CHAPTER 16

Planning and Creating Screen Text

In This Chapter

•  How should you structure digital text content?

•  What do you need to consider when writing your text?

•  What writing tools are at your disposal?

•  How do you write for beyond the webpage?

Depending on the device, screen text comes in many display shapes and sizes. Some learners will read your content on their smartphone while others will access it at their desks on their computer. The text may come in an email or tweet, be posted on a discussion board, or appear within a mobile app.

So where should you start when it comes time to plan and create screen text? Do you need a different style of writing for each device and application? In an ideal world, yes. But we don’t have time to explore each and every device and how it calls for us to write for its screen. So, this chapter will focus mainly on writing digital text for the computer screen, which is still the most common screen on which learners access digital content. The initial focus will be on informational content that’s 300 to 600 words, like instructional articles or blog posts. Later in the chapter we will briefly consider other screens and applications.

While writing has many complexities, it is a far more familiar process to most people than planning and creating audio or video content. So unlike the sections in this book about audio and video, the planning and creating stages of digital writing are combined into one chapter.

Planning Digital Text

Planning for how you create and edit digital content is essential. However, some content producers believe that writing is a free-flowing process and planning actually stifles creativity. Sit down, they say, and just let the ideas come to you. It’s more important to be in the zone or flow than to be clear about your purpose. While this might work for literature—although I suspect it doesn’t for all writers—this is not effective for factual content like learning and will slow you down. And like with podcast and video production, lack of planning makes working with a team more difficult.

The more you plan, the less you need to correct or restructure your work later in a project. It’s much easier to make changes to your ideas by moving around sticky notes or bullet points before you write than picking apart a 1,000-word blog post, restructuring it, and then doing another sweep to ensure flow and consistency.

Planning starts with defining the learning objective and knowing the audience. The more focused and defined it is, the easier it will be to stay on track and keep irrelevancies from creeping into your article. Chapter 5 presented a basic overview of how to structure a learning objective and a discussion about developing personas. Once you have defined the objective and identified the persona for your learner, you’ll ask the question, “What is the best modality to convey this learning?” If conveying factual details is important, such as HR policy or codes of professional conduct, text might offer the best option. The decision may not always be purely editorial. For example, video might represent the best modality for a learning objective, but you have to opt for text due to a shrinking budget. Assuming your content is ideal for digital text, you should start planning the article by creating a skeleton outline structure.

Structuring Digital Text

The more soundly you structure your content, the easier it will be to understand. Digital writers can follow numerous storytelling structures. The ROPS model, referenced in Chapter 5, is easily applied to text: The first line of this model would help learners review relevant knowledge and relate the content to their needs. The inverted pyramid structure, taught to print journalists, is also a great format to follow. Jakob Nielsen recommends this structure because it provides a key summary at the top, so people who may not read everything still get the gist of it. The inverted pyramid provides the lede, a newspaper term journalists use to describe the first paragraph, to summarize the content in one or two sentences. Both structures feature the summary early on, positioned above the fold, where viewers’ eyes first go.

People read most of the first line, skip a few lines, and read part of another line. They spend a lot of time on the left side of the page. This first sentence needs to persuade the reader that your content is valuable to minimize skimming. Consider making that first line stand out visually. Use a slightly different color from the body text or add bold to it. Or summarize the story in a few bullet points to make it quicker to read (Whitenton 2014; Schade 2015).

Nicholas Carr (2008), writing in The Atlantic, describes the difference between a print and digital reader. He suggests that the print reader is like a scuba diver who dives deep into the content, whereas the digital reader is like a surf skier bouncing across the waves.

The digital reader is also influenced by the visual nature of the text. Unless there are visual disruptions—and this is where the change principle comes in—the digital reader is at risk of skipping over heavy blocks of text and missing much of what you have to share. Headings and subheadings can act as disruptions. Line spaces between paragraphs can also take some of the visual cognitive weight off the page. Vary the length of paragraphs, but keep them short. Allow plenty of white space on both sides of the text column. Add relevant images, such as photographs and graphics, to disrupt the flow and draw the eye.

