Phrases to avoid on the web
During my time as a web content editor at St Andrews, I have picked up on certain phrases that are used frequently on our website that should actually be avoided where possible. These phrases are often unnecessary or…
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How do you write for different audiences?
When a website only has one audience, it is easy to understand and cater for user needs. More often than not, though, websites have multiple audiences, and you need to communicate very similar information in different…
House style updates
We periodically review the University’s house style to make sure that it continues to meet user needs and best practice. Recently, we made a few changes to clarify some of the entries and to bring us more in line with…
Plain English for the web
When writing for the web, use plain English to make your content easy to read by all users. Plain English will also help your page rank higher in search engine results.
Capitalising job titles: an update to University house style
For those familiar with the University house style, you will know that the digital communications team advises against the unnecessary use of capital letters on web pages. This includes the capitalisation of page…
Common content mistakes – revisited
We’ve previously written about common content mistakes made on the web, but we thought it would be a good idea to provide an updated list. Below is a list of common mistakes our team sees coordinators make on a regular…
Why to avoid marketese on the web
Marketese is a writing style which favours promotional, self-congratulatory and boastful language over technical and objective wording. At the University of St Andrews, we aim to avoid using marketese on the web at all…
Featured events criteria
The new events website allows us to highlight five events. On the events homepage, there is a large hero banner to showcase one event, and in the ‘Featured events’ section there are smaller boxes to showcase four…
What St Andrews web editors do when we’re not writing
This post was inspired by the Scottish Government blog post, What content designers do when they’re not writing. At St Andrews, web content editors create and maintain content on the University’s externally facing…
Writing long-forms as a team
As you may already know, the digital communications team have recently redeveloped the University’s research webpages. Alongside a new homepage, the research showcase page highlights the range of research taking place…