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Vital information and articles related to writing.Writing Helpful Help - A Minimalism Checklist
User documentation is all too often written by programmers for programmers. It tends to focus on the product's features, rather than the user's tasks. Generally, programmers aren't in the ideal position to be writing user documentation. They're too close to the bits and bytes, and they're too far from the user. To them, what the product can do tends to be far more important than what the user can do with the product. It's a subtle - but vital - distinction. Research shows that the key to effective user documentation is writing task oriented help. Even better, write your help according to the minimalist theory. In the documentation world, "minimalism" is a fancy word for a commonsense practice. In basic terms, it means write to your reader and keep it simple. The theory itself has a lot of twists and turns. If you want to read a great - but slightly wordy - book on the subject, check out the book "Minimalism Beyond the Nurnberg Funnel", 1998, edited by John Carroll. In the meantime, if you can tick every item in the following checklist, you'll be well on your way to usable online help that both your readers and your managers will thank you for. Helpful Help Checklist 1. Base the help on real tasks (or realistic examples) 2. Structure the help based on task sequence - Chapter headings should be goals and topics should be tasks 3. Respect the reader's activity - this is generally more about what you don't do than what you do. Don't waste the reader's time by diving off into tangents 4. Exploit prior knowledge and experience - Draw the reader's attention to previous tasks, experiences, successes, and failures 5. Prevent mistakes - "Ensure you do x before doing y" 6. Detect and identify mistakes - "If this fails, you may have entered the path incorrectly" 7. Fix mistakes - "Re-enter the path" 8. Provide error info at end of tasks where necessary (rule of thumb, one error info note per three tasks is a good average) 9. Don't break up instructions with notes, cautions, warnings, and exceptional cases - Put these things at the end of the instruction, wherever possible 10. Be brief, don't spell everything out, especially things that can be taken for granted 11. Omit conceptual and note information where possible, or link to it. Perhaps provide expansion information at the end of the topic, plus maybe a note that there are other ways to perform the task/goal, but this is the easiest 12. Sections should look short and read short 13. Provide closure for sections (e.g., back to original screen/goal) 14. Provide an immediate opportunity to act and encourage exploration and innovation (use active invitations to act, such as, "See for yourself..." or "Try this..." rather than passive invitations such as, "You can...") 15. Get users started quickly 16. Allow for reading in any order - make each section modular, especially goals, but perhaps tasks (definitely if they can be performed in different order) 17. Highlight things that are not typical 18. Use active voice rather than passive voice 19. Try to account for the user's environment in your writing 20. Before writing anything, ask yourself "Will this help my reader?" By building these practices into your documentation process, you'll find that your online help becomes easier to write, shorter, and far more usable for your reader. What's more, your boss will love you! About The Author * Glenn Murray is an SEO copywriter and Article Submission Specialist. He is a director of PublishHub and also of copywriting studio Divine Write. He can be contacted on Sydney +612 4334 6222 or at glenn@divinewrite.com. Visit http://www.divinewrite.com or http://www.publishhub.com for further details, more FREE articles, or to purchase his e-book, 'SEO Secrets'.
