New Adult School Class - Writing for the Web

Hi.

The folks at the Adult School asked me to post my biography, hoping that would convince you to register for a new course that I’m teaching, Writing for the Web. Well, a promise is a promise, so here it is.

But first, let me tell you a little about the course. The class isn’t about blogging or programming. It’s about planning and creating content for websites.

First, we’ll talk about the structure and function of different types of Web pages and the components that comprise a Web page. Like cupcakes and power tools, not all Web pages are created equal. The different types of pages have different objectives, which impact what you write and how you write it.

Didn’t think that Web pages had different types of components? Some you can see (images, text, navigation elements, calls to action) and some you can’t (metadata), and the one’s you can’t see are mighty important if you don’t want to be ignored by search engines. We’ll spend a good chunk of time talking about those.

I’ll also be serving up a healthy dose of content strategy, that is, how to plan and create your content and how to keep it fresh so search engines won’t ignore you. At this point we’ll also talk about writing for mobile devices.

Now that you have a good understanding of website anatomy and content strategy, we’ll dive into the do’s and do nots of online writing. We’ll talk about the attributes of online readers, how to make them happy, and what you can do to lose readers very quickly. No discussion of writing would be complete without time spent on the F-word (No, not that one! There’s a different F-word that’s important to online writers).

I won’t do all the talking. That would be boring. I’ll show many live websites that we can dissect and suggest some exercises you can try on your own.

That’s the thumbnail sketch. If you want more information, drop me a line at alan.gerstein@verizon.net.

Hope to see you there.

Alan

P.S.

Almost forgot my biography…

As a freshly minted refugee from a graduate program in biochemistry during the Reagan administration, I perpetuated trouble at a PC-based biotech company when I purchased Macintosh computers for all the members of my technical support team—the folks who answered questions about how to sequence DNA, how to separate different types of cells, and whether or not nucleotides were kosher (True story. Sign up for the class and I’ll tell you about it.). With such a nimble and pricey computer, we started using them for all sorts of neat applications. We’d use them to help teach, store our information, share our information, create presentation slides, and of course, create highly personalized birthday cards.

By the time that company sent me packing 19 years later, I had written a book, created prototypes of ebooks, multimedia simulations for science teachers to share the virtual life and times of famous research scientists, digital videos, and many a highly personalized birthday card.

With my severance package running out, I joined a medical education company that also had been using computers to help teach, share information, train pharmaceutical sales reps, and to try to influence the habits of medical professionals. Ten years and many Internet advancements later, I continue to tinker, experiment and annoy my advertising-agency colleagues by seeking interesting ways to use Internet technology to help people become better learners, doers (pronounced like the Scotch, Dewar’s ) and problem solvers.

But enough about me. I’d rather talk about writing for the Web with you. Hope to see you in April.

Bye for now.