Overview

As we've already seen, brainstorming (Chapter 6) is an excellent method for generating ideas, and note cards (Appendix A) are very helpful when gathering information for those ideas. But if you were to present that information to users in the same order you gathered it, your document would be virtually incoherent.

In its creative phase, the mind jumps almost randomly from one idea to the next. To generate as many ideas as possible, we encourage and foster that tendency. When organizing that information for others, though, you draw on a different set of mental faculties, which is why principles of organization are addressed in a separate chapter.

Students often underestimate the importance of these organizational schemas. They want to focus on the sentences and the paragraphs, sometimes to the exclusion of how they are put together. Sometimes student paragraphs in technical writing classes get very LONG, very long and technical. As they work out the complex ideas in their minds, the format and structure almost seem like an afterthought.

Let's turn that assumption upside down. Technical communication is not like other forms of communication. The more technical the content is, the harder it is to read in a densely compacted form. So format and organization almost supercede sentence-level content in importance. The best sentences in the world won't be readable if the format and organization buries them.

Outlining and "chunking" are not just concepts in technical communication. They should be your MANTRA. Short paragraphs. Headings. The headings should make explicit the relationship between the different parts in the same way transitions work. Headings should hit us over the head with a sledgehammer with your organization. Can we be any more blunt here? March through your content with big heavy boots. Run the reader over with a train, a very slow and methodical train.

Don't assume we got it even if you said it twice. The more technical the content, the more explicit and redundant you have to be. And here is the most important caveat: IF the reader is getting the information through electronic reading rather than from paper, these issues become doubly important. Reading comprehension declines on the screen because people have become conditioned to skim. Further, they multi-task, which means their attention is wandering. They are reading electronic texts with their e-mail chime going off, instant message windows popping up, noise in the room, and even the distraction of fingers on a keyboard. As such, explicit organization, headings, and short paragraphs become crucial.