WEB WRITING

As a collaborative effort, the “Web Writing Style Guide, Version 1.0” is composed for undergraduate writing classes—including FYC and technical/professional writing courses—with a specific focus on “the type of writing people do in social media sites” (p. 2). After introducing the similarities of writing essays and writing for the web (coherence, grammar, mechanics, etc.), the contributors immediately move into discussing some of the differences. One of the key features of writing for the web, as defined in the guide, is to think in terms of paragraphs and sentences rather than thinking in terms of essays or articles, and to consider the affordances of using a variety of media (color, images, video, sound) when composing in digital/social media environments. As a general introduction to writing for the web, this guide is organized in two sections: (1) “Writing in the Genres of the Web,” including blogs, wikis, and Twitter; and (2) “The Rhetoric of Web Pages,” which provides some advice for composing rhetorically savvy (visual) designs. What’s most valuable about this guide is its focus on style; it is not a how-to-guide, but a style guide that discusses conventions, not “rules,” of effective online communication across various genres and contexts, and even addresses the topics of etiquette and common features of web writing as they have developed to date. By situating this guide as the first iteration, or version, of web writing style, it leaves open the possibility of growth and potentialities for learning a nuanced approach to writing on the web that builds a synthesis form a plurality of perspectives.

A lot of the information presented in this guide also brings into question some of the conventions of print literacy, at least as defined by organizations such as the CWPA and MLA. For example, when discussing Twitter, the contributors discuss the role of the @ and # symbols and hyperlinks in a way reminiscent of MLA citation guidelines, but with fewer defined conventions; as they write, “A hashtag is a convenient way for people to make sure their Tweets are listed together. If you’re at a conference or responding to a trendy topic, a hashtag can ensure you aren’t lost in the shuffle” (p. 13). The hashtag functions as a reference mark—much like MLA in-text citations, most commonly appearing after the main text/image of the tweet—for collaborative writing, thought, and discourse. In other words, the contributors’ discussion of web writing in the first iteration of this guide begins framing social and digital media as a Burkean parlor, and helps to ease teachers and students into “a social, often conversational form of writing” (p. 7) rather than conventional monographs.