Structured writing in a nutshell

What are the key principles of SW?

The main principles of structured writing are:

• Segmentation: Break down information into small, “bite-sized” blocks.

• Labelling: Give each information block a clear, informative title.

• Coherence: Put information together that belongs together.

• Consistency: Make your terminology, your phrasing, but also the structure of your topics consistent.

• Illustration: Use illustrations or video clips at appropriate places in your text.

• Information models: Use ready-made information models, laid down in templates by an information architect.

• Information types: Keep different types of information (task descriptions, concepts, technical data…) separate from each other.

• User-oriented writing: Take into account the knowledge level of your user.

• Minimalism: Determine how much information your user needs to perform a task correctly or to understand a concept.

• Translation-friendly writing: Ensure that your text is easily translatable.

Which specific problems does SW solve? Why is SW so important?

Using structured writing:

• your users can more easily find relevant information

• you can more easily reuse your information for different purposes

• you can more easily keep your technical documentation up-to-date

• you can save considerably on your translation costs

• you can manage your content better

• you can automate your publishing processes

Want to take a SW course and see how it all works? Click here!