felt it was important to address topics like how to write for an online audience, how to develop your voice, how to write online headlines, how to incorporate SEO into Web copy, and on and on, because nobody else had. The Yahoo! Style Guide also provides lots of Internet-specific information like why you should avoid italics. Other guides tend to be a bit behind the curve when it comes to styling Internet words. For example, we’ve been using ‘website” for years, and AP just closed up “Web site” in April 2010. And they still use “e-mail” while we use “email.” Also, our usage examples are far more entertaining!

Yahoo! Style Guide will not only address overall principles of good writing and editing, but also Web-specific subjects such as:

• How to write for online reading
• How to choose the right words to bring more people to your site with search engine optimization
• Best practices for corporate and personal blogging
• How to write effective email and newsletters
• Internet law: trademarks, copyright, and defamation
• Headlines for online content
• Writing and editing English for an international audience

And the Yahoo! Style Guide has exercises where people can test their Web-writing skills.

What’s your vision for this guide?

We feel this guide is essential for anyone writing for English-speaking audiences, including businesses that are creating or improving their websites. While it may appear that businesses have embraced the Internet, Jupiter Research found that just 36 percent of all businesses with fewer than 100 employees had a Web presence (New York Times, Feb, 14, 2008,) Even businesses that already have websites need help optimizing their content for the Web and learning how to create more compelling copy, clearer email, and attention-grabbing, community-engaging blogs.

Journalists, personal and corporate bloggers, writers, technical writer, editors: Anyone who creates or edits content for websites needs to understand the unique requirements of Internet content. From paragraph length, formats, and headlines, Web content is different from what most people have been taught. All writers need to be aware of the burgeoning legal issues of online copyright, including fair use and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, to the issues surrounding user-generated content, third-party content, as well as libel and slander.

Schools, colleges, universities, journalism schools: Students world-wide can learn the best practices for Web content, which is different from traditional writing styles.

Marketing organizations, advertising and PR agencies: Every outfit that writes marketing copy, email solicitations, Web advertisements, business communications, newsletters, customer or employee communications documents require education for using this new media.

Newspapers: Especially those that are augmenting paper distribution with digital distribution.  Reporters in newsrooms are being asked to do more to attract online readers. This story from the Washington Post explains the dilemma:

“Now they must also operate in an online environment where ‘search-engine optimization’ is a key goal. That requires new skills and time-consuming additional duties. Separate online headlines must be written in a way that attracts attention on the Web. Links must be found, vetted and inserted into online stories, and so-called “keywords” must be highlighted. All of this is designed to make it easier to find Post content on the Internet and more likely for the Post to win the intense media competition to show up at the top of results lists when readers use search engines such as Google and Yahoo.”

Global English speakers: The Guide will appeal to universal English speakers, including non-native English speakers by stressing clarity and simplicity. It will point out differences between, say, American English and that used in England.

Creators of content for mobile devices: The mobile Web is one of the fastest growing areas of the Internet, especially internationally, yet there are no usage guides available. The Guide will address best practices for developing mobile content.

Web developers, designers, information architects: Many of the pages within a website contain valuable information written to help users. FAQs, help pages, error messages, and user-interface text must be written clearly can concisely. Moreover, user-generated content, and community aspects such as comments will be addressed.

Thanks, Chris. My initial look suggests that this is a useful reference book, and the exercises will help readers to really get to grips with the material it contains. I plan to hang on to my copy and check it out in more detail. There’s also a great site where you can get quick help on many common issues. If you want to buy the book, here’s the link for the Yahoo Style Guide.

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