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study techniques: how to spell, plan, and write more effectively

How to use quotations

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the conventions and techniques of quotation

Quotations

1. There are in general two instances when you may wish to use quotations from other writers’ work:

Evidence – when quoting from other sources to support your own argument(s)

Reference – when a text is itself the subject of your essay and you need to refer to it in your discussion.

2. The conventions of accurate quotation and referencing are relatively simple, and they are based on the need for accuracy, consistency, and clarity. There are a number of slightly different systems of notation. The two most widely used are:

  • a quotation, with an endnote giving the source
  • the Harvard system (described separately)

3. The whole purpose of both systems is that tutors marking your work should be able, if they wish, to check the accuracy of the quotations you use.

Evidence

4. In a discussion of the development of Marx’s philosophy for example, you might argue that his work was a natural development of his predecessors, supporting your assertion by quoting David McLellan. He points out that

Marx began by paying tribute to the achievements of Feuerbach, particularly in having shown that Hegel’s philosophy was no more than a rationalisedtheology. (1)

5. A bracketed number is added immediately after the quotation, and the source of your quotation is given as an endnote on a separate sheet at the end of your essay. (You might wish to place the information as a footnote at the bottom of the page, though this system can become rather complicated.)

NOTES

1. David McLellan, The Thought of Karl Marx, London: Macmillan, 1971, p.26.

6. Note that this information is given in the following order, and you should remember to indicate the titles of books by using italics.

Author – Book Title – Publisher – Date – Page

7. The material you quote is placed between two single quotation marks if it is run in as part of your text:

this is what David McLellan calls a ‘rationalised theology’ (1) in his discussion of the relationship between Marx and Hegel

8. If the length of the quote amounts to more than three lines of your own text however, it should be indented separately, and no quote marks are necessary:

Marx began by paying tribute to the achievements of Feuerbach, particularly in having shown that Hegel’s philosophy was no more than a rationalised theology, and having discovered the true materialist approach by starting from the social relationship of man to man. (1)

9. Your own argument should normally be offered first, and you then reinforce it with quotation from an authoritative source. You are using this secondary evidence from acknowledged specialists to support your own views. Do not offer the quotation first, otherwise what should be your own argument will tend to be come more a ‘commentary’ upon it.

10. The quotations you offer should be as brief as possible to make their point. Don’t be tempted to offer long quotations from other people’s work in the hope that this will act as a substitute for your own argument. Nor should you stitch together a patchwork of quotations from a variety of sources with a few words of your own. This creates the impression that you are relying too heavily on other people’s work.

11. Sometimes in more advanced essays it might be necessary to quote longer passages. You would do this if you were going to analyse the author’s arguments in detail and at quite some length. This should only be done occasionally.

12. Each main point of your argument should be made and discussed in its own separate paragraph. This should not normally need more than one quotation to support it. Too many quotations can create the impression that you are relying too heavily on secondary sources.

Reference

13. When the subject of your essay is the discussion of a text (say, criticism of a novel or an article) you should follow the same system of notation. Directly after the first quotation you should give a full bibliographic description of the text you are discussing.

14. This information could be given within brackets in the body of your essay, but you will be developing good academic habits if you place the information as an endnote after the conclusion of your essay.

15. If your essay is predominantly concerned with just one text, all subsequent quotations from it may simply be followed by page references. Simply add an explanation to the first endnote, saying – all subsequent page references are to this edition.

16. If you will be quoting from a variety of other sources in the same essay, you should number the quotations and give the sources accurately as a series of endnotes.

17. It is also possible to mix these two forms of referencing, so long as the distinctions are made clear. If your piece of work was a long essay on Bleak House for instance, it would be acceptable to identify all your quotations from the novel with page references. Quotations from other critics or sources would numbered and their sources identified as separate endnotes.

18. There must be grammatical continuity and sense maintained between any quotation and your own argument. To arrange this, it might be necessary to add or delete words from the material quoted, or to change the tense of the original. Whenever you do this, any changes should be very small. They must also be properly acknowledged.

[It was] as if she were truly loved by him, but notwithstanding this impression she regarded the man as no more than a casual acquaintance who occasionally made her laugh (p.7)

19. Square brackets are used to indicate any words which you have added in order to make the quotation fit grammatically or otherwise within your own argument.

20. If you wish to draw attention to a particular word or some part of the quotation, you should provide the emphasis by using italics. You should then immediately admit the fact ‘as if she were loved by him’ [p.7 – my emphasis] and then carry on with what you wish to say in the remainder of your argument.

