What’s the difference between the adjectives content and contented—as in I am content/contented? This is an oft-recurring discussion topic among people who are learning English as a second (or third or fourth) language.

If English is your native tongue, you instinctively know the following:

• Before a noun, contented is the only adjective that sounds natural and correct, for example, She is a contented baby.
• Anywhere else, either adjective will work: for example, She was no longer content.
• The two words are used in slightly different ways: you are content with something and contented by something.
• An excruciatingly subtle difference of meaning could be debated, for example, I become contented if something converts me from a state of discontent, but to be content is a steady state. (Mind you, nobody cares!)

So contented and content are virtually interchangeable as adjectives.

Naturally, Alice and I find the multipurpose adjective contented more appealing. Why? Let me count the ways!

• Contented has charming manners—we can take it anywhere.
• Contented is more dynamic than its inert cousin content: a mood-changing event has happened here.
• The amphibrach rhythm of contented is far more impressive than the common or garden iambic content: our favourite is a word with three syllables, hard for any martial artist to topple.

And as for the noun content—meaning the thing contained—that’s another conundrum, one that I peck away at year after year. Where did it come from? Why do we need it? Who uses it? Who despises it? More later…

Image of smiley face inflatable toy: (c) unknown, sorry.

‘Five ideas that will transform intranets’ (aka ‘Intranet Idol’) was a high spot at Intranets 2012. In a misguided moment, I decided to sing my contribution. Here are lyrics, which, at the time, went right out my head—which was better than remembering them.

First in a wee spiel I said something like this:

In the coming intranet utopia, everyone who writes for an intranet will understand the WCAG 2.0 guidelines for writing accessible content. They will use Word and their CMS correctly. They will not need to be policed, because they will understand the fundamental principles of accessibility and eagerly comply for logical and altruistic reasons. And the hard-pressed intranet teams, now in despair about all the broken content that crosses their desks, will be happy too.

The far-from-deathless lyrics of my song follow.

Oh, the poet and policeman should be friends.
Yes, the poet and policeman should be friends.
She wanders lonely as a cloud.
He says, ‘Tables not allowed!’
But that’s no reason why they can’t be friends.

Intranet folk should stick together,
Intranet folk should all be friends.
Then the ones who used to break it
Will know how to make amends.

I’d like to say a word for the writers.
They have to use a funny CMS.
They all use Yammer but they don’t know grammar
Or how to make a decent PDF.

I’d like to say another word for the writers.
They could do half your WCAG work for you.
They should do Heading 1 and 2 and ALT-text—
But no-one ever showed them what to do!

Oh, the writer and the web team should be friends.
Yes, the writer and the web team should be friends.
This one likes to spew out words.
That one says, ‘Can they be heard?’
But that’s no reason why they should be friends.

Intranet folk should stick together,
Intranet folk should all be friends.
Then the ones who used to break it
Will know how to make amends.

Tragically, I did not win Intranet Idol. Martin White gave a splendid riff on why information architecture should be banished to the pits of hell to make way for the Angel of Search. Mere mortals didn’t stand a chance.

Photo: Dmitri Prigov, Russian poet, CC www.opendemocracy.net

Intranet content review, cull and control requires drastic solutions. When intranets are piggy eaters, their health problems can only get worse. The eternal problem of intranet obesity is now under discussion on the contentstrategy Google Group. Here’s the question, from Richard English in Toronto:

What if the CMS didn’t have a content expiry process, what if there
was some other method / process that got content reviewed. What would
that look like? I’m looking for off the wall crazy ideas.

Good call, Richard, because the good old faithful solutions (like eat less and exercise) fail again and again. Two off-the-wall crazy ideas follow, as requested.

Dave Couston says:

Semi-off-the-wall: what about setting up some kind of mechanical turk-like process where anyone or a specific subset of people within the organization can use a simple interface to pick up a piece of content from the stack of items that need periodic reviewing, and review it for freshness according to some simple instructions? In return maybe they’d receive some sort of fractional credit that would be worthwhile to them within the org – credit towards an extra day off, something like that? I guess it would only work if there’s little expertise required to determine whether the content needs sunsetting or not, or if the pool of people acting as reviewers had that expertise.

