The document provides guidance on best practices for writing content. It discusses 9 great practices for writing content, including writing with the reader's end goal in mind, using clear headlines and subheadings, writing in an active voice, making content eye-scannable, searchable, and cross-referenced. It also recommends encouraging editing for accuracy and using a pre-publication checklist. The overall message is that content should be written with the reader in mind, be easy to understand and find, and be accurate.

1. Anyone can write.
Great Practices for
Presented by
Candace Loya, Communications Strategist
www.linkedin.com/in/candaceloya909
Writing

2. Objectives
• Learn the importance of headlines/headers and
content relevance for your audience
• Learn how to organize your content
• Learn how to write in an active voice
• Learn how to use keywords and tags
• Learn how to avoid mistakes

3. What is Content?
Anything visible within a website or intranet:
• Drives traffic to site
• Provides meaning to a user
• Relatable to user
• Needed by user
• Blogs
• Discussions
• Polls
• Images
• Etc.
Google describes Content
/’käntent/
•“information made available by a
website or other electronic medium
•“the substance or material dealt with
in a speech, literary work, etc., as
distinct from its form or style.”

4. The Functions of Writing
The purpose of writing content is to provide a service or
a function for the reader.
• Writing has 3 functions:
▫ To Inform: Gives the reader insight of something that
he/she may not be aware of or may desire to know.
▫ To Interpret: Puts words into
content the reader can understand.
▫ To entertain: Provides content to
capture the readers attention.

5. Evolution of Content Writing
New media (internet, intranet, mobile, apps,) and a new
focus on digital media continues to evolve content writing.
Traditional elements of
successful writing
Added elements for successful
writing
• Strong reader focus
• Clear and concise
• Clean grammar and spelling
• Strong organization
• Appropriate tone
• Visual appeal
• Benefits

6. The 9 Great Practices for
Writing Content
1. Write with the reader’s end-goal in mind.
2. Write clear, concise headlines and sub-headlines.
3. Write a relevant first paragraph.
4. Write in active voice.
5. Make your content eye-scannable.
6. Make your content searchable.
7. Use hyperlinks to cross-reference
related content.
8. Encourage a culture of
editing to produce error
free content.
9. Use pre-publication check list.

7. Write with the reader’s end-goal in mind.
When writing content, consider your audience.
• What are they looking for?
• What knowledge do you
have that your readers want?
• Why should they be
interested in what you
have to share?
• What are the demographics?
Practice #1
Image from www.business2community.com/

8. Write clear, concise headlines and
sub-headlines.
• These are the first words your
reader will view.
• They will decide from the
headings to continue to read or
not.
• Your headlines and sub-headlines
should follow a hierarchy and
contain keywords.
• A good headline using keywords
will also help with relevant search
results.
CEO, Itup Shares Ideas on LEAN
Improvement
Dr. Mark Itup shares his ideas on LEAN improvement
at the March All-Team Meeting. He announces 5 new
strategic plans and explains how employees can
contribute to the five initiatives…
Read More >>
Practice #2
“Old” Intranet to goes away
July 1st will usher in the final transitional changes
from the old intranet to the new. The previously used
intranet will be disabled and all information and links
will be found on the new intranet or on computer
desktops. …

9. Write a relevant first paragraph.
Traditionally taught to write in a pyramid format.
Practice #3
• Introduction of a topic or
purpose for the content
• Details often provided 2 to 5
outlined and supporting
descriptive detail paragraphs
• A Conclusion paragraph or
summary of what was in
previous paragraphs
Introduction
Details
Conclusion

10. Make your content relevant with an Inverted Pyramid.
• Use the inverted pyramid style.
• List all relevant information up
front and visible upon the initial
view without scrolling.
• Get straight to the point instead
of burying it in paragraphs of text.
• Categorize to the users’ needs,
not by departmental organization or hierarchy.
• A good guide to your first paragraph is to answer these questions:
▫ What is this content all about?
▫ Why should the intranet user keep reading?
Headline
5 W’s
Important Facts
and Details
Less Important
Facts and Details
Least Important
THE LEAD
EDIT
Who? (person, place, or thing)
What? (verb statement)
When? (time of event or action)
Where? (place of event or action)
Why? (reason behind the what)
How? (facts and details)
The Inverted Pyramid

11. Don’t be passive. Write in a active voice.
• Write the way you would talk in a meeting.
▫ Relaxed and yet business minded
▫ Avoid jargon and fluff
▫ Be welcoming in your approach
• Keep it brief.
Your content should be only as long as it needs to be.
▫ Omit non-essential words
▫ Remove jargon/fluff
▫ Keep your sentences and paragraphs short
▫ Use one idea per paragraph
▫ Readers scan text rather than reading the whole screen
Practice #4

12. What is an Active Voice?
An active voice is when the subject of a
sentence/statement does the action to an
agent/object.
• Ex: The chef created the cafeteria menu.
▫ The Chef is the subject
▫ The action is he created
▫ The cafeteria menu is
the agent/object.
Active vs Passive Voice

13. What is a Passive Voice?
A passive voice is when a agent/object a
sentence/statement.
•Ex: The cafeteria menu must have been created by a
chef.
•Passive sentences use permissive and softer words
in combination with actions.
▫ Must have, should have, could have, may have, would
have…
▫ Was eaten, were typed, have been, has been
Active vs Passive Voice

14. Practice #5
• Readers have short focus when reading on a
computer screen or on a mobile device.
• Nielsen Norman Group Web Content Reader Tracking
study revealed readers’ usually read in an
F-Shape pattern.
– Has three components:
• Horizontal movement
• Second horizontal movement
• Vertical movement
Make content eye-scannable.