21. In order to shorten a quotation or to remove some part of it which is not relevant to your argument, you may wish to omit a number of words. To denote this omission (which is called an ellipsis) you should use the convention of the three dots ‘…’ in the space which is left:

He had even a kind of assurance on his face … the assurance of a common man filled with pride. (p.7)

22. This device should not be used to change the sense of the original in any way, or to misrepresent its spirit: such practices are regarded as academically fraudulent.

23. The three dots denoting an ellipsis do not need to be placed at the beginning or the end of your quotation, even if you are quoting a few words from within a sentence.

24. The general convention for indicating quotation is to use single quote marks (‘unmitigated’) and to reserve double quotes marks for indicating speech (“Good gracious!” cried the duchess.)

25. When quoting conversation, follow these rules, but if it makes things easier put the words spoken within double quote marks even if they were in single quote marks in the original:

Kayerts is being even more hypocritical and self-deceiving when he ‘observe[s] with a sigh: “It had to be done”‘ (p.39)

26. If you are quoting more than once from a number of works in an essay, you can avoid confusion and save yourself the trouble of giving a full reference each time. Use either the op. cit. and ibid. or the short title convention.

27. Different subjects have their own conventions in this respect – but the short title system is becoming more widely used and is easier to follow. However, an enormous number of academic books have been produced using the older system, so it is worth understanding how it operates, even if you decide not to use it.

28. Using the system of Latin abbreviations, the first quotation from a text is referenced fully with an endnote. In the case of any references which follow, just give the author’s name followed by op. cit. (which means ‘in the work already quoted’) and then the page number – as follows:

11. J.D. Bryant, The Origins of Mythology, London: Carfax Press, 1971, p.234.

12. History Today, Vol XXXIV, No 18, p.123.

13. Bryant, op. cit., p. 387.

29. If the very next quotation is again from the same work, the abbreviation ibid. (which means ‘in the same place’) is followed by a page reference. You do not need to give the author’s name. The sequence just given would therefore be extended:

11. J.D. Bryant, The Origins of Mythology, London: Carfax Press, 1971, p.234.

12. History Today, Vol XXXIV, No 18, p.123.

13. Bryant, op. cit., p. 387.

14. ibid., p. 388.

30. The short title system is particularly useful for longer essays which might deal with a number of texts or different books by the same author. Second and third year undergraduate studies often require a lengthy piece of work such as this. The principle is the same one of giving full bibliographical details in the first reference. Subsequent quotations are given a reference which is composed of the author’s surname, a shortened form of the book title, and the page number. The examples shown above would therefore appear as follows:

11. J.D. Bryant, The Origins of Mythology, London: Carfax Press, 1971, p.234.

12. History Today, Vol XXXIV, No 18, p.123.

13. Bryant, Mythology, p. 387.

31. The conventions of quoting from poetry and plays are exactly
the same, but for the convenience of the reader, line numbers are given.

32. There are a number of widespread misunderstandings about the use of quotation and systems of referencing. It is worth taking the trouble to follow the conventions outlined above (or use the Harvard system). Once you have brought simplicity and clarity to the presentation of your quotations it will help to improve the appearance and credibility of your work.

Some do’s and don’ts
  • You should not put page references in margins: they are placed immediately after the quotation, within your text.
     
  • You should not locate references as part of your own argument with expression such as ‘and we see this on page 27 where he collapses slowly … then later in the paragraph where he recovers’.
     
  • Ellipses are shown by three dots only [ … ] not a random
    number scattered across the page.
     
  • References and note numbers should form part of the text of your argument. They should not be added to the essay at a later stage and written into the margins or squeezed above the text as superscripts.

33. You should avoid using too many quotations and references to secondary material. In some subjects this can sometimes be required (as in a ‘review of the literature’) but in most it is not. Packing your essay with references to other people’s ideas creates the impression that you are unable to create an argumentof your own. Remember that your own evidence or points should come first. Quotation should normally be offered after you have established your own argument.

34. Some people use quotations as a means of starting an introduction or rounding off the conclusion to an essay. This can give your work a touch of sparkle if the quote is well chosen. However, you should minimise the use of this strategy in the body of the essay itself. Paragraphs which begin with a quotation can weaken your argument – for two reasons.

  • First, you are not leading with your own ideas in the form of a topic sentence directly related to the question.
     
  • Second, the substance of your argument in what follows might give the impression of being a commentary on the secondary source quoted, rather than an answer to the original question.

