How often have you read online articles that annoyed you with poor grammar and other mistakes? How often do you arrive at a Web site that makes it difficult to scan the page to find what interests you? We all make mistakes in writing, but recurrent mistakes are a turn-off for some readers.

Considering there are millions of Web sites and hundreds covering the same topic, no one can afford to lose readers over such issues. Enter Writing for the Web: Geeks’ Edition to guide you through writing for the Web.

The book seems to be aimed at experienced Web designers who need help with content. According to the introduction, the book targets three groups:

* Strong writers with some technical skills
* Technically skilled people who write content
* Content developers for whom English is a second language

This is a broad audience, especially for a book that has “Geeks Edition” in its title. It offers common sense advice and much of the same strategies you’ll find in style books like Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style as well as the Web strategies in Jakob Nielsen’s Useit Web site.

Those who are comfortable with writing will not learn anything new. I think the book is best suited for writers with little experience and people getting ready to put up a Web site for the first time.

For that audience, the basics are covered. Kilian recommends that Web text follow three principles: orientation, information, and action. Simply put: make sure your site visitors know what the Web site is about, can find their way around, can understand and trust the information, and do what you want them to do while visiting. Again, this is all common sense, but often overlooked.

The book is a good reference, especially the list of troublemaker words. Too often, I’ve seen writers use “insure” when it should be “ensure” or “affect” for “effect” and vice versa. You’ll also find abbreviation descriptions and a list of Web clichés and expressions.

Kilian gives pointers on what makes a well-written Web site and what makes a bad one. You’ll recognize advice you heard repeatedly in grade school, such as avoiding passive voice and clichés. He mentions a few things that I learned the hard way on my own. One example is to never depend on your spell checker!

Writers for corporate Web sites may value the Corporate Writing chapter. These sites are a challenge because individuals or departments try to do their own thing on the Web site. In today’s environment, companies are rushing to get to the Web. Sometimes during the mad dash, they forget to consider the audience.

If you work on a smaller scale, there’s a chapter on Personal Pages, Resumes, and Self-Marketing. You’ll get ideas on how to present a Web-based resume or portfolio of your work.

Kilian includes exercises and case studies to help the new writer absorb and remember the material. He also provides many links to Web sites for information and reference.

This is a book about writing, so I give him credit for walking the walk. I’m a proponent for consistency. For example: “email” vs. “e-mail.” I’m not going to shoot anyone for selecting one over the other, but I expect a writer to choose one and use it consistently. I did catch the use of “snail mail” two different ways in the book (one word and two words). But his use of other Web terms remains consistent.

The book touches lightly upon a wide variety of topics. It’s good to see there are resources popping up in book format to help improve the writing out there on the Web. I hope in the near future we’ll see more in-depth books on this topic as the Internet matures.

If writing is not your forte or you’re just putting up your first Web site, then this book could help you be better prepared.

Title: Writing for the Web: Geeks’ Edition
Author: Crawford Kilian
Publisher: Self-Counsel Press
ISBN: 1551803038
Date: December 2000
Format: Paperback
Pages: 194
Cover Price: USD: $21.96 Amazon: $18.66

Using XHTML begins with the basics of what XHTML is and how it came to be. Holzschlag guides you from creating Web pages with XHTML to adding scripts and style to XHTML documents. She explains, “The best way to read the book will be determined by you!” Each chapter stands alone. It is organized as a resource for you to pick up and choose what you need.

Holzschlag is the executive editor of WebReview.com, an instructor and a Web designer. I subscribe to her WebReview newsletter and look forward to reading her opening in each issue. She applies the same readable style to her book.

The author makes sure she covers everything. While reading a section about formatting XHTML, I briefly disagreed with a statement. Less than a page later, she explained why the statement is not entirely true. I admit, I judged this book by the cover and thought it would focus solely on XHTML. Not so. There are references to SMIL, multimedia, visual design, stylesheets, and scripting. She also provides details on XHTML modularization and DTDs (Document Type Definition).

She is honest in her commentary about HTML and design issues. If you want to know why you should bother moving from HTML to XHTML, she tells you. Or why HTML is still going strong and why XHTML has not killed it. Yep, it’s there, too.

There are plenty of examples, screen shots, and step-by-step instructions to help you. If you’re like me and forget a few things about writing code, she is there to gently refresh your memory. Although the book qualifies as a genuine doorstopper, finding specific topics is not a chore with the thorough index and the single table of contents page.

This book targets intermediate-level users, but readers who are learning HTML will be able to use it. Holzschlag covers all the basics of file naming conventions, clean coding, and wireless programming, to name a few. In other words, she gives you much more than you ask for when you pick up this book. Special Edition Using XHTML is a welcome addition to a budding Web development library.

Title: Special Edition Using XHTML
Author: Molly Holzschlag
Publisher: Que
ISBN: 0789724316
Date: December 2000
Format: Paperback
Pages: 958
Cover Price: USD: $39.99 Amazon: $26.39