Creating a Skeleton Structure

A skeleton structure lists the main sections of your writing, and can be done as a bulleted list or, if you’re visually inclined, a mind map. The ROPS and inverted pyramid models can act as your template. If you are using ROPS, each section could feature a level 1 heading. Then the present stage, which is longer than the other stages, could involve a series of level 2 headings, or subheadings. The inverted pyramid model starts with a lede, which might state what the learner will know or be able to do after reading the content. Then the main points of the content will be covered in order of priority.

Nonlinear Structure

In traditional media, writers had to explain the complete story in their articles. For example, if a writer was writing about managing conflict in the workplace and needed to make reference to the brain’s limbic system, he would need a paragraph or two to explain it. Likewise, an article about how to change the toner on a laser printer may require an additional paragraph explaining what the drum is. This is important for folks who don’t know what the limbic system is or what drums in laser photocopiers are. But it’s repetitive and cumbersome for those who do.

The digital ecosystem is a nonlinear system in which content is linked and forms networks. You have the option of providing a hyperlink to another article or page that provides the background on subjects some people may not be familiar with. So instead of including two paragraphs about the limbic system or photocopier drums, you could link to an explanatory article. This enables the reader to personalize how they consume the content by giving them options not to read it as a linear story.

As you write, consider key concepts that many but not all readers may be familiar with and provide links, rather than giving some readers text they’re likely to skip over. This enables people who need the information to find it and those who already have it to keep reading. This is an important part of personalizing the content.

Creating Digital Text

Once you have a skeleton outline, your structure is mostly set, with the bullets or nodes in a mind map as your headings. Now it’s time to fill it in with the text. Given that people read digital text differently than printed text, it’s important to follow some important conventions.

Tone

The digital ecosystem is informal, so your text should avoid formal expressions and long words. Formal writing tends to be much wordier than necessary, adding stress as the brain works to understand the message. In the end, this takes extra time for the reader.

Write one-to-one so the reader feels he is not just one person in a large audience but the only person for whom you are writing. For example, avoid, “My readers are probably aware,” and instead opt for, “You are probably aware.” Use of the term we suggests inclusivity.

Lede

As discussed earlier, the lede plays an important role in engaging your reader. It’s the sentence, or sentences, that convinces the reader she’ll learn by reading on. Your lede should be as short as you can make it without losing its impact; aim to keep it under 25 words. If you have more than one clause in the lede, break each one into individual sentences.

Front-load the lede so that the reader can get the gist of what he will learn even if he does not read to the end of the sentence. Let’s say you’re writing content for a webpage on workplace conflict. For a workbook or handout you might write, “As with any place where lots of people with varying interests interact, the workplace is a breeding ground for conflict.” While this reads well in print, the key message is after the dependent clause. If your reader doesn’t get to the end of the sentence, he would not know what the article was about. Instead write, “Conflict breeds easily in the workplace. It’s full of people who regularly interact and have different interests.” Or, “The workplace is a breeding ground for conflict. It’s full of people with competing interests.”

Words

It’s important to choose words that are quick and easy to remember. This is where the familiarity principle kicks in. Different words can mean different things to people based on their culture, education, and personal experiences. Knowing your audience and how they use words is critical, so:

•  Choose familiar words.

•  Choose short words.

•  Choose concrete words.

•  Avoid certain pronouns.

People make sense of the world through their memories. These memories can be personal experiences or amassed knowledge. Writers also do this and can find themselves using words that relate to their own experiences and education. As a result, they use jargon and technical terms that are immediately familiar to them but not the reader. It’s like the writer with an MBA who uses words like right-sizing, vertical integration, and business alignment for an audience of workers who mostly have a high-school education and don’t care much for management-speak. Instead, use words that your reader will understand. Don’t try to impress them with fancy words that only slow comprehension.

