Making Information Accessible to Your Readers

When creating technical documents, you should follow these basic rules to ensure that the reader can easily find and understand the information.

Determining the Scope

You should identify the purpose, the audience, and the occasion for the document in order to ensure that you write specifically to the intended audience. Answer the following questions to determine the scope of the document:

Purpose

Why are you writing this document?
What do you want your audience to understand or to do?

Audience

Who will read this document?
What is their level of education?
How well do they understand the subject?
Do they care about the subject?
Will your readers thoroughly read this document?
Will they only skim it for pertinent information?

Occasion

Why do your readers need this document?
Where will your readers read this document?
When will your readers read this document?
Are your readers required to read this document or do they have a choice?
Will your readers have a time limit in which to read this document?

Organizing Your Document

You should organize your document so your readers can easily identify the most important information. Organize your document in the most logical order: chronological order, order of importance, or cause and effect.

Chronological Order

If your readers need to know how to do something in a certain order, organize your document in chronological order. If your readers need to follow certain steps to complete a task, use numbered steps to ensure that your readers can easily accomplish the task.

Order of Importance

If your job is to inform your readers, you should organize your document in the order of importance. Your readers may only scan the document for the most important information, so put the important information first. Make your sentences easy to read so your readers can easily scan the document to find the information they need.

Cause and Effect

When your readers need to know what will happen if they do or do not do a certain task, organize your document to highlight the cause and effect. Inform your readers of the outcomes of their actions. You can use tables, bulleted lists, or headings to make the information easy to find.

Making Your Document Reader Centered

Write your document so your readers can easily identify with the information. To avoid ambiguity, use clear and specific language. Use positive, non-sexist, and inoffensive language. Avoid cultural slang, idioms, and brand names.

Use Clear and Specific Language

Write your document so your readers do not have to try to decipher what you are saying. Use specific terminology as it pertains to the subject. Avoid ambiguous words. Use specific dates and times if your readers need to know when to do something.

Use Positive, Inoffensive, and Non-Sexist Language

To avoid alienating or upsetting your readers, use positive, inoffensive, and non-sexist language. Avoid negative language if possible. Sometimes, you will need to tell your readers specifically not to do something, but when it is not necessary to do so, avoid words like not and no. When writing about persons with disabilities, refer to the person first, then to the disability, for example, the boy with autism, not the autistic boy. Avoid using gender-specific language, for example, use flight attendant, not stewardess.

Avoid Cultural Slang, Idioms, and Brand Names

When writing for an international audience, avoid using cultural slang, idioms, and brand names. Your readers may come from different backgrounds, locations, or countries; they make speak different dialects and use different terms for certain items. Avoid cultural references so you do not alienate your audience, for example, use soft drink instead of pop, Coke, or soda. Avoid using brand names when referring to products unless you are referring to a specific product, for example, use facial tissue instead of Kleenex.

Making Your Document Easy to Read

Write your document using an effective writing style so your readers can easily understand the information. Make actors your subjects, put the action in your verbs, put the emphasis at the end of the sentence, introduce technical terms at the end of the sentence, and follow the old/new pattern of organization.

Make Actors Your Subjects

In order to make your sentences clear, avoid passive voice and make the actors your subjects.

Action in verb The company investigated its spending practices.
Action not in verb The company conducted an investigation of its spending practices.

Put the Emphasis at the End of the Sentence

Your readers will remember the last thing they read, so emphasize the most important information by putting it at the end of the sentence.

Emphasis at end of sentence To quickly stop the flow of water, turn the knob.
Emphasis not at end of sentence Turn the knob to stop the flow of water quickly.

Introduce Technical Terms at the End of the Sentence

When introducing your readers to technical terms, put them at the end of the sentence.

Technical terms at end of sentence To apply the style changes to the document and save them for future use on the project, save the file as a template.
Technical terms not at end of sentence Saving the file as a template after you make the style changes means that you can use the file again in the future.

Follow the Old/New Pattern of Organization

You should always introduce what the readers know before you introduce new information. If you introduce new information at the beginning of the sentence, you can confuse your readers; therefore, introduce the new information at the end of the sentence.

Effective old/new pattern When applying the changes, save the document. To save the document, click on the floppy disk icon. You can find the floppy disk icon at the top left-hand side of the window.
No old/new pattern Save the document to apply the changes. Click on the floppy disk icon. It’s at the top of the window.

Designing Your Document

Design your document so your readers can easily scan it and find the information they need. Use effective headings, break up your text into chunks of information, and use effective color.

Use Effective Headings

To help your readers easily find the information, use effective headings in the document. Your headings should indicate what follows so your readers will know what to expect in each section. Keep your headings grammatically parallel; each heading level should match the other headings in that same level.

For example, on this document

The Level One Headings are all gerundial phrases: Determining the Scope, Organizing Your Document, Making Your Document Reader Centered, Making Your Document Easy to Read, Designing Your Document.
The Level Two Headings under Determining the Scope are all nouns: Purpose, Audience, and Occasion.
The Level Two Headings under Making Your Document Reader Centered are imperative verbs: Use Clear and Specific Language; Use Positive, Inoffensive, and Non-Sexist Language; and Avoid Cultural Slang, Idioms, and Brand Names.

Break Up Your Text into Chunks of Information

You should ensure that your readers can navigate easily through your document. Your reader may become confused or frustrated when trying to find information if your document is text dense. When you break up your document into readable chunks of information, your readers can more easily find what they need.

To break up your text, you can do the following:

Use headings to break the text up into sections.
Use ample white space to allow the readers’ eyes to rest.
Skip lines between sections and paragraphs.
Use bulleted lists.
Indent text for emphasis.
Align your text to the left.

Use Effective Color

You can use color to call attention to words in your document:

Different heading levels
Technical terms
Examples

You can use color to create contrast. Contrast occurs when you use color to make certain words or phrases visually stand out from the text. Choose colors that complement each other.