© Roy Johnson 2004

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How to write scientific reports

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conventions, structure, and form of reports

What are scientific reports?

Introduction

The purpose of this guidance note is to explain the criteria for assessment of English language skills in a written report.

1) It outlines the criteria of assessment
2) It summarises what a report is expected to contain
3) It comments on how you can help the reader

1. Criteria for assessment
  1. Communicative quality: is it easy to read?
  2. Ideas and organisation: is the information appropriate and clearly organised?
  3. Grammar and vocabulary: is there a good range of language used so that the meaning is clear and the text is not repetitive?
  4. Surface features: is the punctuation and spelling accurate?
2. What are scientific reports expected to contain

This section looks at the contents of the report structure, and presentation.

Structure

The structure of a report will normally consist of the following items as
a minimum:

  • title
  • authors
  • abstract
  • summary
  • table of contents
  • body of report
  • conclusion
  • references

You need to adjust these sections to suit the purpose of the report. But
each section has a particular role, as follows.

The title – tells the reader directly and at first glance what it is that you are discussing.

The abstract or summary and table of contents – gives the reader an overview of the report and a list of section headings. From these, they can see the points included and decide which ones to look at.

The body – consists of the introduction and component sections.

The introduction should state the purpose of the report and show that you are aware of its terms of reference. That is, you should say what the subject is, and what is its purpose. You should also state any method(s) used and any limitations, and finally indicate how the report is structured. It is important to justify, or say why you are writing the report. You should also give the reader a mind map of what is coming.

Sections of the report should be organised under headings. This forces you to classify information and helps you to remain relevant – in case you are likely to wander off the point.

The conclusion – starts by referring back to the purpose of the report, states the main points arising, draws conclusions, and possibly makes recommendations.

References and appendices. These list the material referred to in your work. Follow any guidelines on format for presentation of references. Appendices provide additional material not included in the text.

Layout and presentation

Layout and presentation involves matters ranging from clear title and section headings, to accurate spelling and punctuation. You must think of your reader. Presenting accurate text is equivalent to speaking clearly. Since you are not around to explain any problems to your reader, editing and checking your text is extremely important.

Scientific reportsJudith Bell, Doing Your Research Project: A Guide for First-Time Researchers in Education and Social Science, Buckingham: Open University Press (2nd edn) 1993, pp.176. Best-selling UK guide which covers planning and record-keeping, interviewing, reviewing ‘the literature’ of your topic, designing questionnaires, interpreting evidence, and presenting the findings. Each chapter has a summary checklist and its own suggestions for further reading. There’s also a full bibliography and index.
Buy the book from Amazon UK
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3. How can you help the reader?

Apart from the points raised above about structure, layout, and presentation, the main tool you have is obviously the language. There are two main points to make: the first is about what we call “signposts”, the second about style.

Signposts

Apart from section headings, you can select language which gives your reader signposts to what you are trying to explain. Signposting helps the person read the text quickly by highlighting the main points and the logic of the argument or discussion. Some examples follow.

1. The first section of your report could start with “The aim of this report…” or “The aim of this project…”

2. Within the first section, the stages could be introduced with “The first stage is…”, “The second stage…”, “This section deals with…”.

3. When you want to give an opinion or evaluate something, you might signpost with “The problem with this is…”, “What is significant about this is…”, “It is important to remember that…”

4. To show that you are drawing a conclusion, introduce the point with “This means that…”, “The result shows that…”, “It is likely that…”

Style

Style means the tone of language you use to address the reader. There are three points to make. You should avoid repetition, avoid a narrative style, and avoid vague language.

Repeat only what is necessary. That is, key words or technical terms. The reader has a memory. To flatter this, you can introduce your repeated point with words like “As mentioned earlier…”, “As discussed above…”

Although it is acceptable to use “I” or “we” in a report, too many sentences with “I” and “we” become repetitive. Avoid: “I had to…” Use: “It was necessary to…”

The reader does not wish to know about everything that happened, but rather your objective assessment of the situation. Avoid: “First we discussed…then we decided…” Use: “The first step was to discuss…It was decided…”

Be precise and be specific. Avoid: “There was a problem so we…” Use: “A problem arose with … which meant it was necessary to…”

Conclusion and recommendations

Read over what you have written and check it against the guidelines. Pay particular attention to punctuation and spelling.

With thanks to Esther Daborn

© Roy Johnson 2004

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HTML Tutorial 02 – code made simple

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1. You can produce web pages using a simple word processor such as Windows NotePad or WordPad. The files you produce should be saved with an .htm extension.

