Take some tips from technical writing that will make your opinions clear and persuasive in the brand new reading environment of the net.

Print media puts the reader in the passenger’s seat. What if you don’t want a character to die? What if you don’t just like the direction the story has had? Traditional reading is linear–you start at chapter one and you also visit the end, with no detours in between.

Instruction manuals will always be different. Who reads instruction manuals from starting to end? Instead write for us technology dip involved with it, try something, and if that doesn’t seem to work, flip several pages backward or forward and try again.

Now the internet has turned into a huge manual where in fact the reader can maneuver around at will–technology has stolen authorial control. You have to expect your readers to jump around. To reach your goals, whatever you write for the web has to follow the same three rules that technical writers use:

Write in Chunks

Readers choose. Understand that your audience is not expecting a story–they have specific goals. Points have to be self-contained and clearly marked to greatly help them find what they’re looking for and move on. Respect your reader’s time–don’t make them eat the sundae when all they need is the cherry.

Follow a Structure

You can structure your articles by category, rank, location–but there has to be a structure. By organizing your details you’re giving your reader an instrument that lets them find what they’re looking for and skip what they don’t really need. If you can’t look for a structure that works, it is advisable to define your points more clearly.

Connect it Together

You can’t force your reader to follow the road you’ve set for them, nevertheless, you can give them usage of information that supports your message. You shouldn’t be afraid to link, both to resources outside your document and to pages inside it. Your role is to help them achieve their goals; point them towards resources that help them do that.

Like technical writing, the web is about helping people find information. Adopt a number of the principals of technical writing is likely to work to create it get results.