A common practice for media writers is to use short words. Short words are quicker to read, take less time for the brain to process, and are usually more familiar to readers.

Readers will understand your message quicker if you choose concrete words over abstract ones. Concrete words are specific and can be recognized by your senses, while abstract words are vague and cannot be tied to a sense. For example, freedom is not something you can see, smell, taste, hear, or touch. It’s an intellectual construct. As are bravery and success. Abstract words are open to interpretation and do not carry as much immediate strength when conveying factual information. For example, reached out to John is abstract, whereas called John is concrete. Bravely rescued the child is abstract, whereas ran through the flames to rescue the child is concrete.

As well as going for concrete words, avoid using too many personal pronouns like it, them, or they. Instead of writing it was on time, use the bus was on time. Instead of they reacted negatively, use union members reacted negatively.

Sentences

Keeping your content short applies to sentence length as well. The shorter your sentence, the quicker it will get through the sensory register and into the working memory, where your learner can start constructing her understanding.

You can keep your sentences short in several ways:

•  Write in the active voice.

•  Keep each sentence to one clause.

•  Delete redundant words.

•  Opt for verbs rather than abstract nouns.

•  Follow the “and period” rule.

The voice of your sentence refers to the order in which you place the actor and action. Sentences in the active voice put the actor before the action. For example, in the sentence, “The jazz orchestra was conducted by Felix Hassenhorp,” the action is conducted. Conducted appears before the actor, Felix Hassenhorp. Thus it is written in the passive voice. If you write it in the active voice, Felix comes before the action and it would read something like, “Felix Hassenhorp [actor] conducted [action] the jazz orchestra.” The active voice shortens the sentence by two words and makes it stronger. Aim to write the majority of your sentences in the active voice.

To keep your digital sentence short, limit each sentence to one clause. A clause is a single unit of meaning within a sentence. For example, the sentence, “The restaurant had closed its kitchen, but the chef still grilled a burger for the customer,” has two clauses. The first is that the restaurant had closed its kitchen. The second is that the chef still grilled a burger for the customer. Sentences with two clauses take the brain longer to process. The sensory memory has to wait longer before determining whether to pass it into the working memory. Writing one clause sentences also means avoiding subordinate clauses.

Often when people first draft a sentence, they add more words than necessary. As you review a sentence, search for words you can take out that will not change its meaning. Good writers are ruthless in cutting sentences down. If you can take a word out of a sentence without substantially changing the meaning, drop it. Imagine every word is worth a few dollars; do your best to keep the cost of the sentence down.

You can reduce the length of your sentences by replacing abstract nouns with verbs. This both shortens and strengthens your sentences. “Engaging in a process of negotiation with the customer,” is long and windy, whereas “negotiate with the customer” is stronger and shorter. As a general rule it’s better to use verbs than nouns because they imply change, which draws people’s attention.

The period plays a visual role of disruption and tells the reader to expect a new sentence. This is what I call the “and period rule,” which I derive from the change principle. The more periods you have indicating change, the more the eye will be drawn to read. Often sentences are longer than they need to be because they have two clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction such as and. Other conjunctions include but, or, yet, and so. When you see a coordinating conjunction, consider starting a new sentence. For example, “Workplace conflict is common across most industries, and it pays to be aware of how it may affect your team” could be written, “Workplace conflict is common across most industries. It pays to be aware of how it affects your team.” Sometimes you’ll have a sentence with a conjunction that plays a narrative role. Consider making it the start of the next sentence. For example, “The HR department intends to introduce a new grading system for employees, but it is unlikely to be implemented this year” could be written, “The HR department intends to introduce a new grading system for employees. But it is unlikely to be implemented this year.” As you read this last suggestion, you may have been thinking, “Wait a moment, I learned in grade school to never start a sentence with a preposition!” Just about any grammar expert will tell you that this rule is really a myth. You only need to look at some of the best writers to see they don’t follow that rule. Most likely it was used as a set of “training wheels” to prevent us from falling into the habit of writing sentence fragments. And actually, sentence fragments work well for screen text, when people are scanning the page for keywords.