2. The files can contain text, colour, and pictures [even sounds] – but they also contains HTML code.

3. HyperText Markup Language (HTML) uses ‘tags’ to send instructions to a web browser that will ‘read’ the web page. The browser then arranges the appearance of the text on screen.

4. The tags are a code which is placed between angled brackets – <H1> Here is a level one Heading </H1>.

5. Note that the tags are placed around any text you wish to affect. They commonly begin with one tag <H1>, and then they are switched off with another, </H1>, which contains an olbique stroke.

6. <H1>Heading</H1> – shows headings raging from big and bold at size 1 – to 6 – which is quite small.

7. You can also change the size of text on the page from 1 to 6 by enclosing the text between FONT SIZE tags

<FONT SIZE=”4″>produce text size four</FONT>

8. Notice that in this case the numbers 1 to 6 range from small to large.

9. Browsers show text at SIZE=”3″ unless told to do otherwise.

10. You can also change the colour of the text on the page – but note that the tag requires the US spelling of COLOR.

11. The text between the tags will appear in colour:

<FONT COLOR=”RED”>some text in red</FONT>

12. The <P> tag inserts a double space to start a new paragraph.

<P>
Here is the text of one paragraph, which is shown to illustrate the use of the paragraph tag.
</P>
<P>
And this is the start of the following paragraph, which as you can see has been separated from the first with a space.
</P>

13. The <BR> tag forces text to start on the next line down.

Here is a short statement.<BR>
The tag has been used to force the next sentence to begin on a new line.

14. The <HR SIZE=1> tag inserts a Horizontal Rule. The size of the line goes from 1 (most narrow) upwards, with 3 as the default.

15. There are two types of list – ordered and unordered. These are created by using the tags <OL> and <UL>. The first automatically numbers the points in the list, the second creates bulleted points.

16. The items in the list are created by using the <LI> tag. Notice that each point is automatically indented.

17. This is an example of coding for an ordered list:

<OL>

<LI>List item number one</LI>

<LI>List item number two</LI>

<LI>List item number three</LI>

</OL>

This will be show on the screen as follows:

  1. List item number one
  2. List item number two
  3. List item number three

18. This is the coding for an unordered list:

<UL>

<LI>List item number one</LI>

<LI>List item number two</LI>

</UL>

This will be shown on the screen as follows:

  • List item number one
  • List item number two

19. Emphasis is added to text using the BOLD and ITALIC tags, which are shown as <B></B> and <I></I> respectively.

20. Here is some text which is shown in bold and then in italics.

21. You can combine tags – by making text both bold and italic for instance. Here is bold italics.

22. The tags must be correctly nested. That is, they must be added and removed in the correct sequence (or syntax).

<B><I>bold italics</I></B>

23. You can also insert an extra space by using the non-breaking space tag – &nbsp; (which does not come in angled brackets).

no spaces abcdefgh
extra spaces a   b   c   d   e   f   g   h

24. That’s a quick run through some commonly used tags. Here are some general tips on writing the code.

General points

  • You can type tags in upper case <FONT SIZE=4> or lower case <font size=4>.
  • Do not miss out any angled brackets <these> or quote marks “these” – or the code will not work.
  • Do not insert any spaces, as in <FONT C OLOR=RED> or the code will not work.
  • You can combine tags, but they must be correctly nested, as in <B><I>EXAMPLE</I></B>.

NB! This is an extremely simplified account of HTML coding. The appearance of most web pages these days is controlled by style sheets. But the principles shown here are still working underneath.

© Roy Johnson 2002

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HTML Tutorial 03 – page template

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1. A basic web page is fairly simple. You should COPY then SAVE the template shown below.

2. Copy the template into a word-processor, then save the file as template.htm.

3. Use a very simple word-processor, such as Windows NotePad or WordPad. Others, such as Microsoft Word, will try to add its own HTM code – and that will be confusing.

4. Then open the file template.htm, add your own text to the page, and SAVE AS filename.htm, where ‘filename’ is a word of your choice.

5. Give it a name, don’t leave any spaces, and use all lowercase letters. That is, avoid using capital letters in web page filenames.

6. You can view the results by opening the page in your web browser.

7. To do this, go to FILE then OPEN PAGE, and type the pathname into the dialogue box. Alternatively, use the Browse feature to locate your file – filename.htm.

