The Editor’s Role in Crafting andExploiting Internet Communications

ENC 4212, Professional & Technical EditingWeek 6 Lecture • Fall 2015

USF Sarasota-ManateeLength of this lecture audio (14 slides): 00:43:03

Jot down the three audio codes and their slide numbers and send those with the Week 7 and 8 codes when you submit Assignment 3 by 6 p.m. on Oct. 19, 2015.

© 2015 by T. E. Roberts, Instructor

Source of background image: www.insidetech.com

ENC 4212, Professional & Technical Editing • Fall 2015 • Week 6 Lecture • Slide 2 of 14

Week 6 Agenda

• Some facts about online communications

• How the web differs from traditional media

• Editors wear several hats

• Working with web producers/designers

• Longman Guide to Technical Editing,Chapter 19

• How will the internet affect your career?

• Assignment 3 introduction

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Some Facts About Online Communications

• Fastest growth is in Africa, Middle East, and Latin America

• Highest population penetration is in North America (86.9%)

• Largest user base in absolute terms is in Asia (1.405 billon)

• Penetration worldwide = 42.4% (3.079 billion users)

Source: http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

ENC 4212, Professional & Technical Editing • Fall 2015 • Week 6 Lecture • Slide 4 of 14

How the Web Differs From Traditional Media• Mixed media

• Text (body copy, headings, labels, navigation)• Static images• Moving images (video)• Sound (e.g, spoken word, music, and audio effects)• Interactivity (social media, peer-to-peer, simultaneity, sophisticated gaming technology)• Fixed and mobile platforms

• Much faster pace than traditional English linear left-to-right, line-by-line, column-by-column verbal comprehension (“reading”)

• For reports on e-book publishing, see these links:• http://www.todroberts.com/USF/E-Book_Evolution.pdf (from 2010)• http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/01/the-ebook-is-dead-long-live-print-digital-sales

(from 2015)

• Does technology dominate purpose?• Does the web encourage Attention Deficit Disorder?• Does it diminish the role of analytical, verbal intellect?

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Editors Wear Several Hats• Must understand, at least superficially, the underlying technology

• Networking• Display languages (HTML, XML, SGML, etc.)• Client side / server side• Web browser strengths and limitations• Graphic design principles and prohibitions• Impact of hardware speed and processing method• Mobile versus stationary access and use• Personal vs. commercial or professional use

• One name for “editing” in this world is “content management”• Implementation and quality standards are still in flux -- transition from print-thinking to web-

thinking varies in speed, complexity, and results• Attitudes toward electronic communications vary by age, gender, education, geography,

and income class• Does technology drive usability or vice versa?

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Working With Web Producers/Designers

• User specifications• What does the client/reader/viewer/user need?

• How do you measure “success” of web communications?

• How do you hit a fast-moving target?

• Functional specifications• Technologia gratia technologiae -- “technology for technology’s sake”

• Hardware/software tools may have very short shelf life

• Should the editor be a wise oracle or just a wise ass?

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Chapter 19: Editing Websites

• Websites as content repositories and databases• Interlocking/interlinking pages

• Potentially millions of pages in one “site”

• Page design and user interface enable access for the user (compare TOC, index, head/subhead, header/footer in printed book)

• Pages may be static or semi-static (e.g., Wikipedia) or dynamic/interactive (e.g., OASIS)

• Editor must try to understand how the end user benefits (or suffers!) from these features

• Reading and searching online• Need for specific, immediate information or solutions is the typical user’s primary motivation

• Because user base may be difficult to define except for access-controlled content, traditional editorial decisions about how to serve users (level of sophistication, tone, vocabulary, intellect, and cultural or technical context) may be complex and even irrelevant

• Be careful when generalizing about, for example, “Facebook users” -- as of second quarter of 2015, 1.49 billion users (http://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/)

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Chapter 19 (cont.)

• Reading and searching online (continued)• Content must be available

• Search method must be transparent and reliable

• Text should fit in “screen-sized” portions to minimize need for scrolling (note how difficult this is for most academic creators, including your instructor in ENC 4212!)

• Some sites give users control over the way they access and use the contents

• Planning and developing websites• Editors help create “comprehensive document plan”

• Others providing input include content experts, designers, networking experts, clients, and a project manager

• The team defines the concept and specifications

• Templates and style guides save time, energy, and money

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Chapter 19 (cont.)• Making content work for readers

• Accuracy and completeness (example: layman’s website for information on diabetes, heart disease, and other health conditions)

• Traditional questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? So what?• For how-to directions, err on side of too much rather than too little information (easier to skip

what you know than do without altogether)• Beware of Assumptions: What’s obvious to you or your team may be unclear to the user• Embedded identification tags (key words) must be chosen carefully to help users and search

engines find the site on the huge World Wide Web• Organization

• Printed publication is structured by how the parts fit the whole• Online publication includes that plus web-specific organic/dynamic structure

• Home page• “Scan, select, and move-on” pages• “Scan and get information” pages• Forms pages• Site map

ENC 4212, Professional & Technical Editing • Fall 2015 • Week 6 Lecture • Slide 10 of 14

Chapter 19 (cont.)• Navigation and searching

• Main categories are in horizontally or vertically listed tabs or buttons

• Design should be simple, uncluttered, and intuitively obvious (not a showcase for fancy graphics)

Source: Longman Guide to Technical Editing, Figure 19.2 (page 254)

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Chapter 19 (cont.)• Screen design and color

• Effects of hardware and software on design choices• Legibility of type (key feature of ebook readers)• Visual consistency and simplicity

• Style• “Let go of the words”: many users find text hard to read on screen• Web users may depend more on images, video, or audio than written

words for meaning (varies by age, education, hardware capabilities, and technological savviness)

• Divide text into small chunks for easy digestion• For satirical comment on these trends, see the movie Idiocracy

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Chapter 19 (cont.)

Old versus New media ... From 1851 to 2015

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Chapter 19 (cont.)

• Usability testing and accessibility• Even the most experienced editor cannot anticipate all possible challenges or

problems with a website• Observing actual users in action (the same approach used with effective software

documentation and manuals) is essential• For taxpayer-funded websites (for example, Social Security Administration, USF, State

of Florida), the editor and web developer must accommodate user impairment (visual, cognitive, motor deficiencies) to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

• General principle: keep the site simple and uncluttered (see Jakob Nielsen, the guru of web usability: http://www.useit.com/)

• Maintenance and updates• Companies should (but sometimes don’t) budget the time and money needed for

regular checking, maintenance, and updating• Editors sometimes share this responsibility

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How Will the Internet Affect Your Career?

• Change is constant, rapid, and unpredictable

• The greater your skill, experience, and flexibility, the more opportunity you will find

• Don’t let the technology intimidate you -- even a technophobe can learn it!

• Editors and writers need to position themselves less as wordsmiths and more as professional communicators who provide clients and employers genuine demonstrable value -- HOW they do it will vary as technology, society, and the workplace continue to evolve.

• Despite preoccupation with technology, people who can think analytically and creatively and can express ideas clearly and simply will have more opportunities than others lacking those skills.

Source: http://www.cartoonbank.com

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Assignment 3

• Communications strategy• Consulting component: a common task for editors (about 500 words) --

advise management on communicating big message

• Mock-up / storyboard: useful tool for planning and implementing messages in various media

• Instructions are posted on course website

• If you want to change the scenario presented in the instructions, email me your thesis, outline, and basic sources by 6 p.m. on Sept. 30, 2015.

• Due by 6 p.m. on Oct. 19, 2015

• Will discuss in more detail next week