An Online Editing Job in Canada

An Online Editing Job in Canada
Just picked this up in my morning email: Editor / Curator Closing Date: August 10, 2007 Contract: Two to three days per week Location: Canada (virtual office) rabble.ca, Canada's leading alternative online news and analysis Web site, seeks a dynamic editorial curator to direct day-to-day operations, edit the site's features section and integrate multi-media and social media functions into the website on a daily basis. Responsibilities include assigning, editing and...

Just picked this up in my morning email:

Editor / Curator
Closing Date: August 10, 2007

Contract: Two to three days per week
Location: Canada (virtual office)

rabble.ca, Canada's leading alternative online news and analysis Web site, seeks a dynamic editorial curator to direct day-to-day operations, edit the site's features section and integrate multi-media and social media functions into the website on a daily basis.

Responsibilities include assigning, editing and posting stories, working with other editorial staff, planning
editorial calendar, image research, supervising editorial interns and volunteers, and some writing.

Candidates should have strong organizational skills, extensive editing experience, a demonstrated ability to
meet deadlines, a collaborative approach to teamwork, familiarity with Web editing, a creative approach to
working with limited financial resources, a knowledge of progressive politics and world affairs, combined with experience in progressive activism and a keen interest in the potential of Web 2.0 tools. At least three years experience in journalism or publishing, mainstream or alternative is required.

The editor works in a virtual office environment and can be based anywhere in Canada.

Please send cover letter, resume, references and a short writing sample outlining your vision for rabble.ca (one page max) by August 10th to rabble publisher Kim Elliott, jobs@rabble.ca. In the spirit of the virtual office, only electronic applications will be accepted. The subject line should read: rabble editor application.

Closing date for application: August 10, 2007
Start Date: early September 2007
Competitive remuneration rates

Please note: only candidates selected for an interview will be contacted.

rabble.ca is an employment equity employer.

Kim Elliott, Publisher
jobs@rabble.ca

Hazards of Online Writing
Via the New York Times: E-Mail Is Easy to Write (and to Misread). Much of the article applies, I suspect, to web text as well. Excerpt (but read the whole article and follow the links): The advantage of a phone call or a drop-by over e-mail is clearly greatest when there is trouble at hand. But there are ways in which e-mail may subtly encourage such trouble in the first...

Via the New York Times: E-Mail Is Easy to Write (and to Misread). Much of the article applies, I suspect, to web text as well. Excerpt (but read the whole article and follow the links):

The advantage of a phone call or a drop-by over e-mail is clearly greatest when there is trouble at hand. But there are ways in which e-mail may subtly encourage such trouble in the first place.

This is becoming more apparent with the emergence of social neuroscience, the study of what happens in the brains of people as they interact. New findings have uncovered a design flaw at the interface where the brain encounters a computer screen: there are no online channels for the multiple signals the brain uses to calibrate emotions.

Face-to-face interaction, by contrast, is information-rich. We interpret what people say to us not only from their tone and facial expressions, but also from their body language and pacing, as well as their synchronization with what we do and say.

Most crucially, the brain’s social circuitry mimics in our neurons what’s happening in the other person’s brain, keeping us on the same wavelength emotionally. This neural dance creates an instant rapport that arises from an enormous number of parallel information processors, all working instantaneously and out of our awareness.

In contrast to a phone call or talking in person, e-mail can be emotionally impoverished when it comes to nonverbal messages that add nuance and valence to our words. The typed words are denuded of the rich emotional context we convey in person or over the phone.

Commenting on a Commenter's Site
If you visit the Comments list, you'll see that someone going by "Juno 888" recently commented on Rottweilers, a post I made in the early days of this site. (All the other responses date back to 2003, so this really is ancient history. My post even includes a broken link to a 1996 article.) Juno 888 may well be right that my comments were pure drivel. Publish twenty books and...

