PREFACE
The arts are made great, not by those who are without scruple in
boasting about them, but by those who are able to discover all of
the resources which each art affords.
—Isocrates, ca. 390
bce
The web is unique among all forms of digital communication, in that
top to bottom, the web is language. Language that you can learn to read
and write. The visual designs of your pages, the structure of their con-
tent, the rich interactions that enhance your pages, and even the web
servers that deliver your pages to readers—all are nothing more than
the products of language. And those who wish to be rhetorically suc-
cessful on the web must command its languages and their driving con-
cepts in order to best communicate with the unique audience for any
given website.
The ability to write and design and communicate effectively on the
web is not determined by how much money you have, the software you
can afford to buy, or the whims of any particular computer company. It
is determined instead by how well you can command the languages of
the web to best communicate with the audience you are hoping to
reach, while being sensitive to the range of devices and abilities that in
turn empower and constrain any potential visitor to your site.
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