Blogging on Bloggers

Chris Dixon's post is separated into chunks that encourage readers to read his blogs. He does not use headings and subheadings. However, he uses boldface to highlight important information for the reader who wants to scan the page quickly for specific information. In addition, his lists are numbered so that the reader can make sense of the information that he presents.

Chris' links to other pages are labeled with words that he has very craftily worked into his sentences. The reader knows exactly what type of information he/she will get when the link is clicked. The links are labeled by no more than four words.

However, Chris uses very long sentences. This violates the rules of brevity and sentence structure that should be followed when writing for the web.

You can view Chris Dixon's blog at http://www.cdixon.org

Although, this post is a short one, Daniel Lemire separates it into chunks. He uses short sentences which allow the reader to follow what he is saying. He uses bullets to highlight each point in his list.

Daniel highlights important information by using boldface. He highlights his links with bold color font.

Both bloggers adhere to most of the "Writing for the Web" guidelines. The writing style is a critical factor. It often determines whether blogs are read. However, in comparison to Chris Dixon, I think Daniel Lemire does a better job of writing for the web. He manages to stick more closely to the guidelines. He could have chosen to ignore them considering that his post was short, but he didn't.

View Daniel Lemire's blog at http://www.daniel-lemire.com/blog/archives/2009/02/03/just-published-java-compressed-bitmap-class/