WRITING FOR THE IMF WEBSITE

Anita Gardner January 2010

Writing for the web Keep it brief People rarely read web pages word by word, instead they scan the page, picking out individual words and sentences. It takes longer to read material on screen than on paper. So keep it short, concise and clear. As a general rule, news stories on the IMF website should be no more than 250 words in length. Scannability Use short blocks of text, headings, subheadings and bulleted lists. Paragraphs are usually one or two sentences and should contain only one idea. Headings should tell the reader what the page or section is about. Sentences should be kept short and simple. Searchable Readers and internet search engines use keywords in headings to determine the relevance of an IMF news stories when searching. For example, wherever possible include a country name, company name and a clear description of the story in the heading. Readability Average readers of newspapers have a reading age ranging from 12 – 15 years. Also, for the IMF, many of our readers speak English as a second language. This means use plain language, short sentences and limit your use of jargon. Web links, other pages, photos, background info, etc Photos that communicate the story assist in getting your message across quickly. Providing links for information or reports mentioned in the story makes it easier for readers. Make detailed information or background material available through downloadable documents or on a separate page. Also put links to previous news stories on the same topic. What is news? Something new – timely Informative People focus Matters of interest to reading public Controversial True/ real-life Documents history or society

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Subjective process: The facts of the matter ↓

← Elements relevant to IMF News

News style writing _______ Media Style ______ State conclusion first _____ then background, ____ justification and ___ argument.

_______ _______ _______ _______ _______

Traditional Intro Background Argument Conclusion

Think about what questions are raised by the text and ensure that they are answered. Credibility Make sure the story is factual, accurate and well presented, including correct spelling and grammar. Quote your sources, or even better provide a web link to a source for further information. In a news context, opinion must be balanced by facts and information. Indicate opinions through attributed quotes or by clearly heading something up as opinion – not news. Web users particularly dislike and avoid promotional writing style with boastful subjective claims – they prefer facts and information. Other resources http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/ http://webdesign.about.com/od/writing/a/aa031405.htm

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Writing for www.imfmetal.org

Target audiences of the IMF website Target audiences for the IMF website are metalworkers, trade union members, trade union activists and leaders, trade unions affiliated to the IMF and IMF employees. Other target audiences that may be reached by the IMF website include sister organisations, such as ITUC, GUFs and NGOs, solidarity support organisations, political leaders with an interest in trade union and international issues, governments and labour policy groups, business community and employers groups, international institutions, such as ILO, WTO, academics and the press. News stories that appear on the IMF website are not press releases but may be read and picked up by journalists. What is IMF news – posted on the home/front page of the IMF website? Timely – happened today or in the last few days (not months ago) About IMF affiliates and the actions they take Union responses to global sectoral issues, such as TNC restructuring Trade union rights violations involving an IMF affiliate or in IMF sectors Reports on an IMF activity or action Reports on GUF collaboration where IMF is involved Relates to an IMF thematic area of work IMF meetings/outcomes with global significance What is NOT news for the home/front page of the IMF website? Activities or events that occurred weeks ago Company restructuring (without some reference to a union response) Rights violations outside the metal sector Regional or sector news only relevant to a small number of affiliates (this can be published on the relevant IMF sector, regional and global webpages) Social movements without a clear link to metalworkers Legislative/political changes affecting all workers (without a metalworker union response) IMF NewsBriefs and Metal World Writing for the IMF website is also a process of writing for IMF NewsBriefs and, in the past, for Metal World. So be careful when saying today, tomorrow, recently or last week. It is likely not to be read until one or two weeks later, and in the case of Metal World months later. So state the date of an event. Photo guidelines Whenever possible photos should be high resolution (a minimum of 300 dpi) so that we can use the images in printed form. If only low resolution is available then it may still be suitable for the website, but higher resolution is always preferable. Information about the photo should include: Name of subject Page 4 of 12

Place Date, and Photo credit if necessary. If it is a person who is the subject of the photo, sometimes it is useful to have additional information about that person such as name, age, position in union or plant.