If you visit the Comments list, you'll see that someone going by "Juno 888" recently commented on Rottweilers, a post I made in the early days of this site. (All the other responses date back to 2003, so this really is ancient history. My post even includes a broken link to a 1996 article.)

Juno 888 may well be right that my comments were pure drivel. Publish twenty books and a thousand articles (plus numberless blog posts), and your drivel content is likely to be fairly high.

But since the commenter had also listed their own URL, I visited it and found it technically interesting. I sent a fairly detailed critique in an email, but my message bounced; Juno888's address "has been disabled or discontinued."

What a shame. Maybe the site isn't even Juno888's. Some folks are eager to share their opinions, but not their names.

But I hate to waste web analysis, so here's what I suggested about the site:

Hi, Juno--

We'll have to agree to disagree about my analysis of The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler, but since you provided your URL, it seems only fair that I offer some comments on it...after all, web text and design are one of my specialties. Moreover, I teach communications and marketing to tourism students, so a site like yours is professionally interesting as well.

Overall look of the 1Explore site is super--good mix of blues, attractive but not obtrusive graphics. I like the wavy curves in the banner. The two-column layout works pretty well.

Big recommendation for the home page: Shorten the sentences, shorten the paragraphs (6-7 lines max), and break up the text still more with two or three subheads. A stronger contrast between light-blue background and dark-blue text would also help. (See how the right-column text stands out so well against a white background?)

This is your site's first impression, and it should be an inviting one, attracting readers to find one welcome surprise after another before moving on to the various packages and the other pages. (I realize some people strongly prefer a sans serif font for webtext, and I use sans serif myself on some of my sites, but for relatively long text, serif fonts are more readable.)

As for the other pages--please ditch the "website under construction" graphic. That may be the first such piece of dancing boloney I've seen since the 1990s, and it was hokey even back then. If the site's under construction, it shouldn't be out on the web in the first place--all you're doing is wasting visitors' time and annoying them.

Webwriting really relies on the "you" attitude--putting the reader right in the center of the story. Your home page starts with "We," which tells us we're not the real object of your interest. Consider:

You're going to enjoy the best accommodation in paradise!

It would also help if the home page gave clear instructions on what to do to get into such accommodation.

Put yourself in your visitors' shoes, imagine what they're looking for, and offer it to them. They'll understand that you really want to help them, and they'll respond accordingly.

Hope this helps--best of luck with the enterprise!

Cheers,
Crawford

Can You Make a Living Writing Web Content?
An email arrived recently: I want to make a living writing content for websites. I have spent the past few decades raising children and working as an elementary school teacher. Teaching just isn't working for me anymore and I intend to return to university in several years for a completely different kind of degree. In the meantime, however, I am a single mother with one ten-year-old still in the nest....

An email arrived recently:
I want to make a living writing content for websites. I have spent the past few decades raising children and working as an elementary school teacher. Teaching just isn't working for me anymore and I intend to return to university in several years for a completely different kind of degree. In the meantime, however, I am a single mother with one ten-year-old still in the nest. What do you think are the most important things for me to focus on and do in order to become a financially successful online writer?

I explained that I've been in a fortunate situation, making a living from teaching while exploring webwriting as a sideline. What I've learned has improved my teaching, but I haven't had to pay the groceries out of my webwriting income.

So I'll turn the question over to people who drop in here. What makes for a successful career as an online writer?

Marketing Online Writing
I've been happily writing for The Tyee for several years. It's a lively online magazine with a focus on British Columbia but with plenty of attention to the rest of the world. The Tyee is now trying a little viral marketing to attract more readers: Tyee: Join Us! I'd be interested to hear your reactions to this approach. The Tyee has also published a survey of Independent Media: Vibrant and...

I've been happily writing for The Tyee for several years. It's a lively online magazine with a focus on British Columbia but with plenty of attention to the rest of the world. The Tyee is now trying a little viral marketing to attract more readers: Tyee: Join Us! I'd be interested to hear your reactions to this approach.

