While my workshops focus on publishing your materials in books, magazines and newspapers, I sometimes get the question: how does writing "online" differ?

Print journalists focus on the pyramid article structure. The first paragraph contains: "who, when, where, why, how, what." Details come next, with the final paragraph being the least important.

With online writing, your material is dispersed throughout your article, with the most interesting or catchy items being at the beginning.  Often, the online reader is tempted to read only the first sentence, so it is important to pack it with "wow" information.

Academic writing (or writing a thesis) is all about letting your readers see your sources. When writing online, the readers generally will not use your piece to study the subject, or compare it to others; therefore, there is no need to outline your entire article or list/or/link to a lot of sources. Get to the topic and explain in commonplace verbage.

Your lead should point out the benefits as to why the reader should continue reading the whole article. (versus listing what the article is about in the 5 WWWWH).

An example of online news writing is: "A woman was surprised at the bank ATM last night when a cat grabbed her $50 bill and ran away." Online readers do not need to hear her name or age, or type of cat, or the bank's location or name until later in the article.)

Helpful, and often found in online writing are: subheadings, short sentences, short paragraphs, outlines.  Paragraphs are often one sentence long. Web readers do not like big chunks of information, but tend to glance through the information to find what they are looking for. And, do not forget the active verb structures and tone. Web readers, like the word "surfing" insinuates, expect short, informative articles that allow them to move on quickly.

But the one thing you do for all articles: use great writing that ends up with a useful conclusion, and make the reader glad they read your article.  

<This was the key-article in the free monthly "writing tips and reviews" quarterly newsletter issued by Spring Time Writers.com 4/10>