Skidmore College
815 North Broadway
Saratoga Springs
New York, 12866
Paul Dwyer, Web Editor
Here to Help
Every publicly accessible page on the
Skidmore Web site reflects on the College and shapes visitors’
perceptions and opinion of it. Therefore my goal is not only
to correct errors, but also to add value to Skidmore’s
site by making its prose as professional, consistent, elegant
and readable as possible.
Q&A
What does the Web Editor do?
My primary responsibility is to improve
the verbal content of the official Skidmore Web site. This
includes, but is not limited to, spelling, punctuation, grammar,
style, logic and sense, and to a limited extent, fact.
As a member of the Web team, I work with Electronic Communications
Manager Andy Camp and Webmaster Elizabeth Katzman to improve the
usability and functionality of the College’s Web site
and to plan its growth.
Also, in cooperation with the College
Relations Office, I handle news items and assist my colleagues
as needed, including occasional writing for the Web and/or
College print publications. I also edit the College's print and online
catalog.
So you’re going
to do all the Web writing for our group?
No. Individual departments and offices
are still responsible for creating content—no one knows
your business better than you! Part of our mission on the
Web team is to empower users to create and maintain their
own pages. I offer a resource you can call on to help improve
your department’s image online.
My writing is perfect. Why do I have to submit it to a gatekeeper?
You don’t have to: Participation
is strictly voluntary. Second, I don’t accept or reject
manuscripts; I’m here to sweat the details. But if, for
lack of being checked, a page is posted with an error (language,
design or coding), it could be a long time before the problem
is corrected.
Our mission is not to change an author’s
“voice” or to squelch creativity. But every writer
can benefit from some backup.
How does the process work?
First, it makes sense to choose someone
in your department or office to be the Web contact. That person
should send me text that’s complete and ready for posting,
not drafts.
The best method is to attach a Microsoft Word document to
e-mail. I will make changes in revisions
mode, send the file back, and you can go through the revisions
and accept or reject them as you like. Then simply paste the
text into DreamWeaver when you build or revise your pages.
Note: “Raw” unformatted text
is best. (Extensive formatting—type faces and sizes,
rules, margins and page breaks, etc.—doesn’t translate
well from Word to the Web anyway. But if you’re starting
with a document that was designed for print, that’s OK,
too.) Editing in HTML or in other word processing programs
is more awkward and time-consuming for all concerned.
Please bear in mind that this is largely
new territory, and the system we’re creating is subject
to refinement. It might also be different from the protocols
you’re accustomed to with print publishing, either in-house,
through the College Relations Office, or externally.
What about the pages that are already online?
The Web team is reviewing the entire Skidmore
site, looking at a variety of aspects, including verbal content.
Since there are literally thousands of pages on the College
site, this is a long-term project.
What style do you recommend?
What if I prefer a different one?
The most important thing is that a page or group of pages be
internally consistent. For general purposes, Skidmore
house style (based on the Chicago
Manual of Style, 14th Edition, also at the Skidmore
Shop) will be applied by default to Web pages. However,
I won’t override your choice of style, if one is apparent—particularly
with academic or technical work.
What do you mean by “official” College Web site?
This includes
pages controlled by and related to the College’s academic
departments, offices and officially sanctioned organizations.
Student pages, employees’ private pages not related to
the College (even if they reside on the Skidmore servers), and
pages belonging to outside groups are not supported. For more
information, see the Skidmore
Web Management Policy.