15. What does the F-Shape pattern look like?
Nielsen Norman Group Web Content Reader Tracking

16. Practice #6
What does searchable mean?
• It is the use of keywords or tags that help a users find content on the
Internet and Intranet.
• Adding keywords or tags to your content will trigger crawlers in the
search engine to find your content.
• Google, Yahoo, Bing, , Drupal,
WordPress, SharePoint all use crawlers
to find content. This is called
Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Make content searchable.

17. How do Search Engines work?
The Search
Engine sends
programs called
spiders (or bots)
from its Intranet
server to crawl
the Intranet.
When a spider finds a page on
your site, (often via a link from
another site or a word search),
it collects information from
the HTML tags hidden behind
the content and on the
content of the page.
Then, the spider follows the
internal links on your site
and repeats the indexing
process for the other pages
on your site.
SEO – Keywords & Tags

18. Using keywords and tags to make your content
searchable.
• Sprinkle keywords and phrases throughout your headlines, sub-
headlines, and paragraphs.
• Anticipate words and phrases your readers are looking for.
• Tag your content.
• Making scanning of content simpler for the user by using sub-
heads, bullet points and captions.
• Provide keyword-type links within your content that takes the
user to related content or pages.
• Use tables and lists when possible or relevant.
SEO – Keywords & Tags

19. Practice #7
Use hyperlinks to cross-reference
related content.
Research suggests that the reader is more visually drawn to a link when it is
embedded in “Call to Action” phrases.
• Create hyperlinks to guide your readers to where they can learn more about an
important related topic.
• Don’t hyperlink and entire sentence.
• Don’t hyperlink entire statements that say “Click here to view the document.” Or
read how we are improving.” Only link the Call to Action phrase.
• Example: Click here to view the document.
• Use Call to Action phrases as the end of content or paragraphs.
Learn more >>
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Financial Expenditures (xls)
Safety Metrics (pdf)
Holiday Party (jpg)
Letter Template (doc)

20. Practice #8
Encourage a culture of editing to produce error
free content.
You want to remain creditable to your reader by keeping accurate,
grammar correct, and up to date information.
• Don’t commit
• Check, check and double check your content.
• Use peer editing to check for grammar errors or accuracy of facts.
• Use tools such as spell check or grammar check to catch common
writing errors.
• Keep your content up to date and accurate.
• Follow Associated Press Stylebook guidelines for writing as a
resource for grammar, punctuation and spelling.

21. Practice #9
Use pre-publication check list.
Organization
 Did I organize my content to accommodate the reader’s time?
 Did I organize my content to provide the reader with what they need
or want?
 Did I use a pyramid or inverted pyramid method to organize my content?
Marketing
Business Units
Community
Outreach
Digital
Communications
Etc.
Resources
Templates
Library
IEHP Art Library
Standards
Manual
Calendar

22. Practice #9
Use pre-publication check list.
Sentences
 Did I use a variety of sentence lengths?
 Do my sentences exceed 15-18 words?
 Do my sentences require more than four punctuations?
 Did I use lists of more than three items in a sentence?
Did I convey good news in shorter sentences and bad news in longer
sentences?
Paragraphs
 Are my paragraphs longer than five lines?
 Are my opening or closing paragraphs less than two lines?
 Are my paragraphs equal in length?

23. Pre-publication check list.
Appearance
 Does my content have too much white space in any given area? (60%
content/40% white space)
 Is the font I used legible to a reader?
 Did I use boldface, underlines, CAPITALS, or italics appropriately?
Tone
 Does my tone convey my meaning?
 Is there anything in the tone of my content that can be misconstrued by the
reader?
 Does my tone seem formal, semi-formal, or informal?
Voice
 Is my content written in an Active voice or a Passive voice?
 Does my content portray my mood?
 Do I need to change any words to change the attitude of my content?
 Will I get the response I desire from the reader?

24. Pre-publication check list.
Grammar and Spelling
 Is my content clean of spelling and grammar errors?
 Did I place my punctuation in the right places?
 Did I space my words appropriately, not with double spacing?
Keywords and Tags
 Did I use keywords or tags in my content that makes it searchable?
QUICK TIPS
When you don’t know what to write
• Step back, take a walk, breathe
• Come back to it later
• Brainstorm with others