Technical Book Review – "Letting Go of the Words"

© 2009-2010 Ugur Akinci
There are some books that can launch a career. This is one of them. After reading Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works by Janice (Ginny) Redish and digesting its main principles, you can easily put up a web site and start marketing yourself as a “Content Strategist.”
The sub-title of this award-winning book sums up its content pretty well: “Writing Web Content that Works.” I’ve listened to Redish in person during an STC award ceremony earlier this year in Washington DC and everything she said about web design and content strategy made sense.
If you’d like to learn how to put together a web site that SERVES its GOAL, then you should definitely read this book. Perhaps you’ve noticed that I didn’t say a “pretty” web site, or a “great” web site, but a web site that delivers its promise and does what it’s supposed to do. That’s the game and Redish is an excellent coach to win that game in a hurry.
I’ll just share the Table of Contents of this important book to give you an idea of what’s in store for you:
1] Content! Content! Content! (People come to web sites for the content.)
2] People! People! People! (We all interpret as we read.)
3] Starting Well: Home Pages (The 10-minute mini-tour.)
4] Getting There: Pathway Pages (Most site visitors are on a hunt…)
5] Writing Information, Not Documents (Breaking up large documents…)
6] Focusing on Your Essential Messages (Six guidelines.)
7] Designing Your Web Pages for Easy Use (Fourteen Guidelines for helpful design.)
8] Tuning Up Your Sentences (Ten guidelines.)
9] Using Lists and Tables (Nine guidelines.)
10] Breaking Up Your Text With Headings
11] Using Illustrations Effectively
12] Writing Meaningful Links (Twelve Guidelines.)
13] Getting from Draft to Final Web Pages (Think of writing as revising drafts.)
And did I mention that this 366-page full-color book is lavishly illustrated with screen shots and drawings to drive home each point by using as little words as possible (as suggested by the sub-title of the book itself)?
You’ll be keeping this book and referring to it for years to come. I recommend it highly if you are a web designer, web developer, web writer, or a manager who supervises and commissions such projects.