Yahoo!スタッフによる"編集"ガイドライン - Yahoo! Style Guideの歩き方(1)

書籍版の目次を参考に、Web版Yahoo! Style Guideの記事を関連づけした。本Webサイトをチェックするにあたり、参考にしてほしい。書籍の注文はBuy "The Yahoo! Style Guide"から可能だ。

Section I: Write for an Online Audience

Chapter 1: Write for the Web

• Shape your text for online reading
• Get to the point
• Make text easy to scan
• Write for the world
• Help people navigate
• Example: Rewrite for Web readers

Chapter 2: Identify Your Audience

• Do your research
• Create an audience profile
• Check out the competition
• Exercise: Analyze an audience

Chapter 3: Define Your Voice

• Give your site a personality
• Consider the context
• Develop your site’s unique voice
• Translate voice into words
• Exercise: Chart your voice characteristics
• Example: Give copy a voice makeover

Chapter 4: Construct Clear, Compelling Copy

• Headings
• Sentences
• Paragraphs
• Lists
• Example: Hook readers with head-turning headlines

Section II: Speak to Your Entire Audience

Chapter 5: Be Inclusive, Write for the World

• Banish bias
• Write gender-neutral copy
• Write for an international audience
• Example: Welcome the world

Chapter 6: Make Your Site Accessible to Everyone

• Provide access for millions more visitors
• Learn how people with disabilities use the Web
• Gauge your site’s accessibility
• Checklist: Is your site accessible?

Section III: Write UI Text, Email, and Mobile-Friendly Content

Chapter 7: Write Clear User-Interface Text

• User-interface text basics
• Page titles
• Text links
• Buttons and other UI elements
• Alt text and image captions
• Feedback messages and error messages
• Help and FAQs
• User-instruction mechanics
• Example: Give visitors good directions

Chapter 8: Write Engaging Email and Newsletters

• Use email as an outreach tool
• Build better email messages
• Create specific customer communications
• Example: Stick to the essentials in your email

Chapter 9: Streamline Text for Mobile Devices

• Write for the small screen
• Consider how copy will look on mobile devices
• Make SMS text brief and audience-appropriate

Section IV: Manage the Mechanics

Chapter 10: Punctuate Proficiently

• Apostrophes
• Colons
• Commas
• Dashes
• Ellipsis points
• Exclamation points
• Hyphens
• Periods
• Question marks
• Quotation marks
• Semicolons
• Exercise: Punctuate to communicate

Chapter 11: Abbreviate, Capitalize, and Treat Titles Consistently

• Acronyms and other abbreviations
• Capitalization
• Company and product names
• Email addresses and fields
• File names, types, and extensions
• Place names
• Titles of people
• Titles of works
• Website names and addresses
• Exercise: Crop, cap, and quote correctly

Chapter 12: Apply a Consistent Style for Numbers

• The basics
• Ages
• Dates
• Time
• Fractions and decimals
• Units of measure
• Money and currency
• Numbers in a range
• Percentages
• Phone numbers
• Exercise: Navigate the numbers

Section V: Clean Up Your Copy

Chapter 13: Shorten and Strengthen Sentences

• Clear out deadwood
• Start strong, stay strong
• Replace superfluous phrases
• Cut the clichés
• Junk the jargon
• Exercise: Clear deadwood
• Example: Cut the clichés

Chapter 14: Avoid Common Pitfalls in Word Choice, Grammar, and Spelling

• Commonly confused words
• Frequently misspelled words
• Common grammatical mistakes
• Old “rules” that no longer apply
• Exercise: Dig into the details

Chapter 15: Proofread and Test Before You Publish

• Ensure a good user experience
• Inspect your copy at least twice
• Know what to check on webpages and in emails
• Pick up some proofreading tricks
• Exercise: Perfect your text before you publish

Section VI: Resources

Chapter 16: Get Familiar With Basic Webpage Coding

• HTML and XHTML
• Boldface and italics
• Special characters
• Exercise: Crack the code

Chapter 17: Optimize Your Site for Search Engines

• SEO basics
• Copywriting for SEO
• Images and video
• Example: Seed copy with keywords for SEO

Chapter 18: Understand the Basics of U.S Law for Online Content

• Online content creators and the law
• Defamation
• Copyright
• Trademarks
• Publicity rights
• Trade secrets
• Checklist: Are you at risk?

Chapter 19: Keep a Word List

• Why compile a word list
• What to put in your list
• How to maintain your list
• The Yahoo! word list

書籍版と比較すると当然内容が少なくなっているものの、それでもかなりのボリュームだ。IT関連に限らず、Webライター/エディタに携わっている方は目をとおしておきたいスタイルガイドだろう。後編ではWeb版Yahoo! Style Guideに載っている内容のうち興味深いものを追って紹介していきたい。