Three Essential Skills for Web Authors

If you want to induce a panic attack in a "typical" web content author, remind him / her of the fact that they are not members of an endangered species because, in the United States alone, there are over one million people that have published at least one article online. Although the technical and intellectual quality of many such articles may be abysmal, the sheer volume of production makes it difficult for the better authors to gain recognition. Restated, if authors want to distinguish themselves from the mob, they will need marketable skill sets that are in demand by potential clients.

Let's face it: writing for the Web is both a technical and a visual art . Since it appears that almost anyone can string words together to create reasonably acceptable sentences and paragraphs, we must turn our attention to the visual aspects of web content.

I am always amazed by the number of writers that, although they publish online, are essentially clueless when it comes to understanding web technology. Would you, as a writer, sit down at a word processor without a dictionary and / or thesaurus close at hand? If you're a web author, when was the last time you gave more than passing thought to how your content will appear when published online? Have you considered the potential market for web services that can "scale" to devices such as cell phones and notebooks? If you haven't, take one minute of self-reflection to see if you are "up to speed" on web technology.

Sadly, most writers are "making buggy whips in the age of the automobile:" they are writing without an understanding of how their material will look when it appears online. Listed below are three skills that, in my opinion, are essential for writers wanting to stay competitive in the coming years.

1. HTML and, particularly, HTML 5

The Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is "the language of the World Wide Web." In other words, if you read something online, there is a very high probability that it is written in HTML.

HTML was the first "true"web technology, being created by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990. Although it has undergone several "revisions" since that time, its basic structure has remained essentially unchanged until recently.

The most recent version of HTML, HTML 5 , is just now gaining some degree of support in some "modern" (Yahoo uses the designation "A-Level" rather than "modern") web browsers, e.g. Opera , Google's Chrome , and Mozilla's Firefox (and no, I didn't forget about Internet Explorer , which doesn't support much of anything ). HTML 5 is a radical change in web authoring because it implements such long-awaited provisions as the ability to embed audio and video content without having to rely on plug-ins, inclusion of MathML and SVG markup in HTML pages, several new presentation elements, and a new way to display and process HTML forms. Furthermore, HTML 5 will be used extensively in web sites that hope to transition to Google TV.

The web site that I always recommend to those wanting to learn HTML, and HTML 5, is W3Schools . This site is easy to use, assumes that you know nothing about HTML, and presents its tutorials in well-defined modules. If there is a better site for learning web technologies, I haven't found it! You can also download a free e- book on HTML that is available from Wikibooks .

2. Cascading Style Sheets

HTML may be the language of the Internet and World Wide Web, but it leaves a lot to be desired in the aesthetics department. In order to create organized, easy to follow, web content you will need to know a technology known as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).

Cascading Style Sheets let you tell the user's web browser how you want your content to be displayed, from overall layout to the font type and size for different sections. Although there have been two previous CSS standards published, and a third revision is under active development, uniform implementation of how a web browser handles style sheets has yet to be realized. However, the use of CSS will result in a uniform theme among web sites that consist of multiple pages even if those pages were written by different authors.

Although there are literally thousands of web sites that discuss CSS, the W3Schools CSS tutorials are among the best for beginners. You can also download a free e-book on CSS from Wikibooks .

3. JavaScript

According to Douglas Crockford , JavaScript is "... the world's most misunderstood programming language." This is unfortunate since most modern web technologies (such as AJAX ) would be impossible without CSS (above) and JavaScript. If you hope to eventually write about something other than your personal opinions, you will need an in-depth understanding of of how modern web applications are put together and how they function.

If you want to begin learning JavaScript, the best site is, again, the W3Schools JavaScript series . You can also download a free e- book on JavaScript from the Wikibooks site. Additionally, there are many decent tutorials, such as the ones produced by "thenewboston ," available on youtube.com .

In summary, I have not suggested that authors should become web programmers. Instead, I have merely called attention to the fact that many web content authors lack even the most basic understanding of today's web technologies. Web authors that lack such an understanding will soon find themselves at a marked disadvantage in an increasingly competitive market.