8. Don’t type the statements between the square brackets.

<HTML>

<HEAD>

<TITLE>

[ Insert the title of your page here ]

</TITLE>

</HEAD>

<BODY>

<H1>

[ Insert the main heading of your page here ]

</H1>

<P>
[ Start the text of your page here ]

</P>

<P>
[ Insert more writing here ]
</P>

</BODY>

</HTML>

© Roy Johnson 2002

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HTML Tutorial 04 – common tags

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Tag(s) Function/Name
<P></P> paragraph
<BR> break [new line]
<B></B> bold
<I></I> italics
<H1></H1> heading
<A HREF=”name.htm”></A> hypertext link
<IMG SRC=”name.gif”> link to image source
<HR SIZE=1> horizontal rule
<CENTER></CENTER> centre
<FONT></FONT> font size/colour
<OL></OL> ordered list
<UL></UL> unordered list
<LI></LI> list item
<TABLE></TABLE> table
<TR></TR> table row
<TD></TD> table data

© Roy Johnson 2002

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HTML Tutorial 05 – common problems

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1. Everybody runs into technical problems when they first create Web pages. Don’t feel bad about it. Just learn from your mistakes.

2. The most common problems are caused by small details and the need for complete accuracy.

3. Filenames must be spelled accurately. They should not contain any spaces, and some keyboard characters – such as /, &, and @ – are not allowed. [These are reserved for transmitting data over the Web.]

4. It is safest to use all lower-case letters. Some computers will treat filename.htm and Filename.htm as different files.

5. Tags must be opened and closed rigorously. If you type the following, it will not work:

<B>Put this in bold<B>

This is because the tag has not been properly closed with </B>.

6. The same would happen if you were to miss one of the angled brackets – <B>Put this in bold /B>.

7. HTML code must be completely accurate. The following examples all contain mistakes:

<A HREF=”filename.htm>filename</A>

<BODY BGCOLOUR=”AQUA”>

<FONT SIZE =”5″>some text here</FONT>

8. In the first example, one double quote mark is missing; in the second the spelling is incorrect; and in the third, there is a space. The correct codes are:

<A HREF=”filename.htm”>filename</A>

<BODY BGCOLOR=”AQUA”>

<FONT SIZE=”5″>some text here</FONT>

9. Missing items. It is very easy to omit a small element of code – especially if you are keying it in manually. For instance if you typed –

<A HREF=”filename.htm”filename</A>

– this would not show up on the screen. In fact nothing you typed after it would appear. That’s because the angled bracket is missing after the file name.

10. Bad syntax. Tags must be opened and closed in the correct sequence. The following is an example of incorrect ‘nesting’ of tags.

<FONT SIZE=5><B>big and bold</FONT></B>

This is the correct sequence:

<FONT SIZE=5><B>big and bold</B></FONT>

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HTML Tutorial 06 – adding colour

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1. The default background colour of a web page is grey – which is not very exciting.

2. That is, grey is the colour which will show in a browser window unless you tell it to do otherwise. Web design guru David Siegel says that web pages such as this are – “like slide presentations shown on a cement wall”.

3. There are three easy ways to add colour to your pages:

  • use FONT COLOR for text
  • use BACKGROUND COLOR for the page
  • use a graphic for a ‘background wallpaper’ effect

4. Let’s look at each of these options in turn.

The font colour tag

5. When you specify the FACE or SIZE of your FONT, you can also say what COLOR you want it to be.

<FONT=”Arial COLOR=”RED”>my web pages</FONT>

This would produce the following effect.

The words ‘my web pages‘ are coloured red.

6. Other common colours are as follows.

Aqua – Fuchsia – Olive – Green – Lime
Blue – Maroon – Teal – Navy – Purple

Background colour

7. Background colour can be used to give colour to a page.

8. The code is inserted into the <BODY> tag at the top of your page. Notice that the term ‘background’ is abbreviated to BG.

<BODY BGCOLOR=”AQUA”>

9. The problem with most of the standard colours is that they are rather strong. They are too demanding, not quiet enough.

10. It is better to choose something more quiet and restrained.

BGCOLOR=”WHITE” is always safe.

BGCOLOR=”#FFFFEF” is more subtle.

[Don’t ask! Just use “#FFFFEF”.]

11. Note that the tag must be given its American spelling of COLOR. This is a very common technical problem.

Tiled graphic file

12. You can also create a coloured background for your page by using a graphic image. This will be ’tiled’ [repeated to fill the space] by
your web browser.

