Take some tips from technical writing which will make your opinions clear and persuasive in the new reading environment of the net.

Print media puts the reader in the passenger’s seat. What if you do not want a character to die? Imagine if you don’t just like the direction the story has taken? Traditional reading is linear–you start at chapter one and you also visit the end, without detours in between.

Instruction manuals have always been different. Who reads instruction manuals from starting to end? Instead you dip involved with it, try something, and if that doesn’t appear to work, flip several pages backward or forward and try again.

Now the internet has become a huge manual where the reader can maneuver around at will–technology has stolen authorial control. You must expect your readers to jump around. To reach your goals, whatever you write for the net has to follow exactly the same three rules that technical writers use:

Write in Chunks

Readers pick and choose. Recognize that your audience is not expecting a story–they have specific goals. Points have to be self-contained and clearly marked to help them find what they’re searching for and move ahead. Respect your reader’s time–don’t make them eat the sundae when all they want is the cherry.

Follow write for us technology can structure your articles by category, rank, location–but there should be a structure. By organizing your details you’re giving your reader a tool that lets them find what they’re looking for and skip what they don’t really need. If you cannot look for a structure that works, it is advisable to define your points more clearly.

Connect it Together

You can’t force your reader to follow the path you’ve set for them, nevertheless, you can give them access to information that supports your message. Don’t be afraid to link, both to resources outside your document and to pages in it. Your role is to help them achieve their goals; point them towards resources that help them do that.

Like technical writing, the internet is approximately helping people find information. Adopt some of the principals of technical writing is likely to work to make it get results.