OVC increasingly uses the Web as a publishing tool. This section
walks you through the basic principles of creating electronic publicationsalso
called e-pubs or e-only documentsintended for distribution
exclusively on the Web.
How To Build a Web-Only Document
Writing for the Web differs from writing for print media, but
not so much in the writing itself. The difference lies in how
you, as the author, conceive and present the information.
E-pubs require that content be organized
compartmentally rather than linearly. That is, the information on any one page must
be fully understandable to readers who land on the page without
having viewed previous pages in your document.
Rachel McAlpine, author of Web Word Wizardry, explains
it this way:
The Web is not like a library of books and magazines. It is
like hundreds of millions of separate pages blowing around
the streets. People pick up one, then another, then anotherand
each page can come from a different source. . . . Therefore,
the text of every Web page should be self-explanatory and
make sense all by itself. 1
Principles of Effective Web Writing
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