14. The code goes into the BODY tag at the head of your page. Notice that in this case the full term BACKGROUND is used.

<BODY BACKGROUND=”stripe.gif”>

15. You would save the graphic file ‘stripe.gif’ in the same folder as your .htm page.

16. But a tiled graphic makes reading more difficult. It almost always results in a visually disruptive page.

17. It’s usually much better to use a single colour – one which is muted and subtle. Choose something against which black text will stand out clearly.

18. Here are a good example and a ridiculously bad example.

© Roy Johnson 2002

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HTML Tutorial 07 – page anatomy

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1. Let’s look at each section of a typical HTML page. We’ll see what the code means and what it does.

2. Much of this might seem pretty boring at first – but you will realise later why it can be important.

3. First of all, here is the absolute basic minimum HTML page.

<HTML>

        <HEAD>

                <TITLE>

                Page title

                </TITLE>

        </HEAD>

        <BODY>

                Here is the page content

        </BODY>

</HTML>

4. You can see that the structure of the page is a HEAD section, which contains the TITLE, and a BODY section, which contains the contents of what will appear on the page.

5. The first item is actually the <HTML>. This tells the browser “What follows is going to be an HTML page”. Like all the other tags, it is enclosed in angled brackets.

6. The next item is the <HEAD>. This section of the page can contain all sorts of technical data – which we’ll come to in a moment. For now, we’ll notice that it contains the TITLE of the page.

7. The <TITLE> does not appear on the page – so don’t look for it there. It appears at the top of your browser window – saying something like “Page title – Mozilla Firefox” or “Page title – Windows Internet Explorer”.

8. Next comes the <BODY> section. This contains the information you wish to appear in your page. It could be text, graphics, audio files, or even movie clips.

9. Note that each one of these tags must be opened – then closed. Otherwise, the page will not show up in your browser.

10. And that’s it! Those are the basic elements of a web page. But now let’s look at some of the additional features which might appear. For this we go back to the top of the page.

11. The other item which commonly appears in the HEAD section of the page is META data. That is, information about the content of the page. This is usually a DESCRIPTION of the page, and KEYWORDS which summarise its most important topics.

12. This information does not appear in your browser window. It is intended for search engines. They visit your pages [maybe] and want to know how to categorise them and what they contain.

13. Another thing you might see at any point in a web page is COMMENTS.

<!– these are comments –>

14. Anything which appears between <! and > will not show up when you view the page in a browser.

15. What use are these? Many designers use comments to mark special sections of their pages – as in the following example. They make editing easier at a later date.

<!– ######## START OF MAIN TOPIC ######## –>

16. There are many other elements you might find in a typical HTML page – but these are the most basic. Just remember that unless you open and close all your tags correctly, the page may not show up in your browser.

See the page of common problems for examples.

© Roy Johnson 2002

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HTML Tutorial 08 – questions of taste

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1. Too much text
Some people put far too much text into their pages, and often don’t have margins or breaks between paragraphs. The result is a screen full of text – which is difficult to read. Use plenty of space around your text. It will look more attractive and be easier on the eye.

2. Bad colours
Combining coloured backgrounds with coloured text is dangerous. It can work if it is done with restraint – but many people are attracted to colours which clash and vibrate. For good results – ‘less is more’ is often the case so far as color is concerned.

3. Tiled backgrounds
Background graphics can often make text difficult to read. When a .gif file is tiled across a page, the resulting pattern often creates an effect which is visually disruptive. Use only very pale graphics.

4. Large graphics
These take up a lot of space, and can take a long time to download. People viewing your pages will switch off and go elsewhere. Shrink your pictures in a graphics editing package.

5. Long pages
Most people dislike scrolling through very long pages. They will often not read beyond 2-3 screens of text. The solution is to create separate pages, and put links between them.

6. Hit counters
These make any web site look very amateurish. If your web site is a hobby, you don’t need them. If it is commercial, you will not want to reveal this information. If you are determined to have one, it’s possible to make it invisible. You can record the ‘hits’ – but other people don’t see the results.

7. Animated graphics
These usually distract attention from what you have to say, and they generally look tacky. Unless they are very small, very subtle, and in non-conspicuous positions – leave them off your pages.

8. Garish colours
Your site will look cheap, amateurish, and vulgar if you use too many bright colours. The same is true of bad clip art and animated graphics. Yellow and blue starbursts against a speckly purple background will look naff. Leave those for the funfair.

9. To see a very funny and truly awful collection of bad taste designs, visit the following web site:

Budugllydesign.com

10. Well-designed web sites are often based on one of the most memorable slogans to come from the design profession – “Less is more”.

© Roy Johnson 2002

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