SFF Website

The SFF website is an important tool for communicating the results of Sustainable Farming Fund projects to a wide audience.

All project teams are asked to contribute to the SFF website by providing:

  • a project brief at the start of your project, outlining the project and what is expected to be achieved (see Appendix 23). The project brief will remain on the website for the life of the project (and afterwards);
  • an electronic web update as part of each four-monthly progress report;
  • electronic copies of information that can be linked to your project brief as appropriate – for example, project newsletters, posters, presentations, links to other websites, copies of articles; and
  • your final report in an electronic format.

Note: SFF prefers to receive documents in Word format rather than as PDFs.

Writing your Project Brief

The project brief is for first-time readers. After reading the brief (which should be only a few paragraphs in length, at the most), a reader should have a clear idea of what the project is about:

  • what is the issue, problem or opportunity the project addresses;
  • why it is important (the context); and
  • what you are going to do (the methods);

A simple and clear description of your project will make it easy for the reader to decide how it relates to them and whether they need to delve further. Finally, it will make your information accessible to as many people as possible.

When writing your project brief, the key things to remember are:

  • be concise;
  • use short sentences;
  • put the main point first;
  • use simple, common words; and
  • use an active voice where possible.

Be Concise

Words on the screen are hard to read. It is thought that reading on-screen takes 25 percent longer than reading on paper. Readers are more impatient (estimates range from 5 to 10 seconds for the amount of time you have to grab a reader’s attention). This means, above all, web writing should be much more concise.

Short Sentences

Say what you have to say quickly. Assume you will only use half as many words as usual. Twenty words per sentence is plenty. As for paragraphs, vary them, but again, keep them short. As a rule of thumb, try keeping the paragraph shorter than 65 words.

Putting the Main Idea First

Traditionally, people scan documents by reading the first few words of the paragraph. For this reason, where practicable, put only one idea in each paragraph. And put the main idea right up front, in the first few words. Don’t use a whole sentence to lead to the point of a paragraph.

Use an Active Voice

Where possible, write in the active rather then the passive voice. Active sentences are easier to process and remember than passive sentences. Note too, shifting from the passive to the active voice saves words.

For example:

x Passive aActive
An option is then selected by the user

… are sorted by the pickers

limits are adjusted manually by the user

 Select an option.

The pickers sort …

Set limits manually.

Contact for Enquiries

Fund Administrator
Sustainable Farming Fund
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
PO Box 2526
Wellington

Tel: 0800 008 333
Fax: 04 894 0746
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