Forum Discussion
Formal writing in online instructions
I'm looking for research that says online instructions should be written in normal, complete sentences. Does anyone know of any? I'm new with my company, and they have this style guide that one department uses, and they remove as many words as possible to be "concise." But often, the stilted language sounds robotic to me and slows me down.
Which would you pick?
"Click Submit to complete request form/Popup window will confirm submission" or "Click Submit to complete the request form. A pop-up window will confirm submission."
Which would you pick?
"Date Firm notified of customer's passing" or "Date the Firm was notified of the customer's passing."
I'm hoping to find research so this doesn't just seem like my opinion. Thanks!
Removing unnecessary words can be helpful, but removing too many words can obscure the meaning. I think those examples add cognitive load to understand the directions because you have to work to fill in the missing words. In a button, label, or spreadsheet column heading, that kind of ultra-concise language is great. In elearning, not so much.
Check Patti Shank's work, specifically Write and Organize for Deeper Learning. She has a number of citations in her book that can help you with this.
Thank you! And yes, working to fill in the missing words is why I have such a problem with it.
I'll second Christy's recommendation of checking out Patti Shank's work. She's fabulous at taking the latest learning research and translating what it actually means in the real world.
Also, this article mentions research on the benefits of conversational writing for learning. The writer sourced the research info from the book Elearning and the Science of Instruction by Ruth Colvin Clark and Richard Mayer, so if you can get your hands on that it might have even more research you can pull from.Thanks for your reply. And, I have that book!
