When we come across technical documents, we often try to keep them very very professional. So we unknowingly add very sophisticated words to maintain the standard of the document.
Following are some points which I could come up with reading and writing documents.
#1
The document we are writing is not for showing off our language proficiency but for another human being to read and understand . So if we forget this point then, ultimately the document will be futile as the reader wont be able to figure the things out. Or sometimes the content might make the reader bored.
Following are some points which I could come up with reading and writing documents.
#1
The document we are writing is not for showing off our language proficiency but for another human being to read and understand . So if we forget this point then, ultimately the document will be futile as the reader wont be able to figure the things out. Or sometimes the content might make the reader bored.
Therefore I think that when ever we are writing a document, that document need to be written in a very simple way. For that we can avoid lengthier sentences with sophisticated words.
#2
Sometimes we add too much of elaborated words to fill up the paragraphs or to present the document with some professionality. This could sometimes make the reader confused or could deviate the reader from the 'point of knowledge'.
#3
There is another important point to consider. That is the value of images in a document. Sometimes a document with thousand words can be replaced and described by a single image. And at another time, an image can be used at the places where we are unable to explain something. Above all, an image will make our document visually appealing to the reader. The image that we are using should not always be a very technical one such as a screenshot or a part of the real scenario. Instead we can use a conceptually relevant image with some text, which can give an idea about the content of the page. This could even be some graphic image.
The use of images and the value of them for technical documents is nicely explained at the "I'd rather be writing" blog. There the writer states that 'words combined with images result in incredibly appealing documents.
Following is the URL for the blog post.
http://idratherbewriting.com/2011/10/10/visually-appealing-documents-combine-text-with-images/
#4
Another thing to consider when writing is the font type and style. In writing, we tend to use fonts with smaller sizes and styles which are unclear. This happens knowingly or unknowingly. But this could make reading very uncomfortable.
So my conclusion is that the appeal to read does not always come along with sophisticated writing.
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| Image courtesy : http://languagearts.pppst.com/writingprocess.html |