The Tyee has also published a survey of Independent Media: Vibrant and Growing.

By the way, I've just published a piece on avian flu in The Tyee.

I'd love to hear about other good online magazines, especially in Europe, Asia, and Latin America—in any language.

A glimpse of Cuban blogging
Via the Vancouver Sun, a Reuters report: Cubans go to unusual lengths to post blogs. Excerpt: For Cuba's freelance bloggers, the difficulties in getting online can mean days, weeks and even months between one post and the next. "My access to Internet is very irregular," said the anonymous author of a blog called My island at midday. "Like all things in Cuba, one has to resolve the problem of scarcity...

Via the Vancouver Sun, a Reuters report: Cubans go to unusual lengths to post blogs. Excerpt:

For Cuba's freelance bloggers, the difficulties in getting online can mean days, weeks and even months between one post and the next.

"My access to Internet is very irregular," said the anonymous author of a blog called My island at midday.

"Like all things in Cuba, one has to resolve the problem of scarcity by hook or by crook, be it Internet or toilet paper," he told Reuters by e-mail.

The Cuban government blames the limited Internet access on the U.S. sanctions that bar Cuba from hooking up to underwater fiber-optic cables that run just 12 miles offshore, a highway of broadband communication.

Instead Cuba must use expensive satellite uplinks to connect to the Internet via countries such as Canada, Chile and Brazil.

Critics say that is just a pretext to maintain control over the Internet, a powerful tool that some believe could play the same role in spreading information in Cuba as the fax machine played in the dismantling of the Soviet Union.

The story has links to three or four blogs—all in Spanish. In general, they're pretty well designed. I understand Spanish fairly well, and these blogs' layouts make the text readable. Any comments on them?

What Do You Need Help With?
Looking at the list of categories that are covered here on my Website Development Training blog, what topics would you most like to see more articles about?   - Basic Blogging Tips   - Basic Computer Tips   - Google Techniques   - Motivational Articles   - Online Business Tips   - Online Marketing Tips   - Search Engine Articles   - Website [...]

America.edu a Quality Resource
There has been a lot of talk on and off for a few years now that perhaps Google gives special attention (weight) to .edu links coming into your website. It is easy to see why people might think that way, but in reality .edu sites just tend to be higher quality authority sites that attract [...]

Is the Kindle the Next Big Thing?
According to Farhad Manjoo at Salon, no: Amazon's Kindle won't spark your e-book fire. But it's a very interesting description of a gadget that's almost got it right.

According to Farhad Manjoo at Salon, no: Amazon's Kindle won't spark your e-book fire. But it's a very interesting description of a gadget that's almost got it right.

Web text versus web copy
Sometimes it pays to ego surf. I just checked myself on Google Blogs (using the chronically misspelled version of my last name). The search came up with some intriguing notes on a blog called Information Squid: AEAChicago2007 - “Writing the User Interface” by Jeffrey Zeldman. The notes are just that, clearly jotted down as Zeldman was speaking, but they convey a lot. Just at the end I found this: how...

Sometimes it pays to ego surf. I just checked myself on Google Blogs (using the chronically misspelled version of my last name). The search came up with some intriguing notes on a blog called Information Squid: AEAChicago2007 - “Writing the User Interface” by Jeffrey Zeldman.

The notes are just that, clearly jotted down as Zeldman was speaking, but they convey a lot. Just at the end I found this:

how do you reconcile people-read-less with SEO[search engine optimization]?

cutting the fat and natural language help both

so does using markup so important words are in headlines

can sometimes get funding for editing content by saying will help SEO

what are some questions to determine what’s brand-appropriate?

discovery process. what materials have you already produced
about yourselves?

what do you know about your stakeholders? compare with real users.

there are no good books about copy

there are good ones about writing for the web, but they don’t address
these issues - i.e. Crawford Killian, Writing for the Web
Zeldman is thinking of writing this

pronouns in copy? used to be more we, now with blogging more I

Of course I'm delighted about the compliment from Zeldman. He's one of the best thinkers about the web and on the web. I would love to see (and buy) his book on web copy. But the field isn't entirely empty. Nick Usborne has done some real pioneering in this field.

