Background work
What is your organization all about? Why are you writing this, who are you writing for and what are you write about?
Status
±«ÓãÖ±²¥ is one of Canada's best-known institutions of higher learning and one of the leading public universities in the world.
History
Founded in 1821, the ±«ÓãÖ±²¥ welcomes brilliant and open minded students from over 150 countries.
Image
±«ÓãÖ±²¥ is bold, past, present, future and eclectic.
Culture
±«ÓãÖ±²¥ is an English university with a French-speaking and international audience.
Goals
Demonstrate:
- Opportunities that open doors
- Research that changes lives
- Innovation that drives progress
- Education that shapes future-ready students
- Eclecticism that sparks creativity
Defining the text structure
Follow the inverted pyramid to present important info at the beginning and the "Five Ws" to structure your text:
Who
Prospective undergraduate students
What
Undergrad admissions deadlines
Where
Quebec CEGEPs, colleges and high schools students
When
Application for admission: March 1
Why
Inform students about the deadlines to submit their applications.
How
Online.
How much
$110.40
Knowing your users
Age
16-24
Gender
55% female, 45% male
Location
GMA (Greater Montreal Area), Quebec, Ottawa/Gatineau
Language
French, English
Competitors
Concordia University, University of Montreal, HEC Montréal, Université du Québec à Montréal
Interests on Facebook
Spotted: ±«ÓãÖ±²¥, MTL Blog, evenko, Coca-Cola, La Ronde, ConneriesQc, Spotted: STM, 1861, Narcity Québec
Keywords
Users will likely find your web pages through search engines. To optimize your texts for search engines (SEO), you need to use multiple relevant keywords.
apply, uapply, application, admission, requirements, deadline, ielts, english language proficiency, acceptance rate, gpa
What makes a good text
Your text should be:
Clear
Don't be vague. Go straight to the point.
Interesting
Adapt your tone and style and only keep the needed information.
Correct
Correct grammar and correct information.
Brief
Say more with fewer words. Point form is a good way to present information on the web. Also, avoid impersonal and passive forms.
Motivational
Add call to actions and objectives.
Useful
Make sure your text answers your users' needs.
Usable
Your users should be able to refer to your text.
Tangible
Do not hesitate to present facts and examples.
Thorough
Make sure users will find what they need and they won't have to search for hours.
Separate Meaning and Presentation
- Follow heading hierarchy (H1-Title, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6, Paragraph)
- Do not use semantic tags to style your content
- Use bold moderately to highlight important content
- Prevent using CAPS TO HIGHLIGHT TEXT BECAUSE IT'S HARD TO READ AND IT LOOKS LIKE YOU'RE SHOUTING!
- Never underline text if it's not a link. HTML links are underlined by default and users have users will be confused if you use underline for normal text.
Respect the "F-Shaped" pattern
Users read on the web following an "f-shaped" pattern and some elements are more important than others:
- Title
- Subtitles
- Beginning of a paragraph
- Text following an image
- Hyperlinks
Writing hyperlinks
Hyperlinks are both useful for indexation navigation. In order to optimize your text, make sure that your hyperlinks have a good descriptive label.
Labels like "click here" are inefficient and don't describe what content users will find by clicking a link.
Always include keywords and keep your labels short.
Other important HTML tags
<title>
This is the first thing that users will see on search engines. Keep it at maximum 10 keywords and 75 characters or less.
<meta description>
On Google, this is the text that will appear under the title. Should be a phrase or two for a total of about 150 characters.
Supporting resources
- by Janet Mizrahi
- by Jakob Nielsen and Kara Pernice
- by Éloïse Hardy
