Improve Your Communication Skills, 2nd Edition

Cues for action: a few ideas 
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164 Improve your Communication Skills
Making it brief 
Once you have made your web pages scannable and objective, 
you need to make them brief. Work at three levels: paragraph, 
sentence and word. 
Keep a complete piece of text within one screen. Summarise, 
create short paragraphs of no more than about 100 words, and 
use topic sentences – maybe in bold – at the start of each 
paragraph, to act as scannable summaries. 
Use lists wherever you can. They can of course be lists of 
hyperlinks to help readers navigate more easily. 
Sentence construction is as important as sentence length. 
Make sure that your sentences are as simple as you can make 
them: avoid complicated clusters of ideas, passive verbs, and 
redundant expressions. Generally, try to keep your sentence 
length to no more than 25 words or about two lines of text. 
Always write in standard plain English. You’re writing for a 
global audience. Avoid marketing hype, promotional jargon and 
the language of advertising. 
Hyperlinks: some wording ideas 
Plants in myth and folklore 
Discover some of the world’s strangest tales about trees 
and flowers 
Eco-engineering 
How technology can help and hinder conservation