Web copy is text designed to sell; text designed to inform and persuade is also copy. So the two genres overlap to a considerable extent.

That last note about pronouns reflects an important point. Good copy in any medium needs the "you attitude," in which the writers pay more attention to the reader than to themselves or their organization. (The We We Monitor, also listed in Webwriting Resources, provides a useful reality check on corporate egomania.)

So to the extent that web writers in general, and web copywriters in particular, talk about themselves, they put themselves at a disadvantage.

But the "I" of a corporate blogger may evade this hazard. We turn to such an individual when we want a relationship with an informed person who clearly wants a relationship with us. So he or she can rant on about "I think this" or "I wonder about that" and still maintain our interest and respect.

I've seen this happen on a couple of my own blogs. Ask the English Teacher is almost entirely user-driven: The posts are based on visitor questions about English usage, and my answers reflect my own (sometimes cranky) views on good usage. (Some commenters beg to differ with those views, I'm glad to say.)

On H5N1, which is essentially a clipping service about avian flu, some visitors credit me with far more authority than I have. A few even email me to ask when the pandemic will start. This is actually a little scary. So when I do venture an opinion, it's usually with the reminder that I'm an elderly Canadian teacher of business writing, not an epidemiologist.

The key seems to be to convey, both verbally and nonverbally, that the corporate blogger really has the customer/visitor's best interests at heart. Verbally, the text should be clear, simple, suitable in tone, and you-oriented. Nonverbally, the site itself and the text layout should be inviting, navigable, and full of "good news surprises" like links and other resources that the visitor finds useful.

If anything, the nonverbal aspects of the site are likely to be more persuasive than anything we actually put in our copy...because when people sense a clash between the verbal message and the nonverbal message, they believe the nonverbal message every time.

The Plagiarism Problem
A commenter posted an innocuous message a few minutes ago, but when I went to the commenter's URL, it advertised "undetectable and plagiarism-free" essays for sale. I zapped it as comment spam, but it also hit a sore spot. This semester I flunked four students and gave a D to a fifth, all because of plagiarized work. It was the worst outbreak I've seen in years, and after forty years...

A commenter posted an innocuous message a few minutes ago, but when I went to the commenter's URL, it advertised "undetectable and plagiarism-free" essays for sale. I zapped it as comment spam, but it also hit a sore spot.

This semester I flunked four students and gave a D to a fifth, all because of plagiarized work. It was the worst outbreak I've seen in years, and after forty years in the college teaching business I think I'm pretty good at spotting it. Probably not good enough, though: All these cases involved simple cut and paste from websites. All I had to do was type a typical sentence from an essay into Google Advanced Search, and bingo—the source was usually the first hit.

Back in the dim days of typewritten essays and print sources, this was what I called lazy plagiarism: transcribing almost random chunks from easily accessed published sources. Smarter plagiarists went to the trouble of finding more obscure sources. I'm sure their descendants are using sources like my spammer's, or otherwise swiping stuff not easily found on the web.

I've even found a few folks who plagiarized my writing advice, presenting it as their own. Since this material is also available in different, copyrighted form in my book on writing SF and fantasy, my publisher always swings into action with highly intimidating emails that get the material removed very quickly indeed.

In some cases it's flattering to be quoted at length, as long as one's cited as the source, and plagiarism might be seen as the insincerest form of flattery. But it's clearly a major problem for educators, and no doubt for web writers and editors as well. So I'm curious to know if you've run into problems with people swiping your stuff—whether you've written it for your own purposes or for your client/employer. And where do you draw the line between common knowledge and intellectual property?

