A Most Sophisticated Error in Technical Writing

A Most Sophisticated Error in Technical Writing

Debra W Kahn (@debrawk.bsky.social)

While writing plainly with clear terminology is always the goal in technical communication, sometimes we must create a complex sentence (like this one!) to convey our meaning. Or we find that we must include a noun clause (like this one!) or even (shudder!) a modifying phrase or clause.

First, the good news. Complex sentence patterns reveal intelligence and a tendency to write in a sophisticated way. Most experienced technical writers fall into this category.

The bad news is that these sentence patterns are easy to screw up. Let me explain why and provide some tips on how to avoid clouding the meaning of your sentences.

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A Call for Plain Language in Medicine: My Story

A Call for Plain Language in Medicine: My Story

Debra W Kahn (@debrawk.bsky.social)

Lack of plain language can lead an audience down the wrong path. That’s at best. At worst, it can endanger the audience. Somewhere in between, a lack of clear, plainly stated communication can cost both the conveyer and the receiver time and money.

My recent breast cancer scare shows how poor communication from otherwise compassionate, dedicated professionals can have negative effects. Their lack of clarity strained my family’s resources and relationships. The circumstances under which I received that information left me traumatized.

No, I don’t have breast cancer—as far as I can determine.

But for an excruciatingly long time, I haven’t known for sure. Here’s what happened, what I learned, and what could have helped.

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A Guide to Storytelling for Online Content

A Guide to Storytelling for Online Content

Debra W Kahn (@debrawk.bsky.social)

In today’s saturated digital landscape, standing out as a brand or subject matter expert requires more than just presenting facts and data. It demands capturing the attention and emotions of your audience through the age-old art of storytelling.

Whether you’re a business writer crafting marketing collateral or a technical writer documenting complex processes, incorporating storytelling into your online content can significantly enhance its impact and resonance with readers.

The Magic of Storytelling

Stories, the oldest and most powerful form of communication, have a unique ability to captivate and engage. As Cynthia Lockrey highlighted in her presentation “5 Tips for Impactful Storytelling” (American Migraine Foundation, June 29, 2023), stories are more than just a sequence of events. They are a vehicle for knowledge retention. Research suggests that they can boost retention by 2 to 10 times better than facts alone. But what makes stories so potent?

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Chunking for More Accessible Online Content 

Chunking for More Accessible Online Content 

Debra W Kahn (@debrawk.bsky.social)

In our omnichannel world, where attention spans are short and the cognitive load is great (thanks, AI!), effective content design plays a key role in reader engagement. It’s more important than ever to structure online text so that our readers can easily scan, understand, and retain the key points.

Double underline that for readers who rely on accessibility aids such as screen readers.

The element of content design you’ll want to apply is “chunking.” Chunking refers to breaking up information into meaningful, bite-sized sections or “chunks” that are relatively similar in scope and intensity. Visually, this means that your paragraphs are short, and there are fewer of them under each subheading.

Richard Johnson-Sheehan, the technical communication guru, generally refers to this idea as “partitioning.” Rather than presenting a dense wall of text, you divide your content into well-organized subsections with meaningful headings.

I offer some techniques for applying this element of content design here. However, the starting point is to understand how chunking aids the reader.

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6 Strategies for Writing Compelling Headings

6 Strategies for Writing Compelling Headings

Debra W Kahn (@debrawk.bsky.social)

I hate to admit that I still have stumbling blocks after decades of writing experience, but, ummm, I do. It’s writing headings. There! I wrote it down—in a public blog post.

If you have the same struggle, I can share some advice and tips with you. No need to go heading-less!

Headings are important because they serve as guideposts to our written content. When effective, they help our readers locate and conceptualize the information they seek from our organizations. (Remember when I wrote about scannability?) Effective headings are especially important in online content, where they continue to feed web search engines, even Google’s.  

Note that Google Search’s March 2024 core update attempts to assess a piece of content’s quality so that our search results contain fewer meaningless clickbait. This puts more pressure on content creators to develop original, helpful online content – including meaningful first- and second-level headings.

Those are strong motivators, right? So why is writing a good heading sooo hard?

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