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(AP) — He shot a man twice and felt so good about it, police said, a rapper wrote a song describing the shooting and calling out the victim by b.../b/font/div/font/td/tr/table table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/2-0fd=Rurl=http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp%3Fvnu_content_id%3D1003893924cid=1272368528ei=C4UlSfSfG6DM8ATu9py_AQusg=AFQjCNGoN-yVgRQsFH7PynPwyX2pnzYgZwOneRepublic bWriting/b For New Album/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fBillboard,nbsp;NYnbsp;-/font nobr20 hours ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1To celebrate the platinum success of its 2007 debut quot;Dreaming Out Loud,quot; OneRepublic was originally planning to reissue the album with bonus content in time b.../b/font/div/font/td/tr/table table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/3-0fd=Rurl=http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20081120/NEWS01/81120010/1002cid=1272551038ei=C4UlSfSfG6DM8ATu9py_AQusg=AFQjCNHumcgL81FJQ5ncjqm_NvonvQqcYQGEORGETOWN: Ex-trooper admits bwriting/b phony tickets/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fDelmarva Daily Times,nbsp;MDnbsp;-/font nobr2 hours ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1GEORGETOWN -- A former Delaware State Police trooper from Georgetown has pleaded guilty to charges he wrote phony traffic tickets to fictitious people. b.../b/font/div/font/td/tr/table table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/4-0fd=Rurl=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5197439.ececid=1272548634ei=C4UlSfSfG6DM8ATu9py_AQusg=AFQjCNGr9gRxpo5kjtaCcTmpsdRFYCdeiQTeenager murdered for bwriting/b love letter/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fTimes Online,nbsp;UKnbsp;-/font nobr2 hours ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1quot;The accused killed the boy for bwriting/b a love letter to a girl of the same village. There was a scuffle, and he was pushed in front of a train,quot; b.../b/font/div/font/td/tr/table table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/5-0fd=Rurl=http://www.greenvilleonline.com/article/20081120/NEWS01/811200331/1071/YOURUPSTATE01cid=1272341092ei=C4UlSfSfG6DM8ATu9py_AQusg=AFQjCNEfMSVC8GmN89JsXLnbzq5V7dbJjwSimpsonville woman charged with bwriting/b bad checks for jewelry/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fGreenville News,nbsp;SCnbsp;-/font nobr8 hours ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1By Paul Alongi • STAFF WRITER • November 20, 2008 Greenville police are warning businesses to watch out for a Simpsonville woman who was charged Wednesday b.../b/font/div/font/td/tr/table table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/6-0fd=Rurl=http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Writing-Teacher-Chicago-Wins-Grand/story.aspx%3Fguid%3D%257B5D655A86-1041-4EEB-827C-34F78407EC76%257Dcid=1272330633ei=C4UlSfSfG6DM8ATu9py_AQusg=AFQjCNHiRDLBfusyvSa-ZWjFZ5ye0Ici_wbWriting/b Teacher from Chicago Wins Grand Prize in quot;Rabbit Ears b.../b/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fMarketWatchnbsp;-/font nobr19 hours ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1Ms. Richards teaches 7th and 8th grade bwriting/b at Andrew Jackson Language Academy, a Chicago public school. 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Jeff Golden The Daily Times As part of the Bisti bWriting/b Project, local artist Margaret Katirgis visited students at Blanco Elementary School this b.../b/font/div/font/td/tr/table table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/8-0fd=Rurl=http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/nov2008/bs20081118_490130.htm%3Fchan%3Dtop%2Bnews_top%2Bnews%2Bindex%2B-%2Btemp_business%2Bschoolscid=1271920639ei=C4UlSfSfG6DM8ATu9py_AQusg=AFQjCNFojJrg6XyAout32p1NtqKb08HtawMBA bWriting/b Tips/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fBusinessWeeknbsp;-/font nobrNov 18, 2008/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1By Alison Damast MBAs may be good at analyzing spreadsheets and reading financial statements, but many cringe when faced with a lengthy academic bwriting/b b.../b/font/div/font/td/tr/table table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/9-0fd=Rurl=http://www.kypost.com/content/wcposhared/story.aspx%3Fcontent_id%3Dc54db30d-7e00-4b5d-a120-c9e64a9199eacid=1272537921ei=C4UlSfSfG6DM8ATu9py_AQusg=AFQjCNE5KBbc5EoTSttac_D8ePhLPRWXWAMcCartney Thinks of Lennon When bWriting/b New Music/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fkypost.com,nbsp;KYnbsp;-/font nobr3 hours ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1ELVIS LONDON (AP) -- Even when Paul McCartney makes new music, he still thinks of how John Lennon would do it. 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