Features of online texts. Choose the features that will enable your audience to get the most from your online text.
Online readers generally prefer short, manageable chunks of verbal text. If you are writing a long piece, consider breaking it up with headings and visuals. Include enough text to help readers make sense of your content, captions for visuals, sound transcripts (if you include audio files), and so on.
Links to external sites are one method of documenting sources online. You can link to content that helps to prove a point—complex explanations, supporting statistics, bibliographies, referenced Web sites, or additional readings, for example. Links also help readers navigate from one part of a text to another. Each link should have a clear rhetorical purpose and be in an appropriate location. If it’s important for users to read the whole paragraph, for instance, you may want to move the link to the end of it.
Online texts—from blogs and video channels to online newspaper articles—often incorporate interactive features, such as “like” buttons, comments or forums, and a link to contact the writer.
Online writers who give credit where credit is due have greater authority. If you have not created a verbal text, graphic, or audio or video clip yourself, provide a caption or link identifying the source, and ask permission to use it in a text for an online audience (see Chapter 15).