Paragraphs

Paragraphs group sentences of the same topic together in one section of text. They play a visual role in helping readers find relevant information and keep their place on the page. Aim for short paragraphs of one or two sentences. Longer ones appear as heavy blocks of text, which readers tend to skip. Make sure to separate them with a line break.

Headings

Headings play many roles in digital text. They have a navigational role in that the reader can use them to find key parts of the content. They have an editorial role in that they describe what the reader can expect to read in the paragraphs below the heading. And they have a secondary editorial role in that if your reader digests only the headings, she should get a general idea of what the article is about. They also have a visual role in breaking up the sea of body text that readers are likely to skip over.

It’s tempting to adopt an almost playful tone when writing headings, as if writing for a tabloid placard. But this turns readers off. Clever turns of phrase do not work for factual content because the reader isn’t reading for fun but to learn. Write headings that are descriptive and short. They should clearly explain what the reader will learn in the subsequent paragraph.

If you struggle writing headlines, start by writing a sentence that describes what the reader will discover in the paragraphs that follow the heading. Then look at the sentence and take out as many words as possible. For example:

•  “How to Change a Tire on the Side of the Road” could be, “Change a Tire Roadside.”

•  “The Important Principle of Writing Learning Objectives” could be, “Key Principle: Write Learning Objectives.”

In a print landscape, it is common to have several heading levels. However, it’s good to keep digital content as simple as possible to avoid having more than a heading and subheading. Because your readers will be scrolling, they might lose track of which level they’re under.

Also, adopt a capitalization policy. There are generally three ways to do this. Some capitalize the first and last word of the heading along with all principal words and any words longer than three letters. This is the AP approach and you’ll see it used by the New York Times. The Chicago Manual of Style uses something similar: Capitalize the first and last word of the heading along with all pronouns, nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, and subordinating conjunctions. The second approach is to capitalize just the first word and any proper nouns. This is how the L.A. Times writes its headlines. The third approach is to capitalize all words in the heading. Which is best? There are varying viewpoints on this and the choice you make is probably less important than being consistent and sticking to one style.

Another issue for headings is whether to finish a heading with a period. From a visual perspective, it’s probably best not to use a period because it’s just another visual element for the sensory register to process. But again, it’s more important to consistently do one or the other.

Lists

Construct a list when you need to describe a number of connected items. It will be easier for your reader if the items are not all in one sentence. When these items need to be considered consecutively, such as steps to take when logging into a computer, you can use a numerical list. When there is no order or priority, you can use bullets.

For example, rather than writing, “When planning a meeting, make sure you create an agenda, invite participants, book the meeting room, and assign a note taker,” you could construct it as:

When planning a meeting:

•  Create an agenda.

•  Invite participants.

•  Book the meeting room.

•  Assign a note taker.

It’s important to construct your lists following a parallel structure. In the example above, notice each bullet started with a verb.

Captions

As readers scan your written text, their eyes are drawn to elements that stand out. Captions, when attached to images or graphics, are one disruptive element that can draw eyeballs. When you write a caption, front-load the message so people can get the gist of it without reading to the end.

Captions play a valuable role when they add to the image. Avoid explaining what is obvious in the image–allow the picture to speak for itself. If you have a photograph of someone typing on a laptop, don’t write the caption, “Pedro Gonzalez writes on his laptop.” It’s obvious what he’s doing. Instead explain why he is typing or why it is important. For example, “Upload your expenses using the portal and you’ll be reimbursed within 10 business days.” Or, “Your expenses will be reimbursed within 10 business days when you upload them using the portal.”

Writing Tools

Most people are likely to write their learning content in a word processor such as Microsoft Word. Today’s word processors have incredible power and support the writer with styles, references, and review tools such as spelling and grammar checks.

However, despite all that word processors have to offer, most are designed for business applications rather than writing. Writers need to juggle tasks such as structuring content, accessing and managing research notes, compiling graphics, and keeping notes on their project.

