Web and Intranet Writers Are Rarely Trained

By Deane Barker

Embarrassing training gap for web writer/editors: If the quality of writing on your intranet is bad, this survey from A List Apart might explain why. They surveyed 33,000 Web professionals.

Web writer/editors are the least likely respondents (21.35% vs. overall 53.4%) to perceive their college education as having been relevant to their job. And they are also virtually the least likely to have participated in formal training for their job (48.2%).

This insight comes from Rachel McAlpine who wrote what I consider to be one of the best books on writing for the Web and intranets: Web Word Wizardry. It’s about six years old now, but still utterly relevant. Rachel was talking about common-sense SEO and how it relates to writing long before anyone else.

These days, Rachel runs the Contented blog, which is a blog devoted to Web writing, and sells a set of writing courses called Contented. She also has a new book, Better Business Writing.

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