Take some tips from technical writing that 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. Imagine if you don’t want a character to die? What if you don’t just like the direction the story has had? Traditional reading is linear–you start at chapter one and you visit the end, with no detours in between.

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

Now the internet has turned into a huge manual where the reader can move around at will–technology has stolen authorial control. You should expect your readers to jump around. To be successful, whatever you write for the web has to follow exactly the same three rules that technical writers use:

Write in Chunks

Readers pick and choose. Understand 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 on. Respect your reader’s time–don’t make them eat the sundae when all they want is the cherry.

Follow a Structure

You can structure your content by category, rank, location–but there has to be a structure. By organizing your details you are giving your reader a tool that lets them find what they’re searching for and skip what they don’t need. If you can’t find a structure that works, you have to define your points more clearly.

Connect write for us technology can’t force your reader to follow the path you’ve set for them, nevertheless, you can give them usage of information that supports your message. Avoid being afraid to link, both to resources outside your document and to pages inside it. Your role is to help them achieve their goals; point them towards resources that help them do that.

Like technical writing, the web is approximately helping people find information. Adopt a few of the principals of technical writing in your own work to make it get results.