Matt Moore of Innotecture offered a stomach-stapling solution with the following, though he was ‘not necessarily recommending’ any of the ideas:

• Every 12 months delete everything. Unless someone actively nominates an item to be kept. And some else seconds that nomination.
• Charge people a $ fee for each published item that they own. You can have as many items as you like, provided you pay for them.
• Each month, the CEO will visit a page at random on the intranet. If the content is up-to-date, the content owner gets a small reward. If the content is lousy, the content owner has to perform some kind of community service.
• If a page gets no views over a 12 month period then automatically cull it.
• Add a “delete this page if junk” button to every page that any employee can use.

Adrian Howard described how a radical cull of wiki content was more acceptable when the process was at least partly automatic. Another upside:

There was also a nice side effect: Because we left the system running people felt able to experiment a bit more – knowing that unused stuff would be automatically culled. A sort of pave-the-cowpaths for content.

When Richard said he was stuck with a CMS that was a piece of junk, one member suggested getting a second CMS to manage the first one! Every intranet team faces some rough realities:

• Every piece of content, in principle, is owned by a staff member (but the owner may not know it).
• Staff move, resign, change jobs, forget, and have human weaknesses.
• Some combination of technology and human control is required.
• Culling content by humans alone is a time-consuming and sensitive task.

Hilary Marsh requested the following simple system from IT—but would it work for a 300,000 page intranet?

• A “content expiration” field in the CMS (which didn’t have any functionality associated with it). We filled in the field manually for each piece of content based on the rules we set for various content types.
• A monthly report of content set to “expire” in the coming month
• A way to archive content so it would remain live on the site but not be returned in general searches

As all intranets tend towards obesity by default, imagine the impact when social media is/are added to every intranet’s menu.

Join contentstrategy at googlegroups.com and follow the whole discussion.
Image of Mr Creosote (c) MontyPython?

How to punctuate ‘do’s and don’ts’? The experts disagree, so choose a rule and stick to it. Debate is pointless, and life is short.

A member of the TWIN (Technical Writers of India) group asked recently:

Just a quick one, what’s the correct punctuation in “Dos and Don’ts”?

Please… please don’t send me back to google, it has left me more confused than from when I started…

This is a genuinely messy little problem, and it’s no wonder it confuses nearly everyone. Here’s why you need to choose a style guide and accept its advice, or establish your own rule and stick to it.

There’s one universally accepted rule:
Don’t use an apostrophe to indicate plural.

And also a rule for exceptions, which is not universally accepted:
But do use an apostrophe to indicate plural for some small words where the meaning may be unclear.

CORRECT (everyone agrees): ‘PCs’
CORRECT (everyone agrees): ‘Dot the i’s and cross the t’s.’

But when we look at Dos (or Dos) and Don’ts (or Don’t's), that’s messy. It’s impossible to be both consistent and clear, because dos looks like a programming term to some people, but don’t's looks pretty crazy with two apostrophes. And when a word looks pretty crazy, that is a valid reason for not writing it.

Here are the (conflicting) verdicts from style guides I respect.

1. The Economist Style Guide:
CORRECT: Dos and don’ts.
(They call the plural possessive a false possessive and instruct: Do not commit this sin.

2. Style Manual, revised by Snooks and Co.
CORRECT: Dos and don’ts.
(Only allows plural apostrophe for plural of letters, e.g. p’s and q’s.

3. Yahoo! Style Guide:
CORRECT: Do’s and don’ts.
(Allows plural apostrophe for plural of letters and words that would be confusing without an apostrophe.)

4. New Hart’s Rules
CORRECT: you must decide for yourself.
(Allows plural apostrophe when clarity calls for it.)

Now choose your rule and stick to it. I hope you can see why it is pointless to hope to solve this problem with logic, and pointless to debate it. The four writers who responded with specific advice did not agree, and yet they were all correct.

Oh the joys of grammar! We think the rules are chiseled in marble. If we ‘know a rule’, we are sure it is right. In fact, many are debatable—and some people enjoy a hearty grammar debate. As for me, I aim for consistency and commonsense. And I often fail, as you will notice in this very blog post.

Always use an appropriate template for documents that you write at work.

If they’re good templates and you use them well, you are more than half-way to achieving an accessible document.

It’s easy to pooh-pooh MS Word as a tool. It’s so familiar. You have been using it for years. In your heart of hearts, you may feel you know pretty much everything you need to know, and that you have the right to design your own documents for work.

But you pay a price for bypassing the company templates. Read on…

A properly constructed template produces many benefits
Besides documents with an easily recognized brand, see what you gain with a template:

• Consistent use of logos, headers and footers throughout the organization.
• Consistent use of accessible fonts and layouts.
• Every type of content in the right position.
• Consistent use of Styles: every type of content labelled with its function.
• A file of acceptable size.
• A document capable of being converted into a tagged PDF.

