Sometimes it seems that everyone is so distracted and busy that we all have ADD. Technical writers have a number of tricks to get information across to people who are perpetually pressed for time.
- Chunk information—take a large body of information and break it down into bite-size bits of related material. Then present those chunks in a way that separates them visually as well. Use headings and white space to break up information into manageable segments.
- Use the old classics—tables and bulleted lists. They preprocess information for readers so they can quickly locate what they need.
- Break the material up into several smaller documents, each of which focuses on just one key area.
If you try techniques like these, you can get and hold the reader's attention.
