Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Editing for the Web, Megan Perras


This Edmonton Journal Article by Sandra Sperounes on Lady Gaga follows most of the rules of writing news for the internet.

There are three pictures to catch reader's interest at the top of the article, bringing a visual element to the web story.

The headline contains the name of the artist (Lady Gaga) as well as Edmonton, which would be caught by search engines when people typed in those phrases, yet aside from perhaps being a little too long, the headline still captures interest in the article.

The article is written in short one to three sentence paragraphs, to enable an easier read. It also is written in the inverted pyramid style so that the readers can get the most pertinent information first.

The story is short and succinct and offers factual information as well as opinion, such as her concert dates, and the writer's opinion that she is becoming "a more outrageous version of Madonna."

The article is around 280 words long, which according to D'arcy Kavanagh, is even slightly too long for web news. In his opinion, articles should be no longer than 250 words unless there are visuals or links to break it up.

There are many choices on the web page to link to other articles (written by the same news organization, as well as others on the web) on Lady Gaga.

One may also be interactive with the news article by commenting on what they have read. This also fosters interest from web readers.

They can also link to other entertainment articles and videos of interviews from the page.

Instead of including a summary at the top of the article, the Edmonton Journal employs clear and catching headlines.

There is no use of lists, which would may have worked better for the reader when the concert dates and places were being given.

Image from: http://bpstainton.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/lady-gaga-20080913-4547632.jpg

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