What if you don’t have a template?
Ask your communications team for an appropriate template. This template is not just for you: all staff should use it. If you don’t have a suitable template, someone needs to create one from scratch.

Your DOC gains many accessibility features from a good template. And when you convert your DOC into a tagged PDF, those features will be retained and reflected in the PDF. Brilliant!

What if the template has problems?
Don’t try and fix your document by fiddling with Styles and layout: that won’t improve accessibility—in fact, it may make matters worse. Instead, contact the template designer or owner, or your communications team. If you have template problems, so do other staff writers, and the problems need to be fixed at the source.

For accessible documents, don’t take short-cuts

Shortcuts may seem easy, but they are not safe. A broken Rena on the Astrolabe reef, 3 April 2012. Photo credit: Maritime New Zealand

Will the problems of digital illiteracy shrink as new generations of staff move through the workforce? I was asked this question yet again this morning at my daughter’s baby shower. (Clearly, there’s no escape!)

No, the problems won’t shrink, because people are people. The problems will just keep changing. That’s why training general staff in digital writing skills needs to be business as usual, not a one-off project.

Consider Ollie (62), Holly (42) and Polly (22). Their work backgrounds may be different, but they all have ICT challenges, and consequently they all generate accessibility barriers for the public and for their workmates.

1. Ollie from Policy has postgraduate degrees in English literature and philosophy. He writes huge documents in an old-world academic style, developing arguments that we must follow through to the bitter end before the meaning becomes clear. Ollie disdains templates, he puts a preamble in the Summary field, he uses tables for layout, he plays with WYSIWYG buttons, he scorns what he calls dumbing down, and he never supplies alt-text or long descriptions for his intriguing diagrams. He has heard of the word accessibility, and regards that as the IT team’s responsibility. He has never looked at HTML code or WCAG 2.0 and never will.
2. Holly from HR (42) has a degree in psychology. She started work in 1995 when computers were common in the workplace, but it was only 10 years later that she became comfortable with the Web. She writes in corporate jargon, so keywords do not feature much in her writing. She is stuck in memo mode, never quite grasping the concept that web content stays around forever unless someone removes it. Years ago, Polly was told that headlines and titles in web content should be short, so she tends to write tiny generic headlines and subject lines such as Training. Scores of inaccessible PDFs lurk in her area of the intranet. She has never looked at HTML code or WCAG 2.0 and never will.
3. Polly from Office Supplies is 22 and grew up with the Web, using Wikipedia as her main source for school assignments. Facebook is her natural home. She loves Yammer and she doesn’t write, she chatters. She communicates with other staff over room bookings and stationery supplies. Anything she writes is totally devoid of structure and context, studded with lols and FYIs and emoticons. She has never looked at HTML code or WCAG 2.0 and never will.

Olly, Holly and Polly are all floundering in the digital work environment. They’re intelligent and good at their jobs, but their proper concerns are with policy, HR and office supplies—not with writing for the Web. They have never even been introduced to business English or the proper use of MS Word, let alone information theory. So every day, they unwittingly wreck the web team’s efforts to make all content accessible.

So when Lachlan Forster (born 1 January 2012) starts work, will he intuitively create accessible content? It’s a lovely idea, but it’s just wishful thinking.

P.S. Digital illiteracy is a big problem, bigger than most people dare to acknowledge. But Alice and I do have a solution.
Lachlan Forster, the first baby in the world born in 2012. Photo (c) Dean Kovanic, Fairfax

We’re almost ready!

What every organization needs, if they’re producing official information, is content that complies with WCAG 2.0. Even when a web site is brilliantly accessible behind the scenes, it can fail if the content fails.

WCAG 2.0 compliance is for many organizations a huge and pressing problem. When governments commit to complying with the current accessibility guidelines, every publicly funded organization is also committed.

At Contented, we are here to help! Almost cooked now is a training programme of 10 short courses, all relating to creating accessible content.

Do you want to know the moment this Diploma is ready for you? (Not long now!)

• Email us and we’ll tell you personally, or
• Subscribe to our newsletter, and you’ll be advised that way.

