Readability on the Internet

It never ceases to amaze me how people can spend thousands upon thousands of dollars for a Web site and end up with a creation fraught with spelling errors, typos, grammatical errors, and paragraphs that run longer than War and Peace.

One might expect to find such problems on personal Web sites, but those same problems are just as common on corporate Web sites. Such mistakes reflect poorly on the company, detracting from the image the site might otherwise create.

Before I continue, let me apologize to those who use a language other than English. The only two languages I speak, read, or write are English and HTML; therefore this column deals strictly with English.

I tried learning Spanish once in college, but I drove the teacher to retirement after the first semester, so I transferred to a basketball class where the expression, "Creek, you couldn't guard a fence post," probably still echoes today.

The Solutions

Rather than wait until the end to provide the solutions to these problems, I will provide some up front. One is to use spelling and grammar checkers, such as those that come with Microsoft Word. The other is to have more than one person proofread the copy.

Sadly, most HTML editors come up short regarding spell checkers, and finding grammar checkers on such programs is virtually impossible.

Rather than toy with a company's image, it is easier and better to write copy in an editor that has those features, then import or copy and paste the text into an HTML editor. The only task then remaining to ensure clean copy is to pay attention to the HTML markup.

In addition to spelling and grammar checking, all copy should be read by at least two people. Why do both types of checking? That is because spell checking only checks spelling, which means it can allow words incorrectly used to go undetected as long as they are properly spelled.

What Are Some Of The Common Mistakes?

Two of the most frequent errors are run-on sentences and paragraphs that seemingly never end. Both of those mistakes can often contribute to the difficulty in reading material on the Web.

Run-on sentences are simply two independent clauses (meaning either could be a sentence by itself) that run together without connecting words or punctuation. An example: Our product is great it is the best on the market. Just the sound of the sentence tells you something is wrong.

Correctly written, that phrase would have been either two separate sentences or contained punctuation (such as a semi- colon) or connecting words.

Examples of these uses are: Our product is great; it is the best on the market. Our product is great and is the best on the market. Our product is great, and it is the best on the market.

We are taught from the beginning that paragraphs include related subject matter, and that is technically correct. However, differences exist on the Internet. The reason is that the printed word can become confusing and difficult to follow when it is extended beyond a reasonable number of lines on the Internet.

Because of the screen width, reading on the Internet involves a wide area for the eye to scan, and it can become difficult to keep one's place within a long paragraph.

Therefore, it is best to break those paragraphs into two or three shorter paragraphs to help the readers. A general guideline is to have no more than 45-50 words per paragraph.

Another factor is the screen width for which the text was prepared. While it is true that most monitors can display 800 pixels in width, many do not go beyond 640 pixels.

If text is written for 800 pixels, displaying it on a 640-pixel wide monitor can create a situation where the reader must continually scroll to the side to read the copy. Clearly, that is not conducive to easy reading, and can turn away some readers in a flash.

Watch These Words - Page 2