Web Article Style – Safety Provisions

The purpose of our web articles is to give relevant information and, of course, reference our training catalog and encourage customers to purchase our courses. The focus of your article, no matter your topic, should somehow relate to our safety trainings. A quick mention at the end is not enough. Think of web articles almost like marketing materials for our company.

Audience

Make sure that your audience stays consistent throughout the article. For example, you should not switch between using “you should” and “employees should.” This becomes confusing for the reader.

Also, if you have an article talking about the importance of having a company-wide training program, you’re probably addressing the employer. Or, an article about not cutting corners during worksite operations will be addressed to the employees. Your specific audience should be clear.

If your article will not be addressing both employers and employees, use general language. Rather than trying to say "you," consider using "employers" and "employees" to account for the general audience.

Remember, these articles are not meant to read like personal blog posts. Avoid referring to yourself specifically. Instead, use "we" to refer to the company as the narrator.

Preliminary Research

Do a google search for the key term you have been given.
From the list of “People Also Ask,” get an idea of the angle you might go for.
Read through our courses for the topic you have been given to familiarize yourself with the information.
Look through competitor’s/other blogs to see what kind of information they have given and what “gap” you can fill.
If possible, find statistics relevant to your topic (i.e. 500 people a year are injured from falls, etc.).

Your web article should include external links from a reputable source (OSHA, NIOSH, CDC, etc.). These links can go anywhere in the article.

Organization & Writing

Create an outline to organize your information before you jump into writing.
Break sections up with sub-headers, bullet points, and pictures.
Never go more than 300 words without a break. Your total word count will be dictated by the needs of the Web Team.
Use short words, small sentences, and brief paragraphs.

Remember, this is a web article, not an essay. Section headers are not enough to break up your text. You need to provide lots of good information, but in a way that is enticing for the end-user. This is a persuasive text to convince them to continue reading the article and buy our products.

Tone

The level of formality of your web article should be similar to that of a training course. Think of it as a professional conversation. It should be engaging to read but kept at a professional level. Engage your reader by asking hypothetical questions, and remember that you're writing for those who are investigating our company.

Word Count

As a rule of thumb, you should always be within 20% of the target word count.

For example: if the target word count if 2,478 words, the article must be within +/- 248 words, so between 1,982 and 2,974 words

Time

Web articles should take you around 5 - 15 hours to write. Depending on the word count requirements and your background knowledge, you may be able to write these rather quickly. However, we still expect these to have professional quality.

If you work full time you are expected to write at least 6,000 words per week and if you are part time you are expected to write at least 3,000 words per week

Helpful Links/Blog Sites:

The following are some websites that write health and safety articles. You may refer to these to get an idea of what we’re trying to beat.