7   Writing Style

Writing for Online Reading

There are two main differences between writing for print and writing for the screen. The first difference is the difficulty of reading large amounts of text online. The monitor is simply not as clear as the printed page, particularly for extended periods of reading. Few people relish the prospect of scrolling through and reading large amounts of text. Therefore, screen text needs to be as rigourously concise as possible. While writing concisely is a virtue in all forms of writing, it is particularly important online.

Because of the various ways in which users access information, we can make few assumptions about what the user has read previously. This is the second difference between writing for print and for the screen. The individual topics in online manuals must be able to stand alone. Transitions such as “In the last section, we learned…” are inappropriate in online manuals. While all revisable manuals need to be modular, this is even more important online. Each topic must be written with no assumptions about what the user has read previously.