Tools are available today to help writers with these tasks, such as Scrivener, Storyist, yWriter5, and WriteItNow. These software programs help you organize your thoughts, view your research or notes side-by-side with multiple screens, and manage your ideas using virtual index cards, storyboards, and setting sheets. While these are mostly designed for book authors they are still excellent tools for managing multiple pieces of text content.

Digital text is displayed on screens using hypertext markup language (HTML), a set of tags that precede your words and tell your browser how to display a piece of text (Figure 16-1). For example, to display a word in bold, you would add the HTML tag <bold> before the actual word and </bold> after it. HTML also tells the browser how to display nontext content, such as audio and video, and gives it instructions on how to lay out the page. HTML5, the current standard determined by the World Wide Web Consortium, takes HTML into the realm where playing audio, video, and animated content like Flash is much more practical.

In the early days of the web, writers and web designers coded their own digital text. They did this in web editing software programs such as Dreamweaver or Homesite. However, as technology developed, programs like Microsoft FrontPage offered web writers the option of automatically writing code, so instead of having to insert <bold> before a word you simply needed to select the word and click on bold, as you would in a word processor.

These programs provided loads of control over website design—probably more than many digital writers wanted. So along came content management systems (CMSs), which had set templates. Writers would write their text, drop it into a window in the software along with any images or video links, and it would be automatically published. Large corporations bought specific content management systems, whereas small businesses and writers started using the popular and accessible CMS WordPress, which started out as a blog management platform. WordPress is behind millions of websites around the world. Other CMSs include Drupal and Joomla. As the web grows in complexity, CMSs take a lot of the hard work out of managing web publishing so writers can focus on text and other modalities such as graphics. One advantage is that CMSs will automatically generate the content to work for multiple platforms through responsive design techniques. They also add search engine optimization options.

Learning management systems are like CMSs except they are geared for learning and do things like track attendance and completion of online learning. Most learning professionals will create digital text in word processors and drop them into learning management systems.

Digital Text Beyond the Web Screen

The conventions covered so far have been mostly focused on writing digital text for the computer screen, on the Internet, or on your company’s intranet. However, the principles also apply to email, mobile content, and posting commentary in learning management systems such as discussion boards. While they all follow the same principles, let’s touch on some specifics.

Email

Learning professionals use email to share nanolearning and instructions related to learning events. Make sure the subject line is descriptive and short (Figure 16-2). Front-load your message so the first few words tell the learners what the email is about. Make sure the first sentence within the email provides a good summary and an explanation either of what they are learning or what they need to do. Put a line space between each sentence so each one stands out. Use bullets for related information. If your email is long, make sure to use headings and consider making those headings a different but similar color to the body text. Use short, one-clause sentences. It’s important to be even more ruthless in removing unnecessary words from your sentences because of how quickly people read email.

Mobile Platforms

People view mobile content with more impatience than traditional computer screens. So keep anything meant for a mobile screen short, especially for smartphones (Figure 16-3). Use images when you can. The screen is small and fonts appear even smaller. Use lots of bulleted lists and keep paragraphs very short so your text does not appear as heavy blocks of text. A short paragraph on a desktop computer looks like a very long block of text on a smartphone. Smartphone text should be half the length of content on a desktop computer.

Summary

Digital text is used in many ways. It’s read on the screens of desktop and laptop computers, smartphones, and tablets. And it’s used in online articles, lesson plans, workshop materials, emails, and discussion boards. Learners do not read digital text word for word; instead, they skip around the page looking for keywords. When crafting digital text, you cannot write with the assumption that learners will read a whole sentence or paragraph, as with print matter. The key to digital writing is to remove any word that’s not necessary. Keep everything short and structure your content so readers know at the top of the page what they’re going to learn. In today’s fast-paced environment, where mobile users are continually jumping between apps to consume text messages, social media posts, and games, you need to ensure that your digital text achieves its goal of delivering learning.