It should be a fascinating discussion, but I won't be able to take part in it until sometime late in the month: This afternoon my wife and I are off for Ottawa on a family visit. I won't have much computer access until I'm home, which is probably just as well...I hope to make some progress, in longhand, on my long-neglected novel.

How to Become an Online Celebrity by Emulating Jay Leno
Jay Leno's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame by Te lo juro por Madonna Many of us who are creating content are doing so with the clear motivation of building an online personal brand. There are lots of venues...

links for 2007-11-27
The Blogger's Guide to SEO (tags: Blogs SEO Search Marketing) Tweet'l - The short URLs built for Twitter (tags: twitter Tools) Ten Lessons for Marketers Using Viral Videos Tips from Jedi Master (and friend) Kevin Nalty. (tags: Marketing viral Video...

Housekeeping
Spam has become such a nuisance that I've had to require TypeKey authentication for comments. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Spam has become such a nuisance that I've had to require TypeKey authentication for comments. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Google Reader Now Recommends Feeds
Google Reader has added a feature that recommends feeds for you. Recommendations for new feeds are generated by comparing your interests with the feeds of users similar to you as well as by looking at your web history. A help...

An Important Lesson About Grassroots Media
Via Editor & Publisher, an excellent column by Steve Outing—an old friend and colleague with a lot of experience in online content. The experience hasn't always been happy, but Steve has learned (and taught) a great deal about it. Case in point: An Important Lesson About Grassroots Media. Steve describes the shutdown of his own efforts to create an online community whose members would create most of the content, and...

Via Editor & Publisher, an excellent column by Steve Outing—an old friend and colleague with a lot of experience in online content. The experience hasn't always been happy, but Steve has learned (and taught) a great deal about it. Case in point: An Important Lesson About Grassroots Media.

Steve describes the shutdown of his own efforts to create an online community whose members would create most of the content, and then goes on to analyze similar issues elsewhere:

If you look at the content that's on Backfence.com (and you can, since the servers are still running; there's just no new content being added to the site), it's predominantly press releases from local community groups, or local event announcements. Backfence staff did contribute content, but often of the same variety. There was some great content on Backfence.com, but to my eyes the bulk of it was pretty dull.

I see the same thing when I look at YourHub.com. The editors of YourHub can easily point to some great content that's been posted to the sites. But just as with our Enthusiast Group sites, the overall experience is a lot of average stuff punctuated by a lesser amount of great content.

As destination sites, I don't think that Backfence or YourHub work. My company's sites didn't work, which is why in hindsight I realize that a much higher level of professional content needed to be added into the mix. Quality matters.

Key in on that word, "destination," for a moment. If you're operating an online service that's keyed to user or citizen content submissions, I encourage you to think about how to utilize that content beyond just a destination website.

I don't expect YourHub-like sites to ever become huge traffic draws if they rely too heavily on user submissions. The quality just isn't there for them to be interesting -- especially in an Internet environment where there is so much high-quality news and information available elsewhere, for free.

It's a fine article with plenty of insights that web content developers should reflect upon.

Naomi Klein's new Shock Doctrine website
The first I heard about The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, Naomi Klein's new book, was in this morning's Globe and Mail, which gives her the front and back pages of the Focus section: a fetching photo on the whole front page, and a very positive profile by John Allemang on the back. The irony isn't lost on anyone. The foremost young critic of "disaster capitalism" is a...

The first I heard about The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, Naomi Klein's new book, was in this morning's Globe and Mail, which gives her the front and back pages of the Focus section: a fetching photo on the whole front page, and a very positive profile by John Allemang on the back.

The irony isn't lost on anyone. The foremost young critic of "disaster capitalism" is a superb marketer. Her new website is a knockout too. It even offers the promise of a video by Alfonso (Children of Men) Cuarón, promoting the book, starting September 9.

My main objection to the site is in the text, which runs in overlong paragraphs. Even Klein's most loyal followers may find it hard going.