Structure of the article The structure of articles published on the website is as follows:

Headline of six words or less Introductory text includes keywords, such as union’s name, company name and country, and indicates the nature of the story, providing a brief summary. Ideally this will be 20 – 40 words long. COUNTRY: The opening sentence must get across the most important information, summarising the facts of the issue. The opening sentence must not be overly long. Try and keep the opening sentence to no more than 34 words in length. Use active language, not passive. A hit B, rather than B was hit by A. Subject, verb then object. Try and keep the total story length to no more than 250 words. If you wish to add other information, attach it as a downloadable document or link to it on a separate webpage. Presenting lists of information in dot points makes it easier for readers to see at a glance. For instance: Point one, Point two, and Point three. “You might like to include a quote,” Anita said. Always provide the URL address of where additional information could be found in the body text of the story. For more details see: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html

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Style issues The house style for the IMF website and IMF publications is British English. The Oxford English Dictionary and The Economist Style Guide are the two key source documents for determining spelling and style issues. Here are a few points to remember…

Apostrophes: Apostrophes show where we have left out letters of a contracted form (can‟t = cannot, it‟s = it is/has). We use apostrophes before or after the possessive –s endings of nouns (the girl‟s father, Charles‟ wife, workers‟ rights or International Metalworkers‟ Federation). Capitals: We try to limit the use of capitals to maximise the readability of the text. As a rule we keep capitals for organizations, but not for people‟s titles. For instance, IMF general secretary Jyrki Raina. See the Economist Style Guide for other examples. Companies: Call companies by the name they call themselves. For example ArcelorMittal, Airbus, Rolls-Royce, ThyssenKrupp... Countries: We say the UK, and the U.S. or USA. European Union can be shortened to EU. Currencies: Always provide the US or Euro figures (in brackets after the original currency if necessary). Use US$. Dates: When referring to the time of an event, write the date – not only “today” or “yesterday” as it is likely the story will be read much later than when published. The IMF has adopted the practice of writing the date in the following order: January 31, 2005. Month day, year. Gender neutral: Ensure to use gender-neutral language, unless the sex needs to be specified. Avoid words like „fellow‟ or „chairman‟. Use „colleagues‟ or „chair‟. Lists: When presenting a list, start with a colon, break-up points with a comma and finish with a full stop. For example a list includes: - Several points of information, - Commas to separate those points, and - A full stop. Names: When referring to the name of an affiliate, try and provide the full name of the union at first mention in the story with the abbreviation in parenthesis. When abbreviating the names of unions it should be all caps unless the name can be said as a word: USW, Numsa. When quoting someone, give full name first, then refer to them with last name. Numbers: From one to nine please write the number as a word, unless using a decimal point, for example 3.1 per cent. Above nine write the number as a figure, Page 6 of 12

such as 10, 13, 100, 68. The numbers are punctuated by a comma at 100 intervals: 1,200 or 13,000. When in the millions use 1.7 million. Unless the precise figure is of importance, for instance 3.1 percent pay rise, then be prepared to round the number, as in for 14,960 members write 15,000. Don‟t start a sentence with a number, unless it is in written form. Metalworker: Because this is our trade, we write this as one word not two. Per cent: In British English it is per cent – not percent. We don‟t use %, except in lengthy publications of a technical nature. Quotes: When quoting a speaker the punctuation used is as follows. “We place the comma before the closing quotation mark,” Anita said. If the quotation appears within a longer sentence then punctuate outside the quotation marks. For instance, Anita recommends that “in this sentence the comma follows the quotation mark”, like so. Z or S: Historically, as is consistent with British English, IMF used „s‟ not „z‟ in words like organize and prioritize. However, British English is changing and given the way spell check works on MS Word „z‟ is now the correct standard.

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Example one –how your story will appear on the front page

Notes: Headline, intro sentence and date appear on the front page. A photo, when available, will also appear on the front page and liven up this area of the web. Stories introductions move off the front page after four new stories have been published – this can be on the same day or within a few days.

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Example two – short story with pictures

Strengths: Short Photos illustrate the story Title summarizes the story in four words

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Example three – pictures and web links

Strengths: Provides a link for more information Photos illustrate the story Affiliate‟s national action is linked to IMF global action

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Example four – document for download and list of dot points

Strengths: The details are available in a download on the pages and in the story The key points are summarised into a list of dot points Each paragraph is one or two sentences in length

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Example five – how the story appears in the bi-weekly IMF NewsBrief

Notes: Short heading and quick summary sentence draws reader to the weblink of the story. User statistics research shows that headings with country, company and theme clearly indicated result in more click-throughs to the website than unclear or subjective headings. Plain text works in all platforms including blackberry and different email programs.

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