A newspaper office in 1955 with journalists sitting at their typewriters or on the phone. — This journalist would notice similarities in how we write for the web and how he was writing for his newspaper here in 1955 © Historic England. AA101428. Photographed by John Gay in 1955

This journalist would notice similarities in how we write for the web and how he was writing for his newspaper here in 1955 © Historic England. AA101428. Photographed by John Gay in 1955

Writing for the Web

Here are some quick tips to help you when writing content for the Historic England website.

Contents

Before you start writing
Write for your audience, not yourself
Be clear and concise
Check for readability
Help people to scan your page
Follow our brand guidelines
Why write differently for the web?

Learn more

Style Guide for Historic England's Website

Find the few exceptions where our style for the Historic England website differs from the house style in Historic England's brand guidelines.
Titles and Subheadings

How to write page titles and subheadings that will get your content noticed and engage your audiences.
Summary and Description

Want people to read your web page? Use your page description to get people to your page. It's then your summary's job to get them reading.

Before you start writing

Decide what you want people to think, feel or do as a result of reading your page.

When you know what you're trying to achieve, plan your web page structure. You'll need to put the most important bits at the start.

Write for your audience, not yourself

Get straight to the point
Use the words your readers would use
People are task focused - help them do what they came for as quickly as possible
Think about what they might want to do next and include links that help them to do it

A family huddled round the grandmother to read cards she is holding at a family gathering.

Who's going to read what you're writing? Imagine how and why they've come to your page and where they'll want to go next. Use the language they would use © Historic England. AA088420. Photographed by John Gay around 1955-1966

Be clear and concise

Keep sentences short - aim for around 20 words long, but vary the sentence length. Gary Provost's example below shows how you can use sentence length to make text more dynamic and compelling

This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety.

Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important.”

Gary Provost, writer and writing instructor

Avoid jargon. Write in plain English and explain any technical terms you need to use
Avoid the passive voice where possible. Use the active voice instead
For example:
Passive: Applications will be processed within a month
Active: We'll process applications within a month
Passive: Gutters and drains need to be checked regularly
Active: You need to check gutters and drains regularly
Avoid adverbs. Use more vivid verbs, for example:
'He walked slowly along the shore' could be 'He strolled along the shore'
Avoid nominalization
'We had a discussion about the plan' could be 'We discussed the plan'
'We'll conduct an investigation' could be 'We'll investigate'
Avoid adjectives that don't add information, like 'a complete stop' or 'a specialist metal conservation company' or 'real change'

Use the Hemingway Editor to spot the long sentences, passive voice and adverbs that are lurking in your copy.

Check for readability

There are tools that measure how easy text is to read. We use the Flesch-Kincaid readability score that's available in Microsoft Word. Aim for a minimum score of 50.

How to test readability in Microsoft Word

Help people to scan your page

People scan the text on web pages, so:

Break text into paragraphs of just one or two sentences
Use bullets and subheadings to help them see at a glance what's on your page

Follow our brand guidelines

Tone of voice

How we speak varies to fit the audience we want to reach but overall our tone of voice is:

Simple and accessible
Technical at times but always passionate
Aiming to inspire:
Commitment | Belonging | Fascination | Inspiration | Intrigue | Passion | Nostalgia | Pride | Joy | Awe

More about tone of voice

House style

Any content you supply for publication on the website will be reviewed and amended to fit our house style. Please refer to our style guides:

Why write differently for the web?

When we go online, we tend to be:

In a hurry and less patient
Scanning rather than reading
Reading more slowly because it’s harder to read text on a screen than on paper
Dealing with additional challenges of reading on smaller devices, in places and situations where there are distractions