There’s a great new article on A List Apart (for people who make websites) this week called Evolving Client Content – Content management systems (CMS) are only as good as the content they manage. The article is insightful and points to a wise and most likely a physically attractive author.
It is possible that I may have written said article.
…
I’m afraid my sarcasm is neither funny nor is it an effective mask for my excitement. I am very pleased to have my first article published and I am glad to be a part of A List Apart.
Congratulations Steve.
Congrats Steve…. I think i even understood it..
PS. Have you defragged lately??
Good stuff, dude.
I’m sure that in no time it’ll be a healthy source of hits (That’s what its all about right, hits?). The way Red Robot was. Curiously, Alison’s link has gotten us a significant amount of hits too. Thanks!
Big Ups. Huge.
And on the topic of writing, if any of you see Matt Dorrell doing anything but writing over the next three days it is your obligation to say, “Hey, aren’t you supposed to be writing!” (with exclimation)
Thank you.
well done Steve, there are some good replies to it on alistapart as well…
Steve–
A good read. I am a technical writer who has spent six years fighting the battle for well-written information throughout the industry. In my view, “content” is the number one weakness on the Internet. There are hundreds of sites out there who have spent thousands on developing a flashy site, but who have content that is juvenile, sloppy, useless, or banal. It’s just like in Hollywood, where they produce movies like Titanic that spent 50 million dollars on special effects and 29 cents on the story.
The fact is, very few people in the business/professional world care much about the written word. What’s funny is that most of these people are educated but don’t understand the value of taking the time to produce decently written documents. I’m not talking about aesthetic beauty, either. Most of these boneheads think that writing is easy work for writers, and that it is something that a writer does naturally, quickly, and easily. I like to compare writing prose to writing computer code: you never start without understanding and planning based on your purpose; once you finish you need to unit test it (i.e., look it over and fix it); and (ideally) send it to an external test team (ideally, another writer or editor) to check it. And the process needs to be repeated until you get the end product right.
When something is well-written, people appreciate what they are reading but they don’t really know why. They just like it. The fact is, that the nature of well-written documents is that the writer has THOUGHT about what they want to say, and they UNDERSTAND their subject. Therefore, the document is easy to read, understandable, and (excuse the use of this overused word) elegant. Bad writing is the product of muddled or lazy thinking, or (usually) both.
Thanks Rick. Excellent post. I particularly agree with your statement that:
Your comments remind me of an essay by George Orwell called Politics and the English Language in which Orwell states that “The great enemy of clear language is insincerity.”
As I said in an earlier post, if you do any writing, professionally or personally, you must read Politics and the English Language.