Paper Style/Web Style

I agree with Prof. Krause's analogy about style guides:

SpiderPro is to Strunk and White as Horton and Lynch is to Williams.

Both of these style guides for the web offer a lot of advice as to how to create and perfect a professional website. While the SpiderPro list is slightly more "user-friendly" in their explanation and layout, both manuals can be used to gain sufficient information fairly easily.

After reading through the guides, I began to think about how much web style is a lot like a writing style. Take, for example, the rules about content from the Spiderpro guide: know your audience, don't use meaningless words, don't use jargon, present the issues right away. All of these topics also pertain to a written essay. I feel like as far as content is concerned, if you wouldn't put it in a written document, then it probably shouldn't be any different for a website.

Another similarily in writing style and web style is the "before you begin" process. In essay writing, pre-writing or "brainstorming" is essential. Even a rough outline helps develop ideas and connect thoughts. In web style, I was happy to see that a process like that also occurs. The Horton and Lynch guide offers the following things to think about before beginning the web project: What are your goals? Know your audience. Design critiques. Content inventory. These basic steps to prethinking in web design have the same purpose in essay writing as well.

Personally, when I was thinking about what differences occur between writing style and web style, the first thing that jumped into my head was the use of color and text variance. I think visually, a web style can really be poignant and effective. By the same token, a web creator must be careful not to overuse too many fonts or sizes or colors. While the option of adding a graphic or shading a background is available for the web, it sometimes can hurt the overall effect of the project if it's not done well. While 12-pt. Times New Roman can sometimes be dismal and plain, it's at least consistent in written writing, which may be an advantage in this case.