Here's an excerpt from the home page, but re-paragraphed to make the text more accessible:

In THE SHOCK DOCTRINE, Naomi Klein explodes the myth that the global free market triumphed democratically.

Exposing the thinking, the money trail and the puppet strings behind the world-changing crises and wars of the last four decades, The Shock Doctrine is the gripping story of how America’s “free market” policies have come to dominate the world-- through the exploitation of disaster-shocked people and countries.

At the most chaotic juncture in Iraq’s civil war, a new law is unveiled that would allow Shell and BP to claim the country’s vast oil reserves…. Immediately following September 11, the Bush Administration quietly out-sources the running of the “War on Terror” to Halliburton and Blackwater…. After a tsunami wipes out the coasts of Southeast Asia, the pristine beaches are auctioned off to tourist resorts.... New Orleans’s residents, scattered from Hurricane Katrina, discover that their public housing, hospitals and schools will never be reopened….

These events are examples of “the shock doctrine”: using the public’s disorientation following massive collective shocks – wars, terrorist attacks, or natural disasters -- to achieve control by imposing economic shock therapy.

Sometimes, when the first two shocks don’t succeed in wiping out resistance, a third shock is employed: the electrode in the prison cell or the Taser gun on the streets.

I would also consider turning the third paragraph into a bulleted list, for the same reason I've broken up the paragraphs: To increase the number of shocks or jolts the reader experiences.

The beginnings and ends of sentences and paragraphs are the hot spots where readers pay most attention and respond most strongly. In online text, end-of-sentence jolts lose impact in the middle of a paragraph. So short sentences, short paragraphs, boldface subheads, and bulleted lists work most effectively for most online readers.

Yes, some of us are more comfortable reading long, complex texts on paper. For those readers, the website should offer downloadable or printer-friendly versions.

I'll follow the development of this site with great interest.

What Makes Good Webwriting?
A reader wrote the other day to ask my opinion: What did I consider good examples of writing on the web? Well, I confess I couldn't leap up with a dozen examples on the tip of my tongue. Examples of bad writing, however, are easy to come by. On my blog H5N1, I often excerpt text from news stories, government websites, and technical sources. All too often, I have to...

A reader wrote the other day to ask my opinion: What did I consider good examples of writing on the web?

Well, I confess I couldn't leap up with a dozen examples on the tip of my tongue. Examples of bad writing, however, are easy to come by. On my blog H5N1, I often excerpt text from news stories, government websites, and technical sources. All too often, I have to tinker with the text to make it readable.

For example, some scientific abstracts are solid blocks of text, 200 or 300 words long. I can't edit them, but I can re-paragraph them to make them easier to read.

News reports are often more reader-friendly, full of one-sentence paragraphs. The sentences, however, may run to 40 or more words—and it's often the first paragraph that tries to create an "abstract" of the whole story. (When I excerpt the text anyway, I usually apologize for the style.)

In other cases, the text may be concise and well-paragraphed, but appallingly displayed. Some poor souls are still stuck in 1996, proudly publishing white text sprawled across a black background clear across the screen.

Others have crisp black text on a white background. But the lines run to 15 or 20 words. Here's an example from Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, which is OK but could be much better with shorter lines. He hasn't changed his format in years, and he should have.

Subheads Help
Subheads can break up the text still more and provide landmarks. Too many webwriters neglect this simple aid to readers.

Of course, sometimes a text is on a website only to be printed off and read on paper. In that case, it just has to be readable when printed.

You're welcome to visit H5N1 and my other blogs to see how I try to live by my own rules.

Judge the Top Blogs on Their Writing!
But here's another suggestion. Visit Technorati: Popular Blogs and see what you think of the writing on some of the top sites.

Does Engadget's shimmering prose enshrine it as #1 blog? Is Michelle Malkin (#11)a better webwriter than Guy Kawasaki(#15)?

Or are other factors at work in these high-traffic, high-impact sites? I'd love to hear your comments.