Outline: Diploma in Accessible Content

Programme: Professional development diploma; includes 10 short courses.
Study time required: For a Diploma, each learner has 3 months to complete 10 short courses and tests. Each course takes about an hour.
Course structure: A typical course includes at least 5 exercises, many working examples and an online test.
Group licence: Each group must start and complete the Diploma within 12 months. Managers can track progress online and access performance reports.

Courses in the Diploma in Accessible Content
1. Know your online audience: they’re uncomfortable, stressed, searching, and in a hurry.
2. Brilliant headlines on the Web: write headlines that instantly work with people and search engines.
3. Powerful summaries for web pages: 5 types of summaries that get the message across.
4. Hyperlinks that make perfect sense: what to write instead of Click Here.
5. Using images and graphs in web content appropriately, and making them accessible.
6. Plain structure: check readability, structure documents and write concisely.
7. Plain writing: use clear words and sentences; avoid grammar mistakes.
8. Formatting web content with editing tools: avoid errors that affect search results, readability and accessibility.
9. WCAG 2.0 overview: what content authors need to know and do in order to comply with WCAG 2.0. Summary of principles and guidelines.
10. Accessible DOCs and PDFs: how content authors can create accessible DOCs, convert them to accessible PDFs, and manage legacy PDFs.

Another way to train staff writers: Enterprise Subscription to Contented

You may notice the Diploma in Accessible Content overlaps with the Diploma in Web Content. That’s inevitable, because the basics of good web writing all contribute to accessible content. For best value, consider an all-inclusive enterprise subscription to all Contented courses. WCAG 2.0-compliant content is then a valuable part of a general drive to improve the quality of information in your entire organization.

Subscription numbers: You decide how many staff the subscription will cover. (Savings increase with scale.)
Subscription period: Your organization subscribes for a minimum period of one year.
Programme (18 courses): Enrolled staff can do any or all of the Contented courses during the 12 months of the subscription. That includes 10 courses in the Diploma in Accessible Content plus eight others listed below. Staff can also access new courses as they are added.
11. Editing web content: a simple, systematic and powerful system for editing content.
12. Strategic blogging: great tips on blogging with purpose and impact.
13. Writing for search engines: what content authors can do to make content findable.
14. Keywords everywhere: How to choose and use keywords in web content and elsewhere.
15. Painless grammar: key grammar guidelines and simple ways to avoid common mistakes.
16. Modern punctuation: general principles and international guidelines for correct punctuation.
17. Write the right report: plan, research, write and edit reports, alone or collaboratively.
18. Twitter for business: strategic micro-blogging, on Twitter or on the intranet.

Contact us for more information and a quote!

Image of WCAG 2.0 stamp of approval (c) Mike Cherim

Good business coaching pushed our business ahead when we needed it.

Business coach Karl Baker made us aware of many things outside the ken of a typical start-up owner. He did this by being 100% on our side, and yet objective. He acted as cheerleader and held us to account. He asked many open-ended questions, gave us homework, had practical business advice on the tip of the tongue, and finally passed us on to a business mentor. He is not our coach right now but remains a trusted friend. We often ask each other, What would Karl say?

• Sales techniques (Ask people about their business. See if you can solve a problem for them. Ask if you may contact them again in a few weeks.)
• Customer service (Ask how things are going. Help people. Respond promptly.)
• Business goals (3 months sales goal? Where do we want the business in 6 months? 5 years?)
• Awareness (How do you feel about the business? How are you getting on together? What needs celebrating? What needs changing? What needs appreciating?)
• Self-care (How are you? No, really?)

Last night Red Hot Business Coaching held a New Year’s party. Partner Mark gave a little speech which sums up the company’s style. He said a client rang at 3.30 p.m. to say he was almost living the dream. Why? He didn’t mention that his company’s turnover had doubled in the last year. He said he had just got back from the pool, and had recently bought his son a puppy. Nice!

(The very silly photos were taken at a photo booth at the party. That’s Karl.

Today’s the day the Occupy Wellington people have been removed by police from their camping site in Civic Square.

I’m not about to pontificate on the wrongs and rights, the origins and developments of the Occupy movement—although I have an unfortunate fondness for pontificating, and I believe, a certain talent.

I’ve been musing on activeness and passiveness, both of verbs and protests. The name of this movement—Occupy!—is a wondrously clear and active verb. Indeed, it’s almost startling in its activeness.

Yet by definition, the word occupy goes nowhere. More expressive than sit or squat, it’s milder than colonize. So a sneaky thought scuttles in its wake: OK, occupy … and then what?

