Pack Prints

Arkansas State University

Website and Weblog Design Guide

As the internet grew and began to offer more and more information, more and more scholars were seemingly united in skepticism about electronic writing due to both its democratic nature, which was associated with a lack of rigor, as well as the new ways authors could incorporate non-standard texts, such as music, and art, into their composition. Though visual and aural rhetorics existed, they were not as developed nor as pervasive as they are now, when being a responsible citizen, consumer, and rhetor requires an awareness of the rhetorics of multimodality.

I will write about writing for websites and blogs under the larger rubric of electronic writing, but quickly I want to discuss the similarities and differences between the two forms of internet publishing. Something that jumps to mind automatically is that a blog is a form of website, though websites tend to be more static, or less regularly updated.

This might seem like a minor distinction, but it is actually key to ensuring you make your goals and purpose clear to yourself, your team, and your instructor. You might decide to make a blog part of your website; a blog would be a great way to record your progress and the milestones you hit along the way. But the website will house more than just the blog, and will probably include outside research and sources from professional affiliations that help inform and reinforce your argument. The language you use on your blog will probably be less formal than the language you use on your website, as it reflects your own personal story in relation to acquiring and developing your thoughts on the topic at hand.

Even with different degrees of formality and focus, effective websites and blogs will share many of the same characteristics. To make sure that your website or blog is most effective, appeals to the broadest audience, and communicates your ideas most clearly:

Develop a title that not only expresses your argument clearly, but where you stand on it.
Use concise language and avoid disciplinary jargon. This might seem contradictory, but remember that you are communicating not only to experts but also to lay people who might not have access to or fluency in that particular discourse.
The three-click rule is a guide but not a law when designing the layout of your content.
Each page on the website should be its own distinct piece of the argument. In other words, while the page may call back to other pieces of your argument, and may even directly interact with these pieces, it should also stand on its own.
A clean design will make your organization clear.
Include links to appropriate experts in the field to bolster your argument.
Use color and font to draw readers in without overwhelming them.