Ben's Favorite Websites

Two of my favorite websites are the Washington Post and BuzzFeed. I like the Washington Post because it is a great place to read about both local and national news. The site is easy to navigate with tabs on the top, popular topic thread links below those tabs, and a homepage featuring the day's top stories. When scrolling over the main tabs, one will find a drop down menu of even further defined subject areas. This allows for easy navigation to specific topic areas. Washington Post contains both written articles and videos and is updated regularly. Most articles have an area for readers to comment and hold discussions. Finally, this website is also very adaptable to mobile devices.  I also spend more time than I should on BuzzFeed. BuzzFeed features everything from news articles to funny compilations of memes and gifs. Although there is a lot of information on the website, it is still very manageable to navigate. Like Washington Post, BuzzFeed has tabs with drop down menus. Popular articles are featured at the top in a menu that the reader can scroll through. Every article has a lot of visual aids, whether those are pictures, graphics, videos, etc. The website also works well with mobile devices.  Although BuzzFeed is mostly known for it's meme compilations, it does also feature articles similar to those one would find on a news website, like this article. The heading for the article is catchy and is followed by a simple summary. It also features pictures and a bar graph visual. The story is not written in long blocky paragraphs, making it good for a mobile user. It also has several links to other articles on the web.
 This Washington Post article is also a good example of web writing. It has a unique structure compared to other news articles. While many news articles integrate graphics into the text, the Washington Post created a two-column structure, where the graphics can be found in the left sidebar of the page. This makes the graphics accessible while not breaking up the article and the reader’s focus. There are also in-text links that connect to other articles on the web and subheadings.