Writing for the web
Clear content is the core of any effective website. When content is done well, your readers understand the value of your services, and how to engage with your organisation. But communicating through web content has unique requirements, from meeting accessibility obligations, to designing navigation.
This course gives you the skills and confidence to master these requirements. Learn how to shift from writing for policy, program and media formats to writing for the web. You’ll also learn how to get your stakeholders on board with your approach by championing clear and accessible online communication.
In this course, you’ll tap into True North Content’s decades of experience delivering web projects for government, peak bodies and the private sector. We’ll tailor this course for your organisation with practical exercises created specifically for the work you do.
You’ll come away not just knowing the best practice – you’ll see how to apply it in your work.
- Up to 10 participants
- 4 hours or 2 x 2 hours
- In person or live online
- We are on the Australian Government Plain English Training Panel
What you'll learn
- Creating content that achieves your goals and meets user needs
- How web content is fundamentally different to print and other channels
- How accessibility and inclusion underpin good web content
- Structuring your content for easy navigation
- Using clear language
- Being concise
This course is for:
- Anyone who creates or reviews web content as part of their job
- Designers and developers who want to build their understanding of web content
Ask us about this course
Course outline
Why clear writing matters
- Being of service
- Being effective
- Meeting legal responsibilities
How people read online
- Understanding your audience
- Search engine optimisation and online browsing behaviours
- Scanning
- Viewing on mobile devices
- What makes content engaging
Accessibility and inclusion
- Inclusive language
- Alt-text and image use
- Accessible PDFs
Planning content
- Knowing your business purpose
- Knowing your audience
- Planning the user journey
Structure
- Chunking information
- Frontloading information
- Headings
- Lists
- Links
Language
- Readability
- Jargon and word choice
- Being concise
Duration
This course typically takes 4 hours (in person in Canberra or Sydney at your office) or we can deliver it as 2 x 2 hour sessions (in person in Canberra or online).
Participant numbers
We can deliver this course for groups of up to 10 people at a time. If you’d like to train more people than this, talk to us. We can either run another session, or bring in a co-facilitator to ensure everyone gets personalised feedback.
How we engage participants
This course uses a combination of:
- small group discussions (breakouts)
- collaboration tools (such as whiteboards and polls)
- workbooks.
To engage participants, we:
- challenge negative preconceptions about their abilities as writers
- share stories to illustrate application of key concepts
- model good practice
- encourage participants to provide their own stories and examples.
We also conduct thoughtful and considered de-briefs to allow learners to reflect on the activity and their application of the new learning and establish linkages to existing skills and knowledge.
Course materials
For in-person training, we can arrange printing materials, or provide the files for you to print in-house.
We prefer using printed workbooks as this allows participants to focus on the content with fewer distractions, such as laptops.
How we tailor this course
Discovery
To tailor this course, we'll meet with you to understand in detail both your work environment and the content ecosystem you work in. We’re interested in your broader goals and how lifting writing capability supports these goals.
We'll seek to understand what:
- you want to achieve through this training
- types of communications you write
- audiences you write for
- specific issues we can overcome.
We’ll uncover context, including:
- participants’ existing knowledge and confidence in writing
- participants’ roles and functions
- templates and writing style guides you must follow
- examples and case studies we can use in the training.
We’ll do this through:
- an initial orientation conversation
- desk research, including review of the source content.
Course content design
We take your needs and using our extensive experience delivering writing training, tailor this course. We have training modules we’ve tested, but we customise the material for each client. We’re very comfortable including examples and exercises tailored to your work.
We’ll do this through:
- presenting an initial outline for feedback
- developing full course materials for feedback, including presentation deck and workbooks.
- iterating on the above to meet your requirements, based on your feedback, and feedback from participants at the end of each session.
Validation
We share the materials and outline with you to make sure it’s aligned to what you need.
Trainer
The training is delivered by one of our senior team members — many of us have more than 20 years’ experience in writing, editing and digital content.
Evaluation
We check back in to assess what worked, and share what we heard from your team members.
Prerequisites
How this course aligns with government standards
This course was designed with the needs of the APS (Australian Public Service) in mind.
It’s informed by:
- the DTA Digital Service Standard
- the APS learning design standards for digital
- the SFIA digital skills and competency framework.
We also refer to the Australian Government Style Manual.
Combine training with our other offerings:
Training + coaching
We train you then check in with you during 1:1 or small group coaching sessions
Training + pilot writing
We teach you then run through applying what you learned to selected content.
Your trainers
Sandra Muller
With more than 25 years’ experience in online engagement, Sandra specialises in delivering user-centred content strategies and content production projects for organisations operating in complex environments. Her expertise spans information architecture design, content design, content governance and enterprise content management. She has worked within government and as a consultant to government.
As a plain English specialist, she creates accessible content for diverse audiences and enjoys training others to make communications easier to understand.
Dr Louise Merrington AE
Louise is a writer and IPEd Accredited Editor specialising in plain English for government, peak bodies and non-profit organisations. With a PhD and over 20 years of publishing experience, she combines high-level analytical and research skills with a strong knowledge of language and written communications.
Louise has more than 10 years of in-house and freelance editing experience. She is a member of the Standards Australia Plain Language Working Group and the IPEd Accreditation Board.
What our clients say
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Tailor this course
We can tailor this course based on your needs, with examples relevant to your organisation. Let us know what you need from this training.
Let us know what you need from your training. We’ll tailor a session or a full program based on your needs, with examples relevant to you.