L.E.P Mapping Locations

I have mapped four articles from an edition of the Lancashire Evening Post on Friday, November 6, 2009. This shows the variety of locations in which news items occur in one day.

View LEP Article Map in a larger map

How to Shine - Writing for Online.

Recent reading material from Paul Bradshaw and Yackob Nielsen has helped me see the differences between writing for online and writing for newspapers. People read words on a page completely differently to reading them on a screen, which means those who write the words need to take this into consideration.

According to Bradshaw, computer screens have a much lower resolution than in newspapers. "72 dots in every square inch, compared to around 150-300 in newspapers and magazines", he points out. In other words, its harder and takes longer to read words on a screen, therefore we need to communicate in less time. Online journalists need to develop Brevity.

Bradshaw points out articles should be of shorter length, using chunking where necessary, and have succint paragraphs, sticking to one concept in each paragraph.

Nielsen, who specifically focusses his article on writing headlines, points out that the BBC website is spot on and follows SURFP rules;
Short
Understandable out of Context
Rich in information scent
Front-loaded
Predictable

So there it is, quick tips from the experts on how to shine - online.