In extreme contrast to the activeness of the verb occupy is the language in the Wellington protesters’ code of conduct as published in the Dominion Post of 14-15 January. This code was, I’m sure, drawn up in good faith by a small band of protesters and shows a general wish to encourage courteous behaviour. No PR firm assisted, that’s clear, so let’s not judge it too harshly.

But the last two items in this code of conduct reveal the hideous linguistic tangle you can create when you strain too hard to be simultaneously polite, respectful and authoritative. Passive verbs swoop in and occupy your sentences, and tie your thoughts in knots. Which is more respectful: to say to others, ‘Don’t swear,’ or to confuse them with impenetrable utterings from the clouds?

Ihi wehi te mana
No consumption or trading of alcohol, tobacco or illegal drugs on Maui’s Garden (including the area).
People who are adversely intoxicated will be asked to retire to a tent or to leave the site.
Civility is expected with awareness to restrict anti-social behaviour and foul language.
Interaction with the public is encouraged to be friendly and informative.

Photo: Rachel’s desk, complete with a Never never never give up card from a friend, and favourite orange wildflowers from Mt Vic this morning. Just because.

Hi Rachel
We have a couple of questions about link-text. If it’s not too much trouble, we’d like your opinion. We can’t find the answers anywhere.

Question 1:  When you are linking to another page on the same website, should the link text be exactly the same as the page title that you are linking to or can the link text be more descriptive of what the reader will find on that page?

Resource title = Terms and conditions for Singapore sports clubs
Link text = read our rules for sports clubs

For example, a page we might want to link to is called “Terms and conditions for Singapore sports clubs”. Should this be the link text we use on an associated page or could we use something shorter and easier to read? For example, Read our rules for sports clubs. And should we use the same link text across the site to refer to the same page?
Gulika

Hi Gulika
Happy new Year of the Dragon! (I’m a dragon, so watch out for fireworks from Contented this year.)

This can be a sticky problem. But here’s what I think: use the page headline (or title) as the words in your link if you possibly can. And be consistent across the web site. When a page or a document has an adequate headline, no need to tinker with it: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

A. Terms and conditions for Singapore sports clubs
B. Read our rules for sports clubs.

1. Both links and page headlines ought to be concise, complete, packed with keywords and crystal clear.  A passes, B not so much. 
2. The reader should not be surprised or puzzled after clicking the link: she should know she is on the right page. Links should not confuse people even for a moment’s wondering, ‘Oh, where am I? There is no confusion when the link-text is identical to the headline or title on the target page or target PDF. A passes, B not so much.
3. Every link should start with a unique few words. The first 2 words are all-important: these are often the only words people notice. Don’t waste that precious slot on any generic, common or vague words. A passes, B not so much. 
4. Links should be task-oriented. At first sight, ‘Read’ is a command so the link seems to task-oriented. But it’s an illusion, because reading is not much of a task. We take it for granted that every link will lead to something that needs reading! That’s true even if the main purpose of the target page is to enable us to register for a conference, or purchase something, or sit a test. You could put ‘Read’ at the beginning of half your links, thereby wasting some of your most valuable real estate, and reducing the likelihood that links will be noticed.

EXCEPTION: If people are likely to need to print a page, and if the printed page has links to essential information for the task at hand, actual URLs should also be provided. This is an accessibility issue. Here’s where decisions get sticky! I would make this kind of link-text the exception, not the rule. I know this comment is vague, sorry: all the more reason to figure out a policy for your web site. Some elegant solutions are possible. 
Rachel

Rachel, here’s another of a less obvious type  – is the link title solution below better or not – my rationale: you lose ‘issues’ as keyword but get a sense that there are practical tips from ‘How to’ and suggests a concrete, active solution to the user’s problem? Or would it be better to say ‘How to deal with complaints’, so that there is some reflection between the title of the resource and the link?

Resource title = Dealing with issues and complaints
Link title = How to handle complaints
Thank you!
Gulika

Gulika, again, just stick to the resource title: it will work very well as link-text. This type of link is dealt with in Gerry McGovern’s latest newsletter, so I will quote him:
 

Have unique beginnings for all your links. The first 3-4 words are so incredibly important on the Web. If you have a guide on how to install a router, write the link: “Installation instructions”. Don’t write “How to install this router”. Otherwise you’ll have lots of links beginning with “How to”. Lead with the need.
 

Gerry McGovern is a hero of the Web. I love it when he says the same thing as me.
Photo of old hippie bus: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, CC Skeggy’s photostream