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HomeGuidelines > 4. Build chunky paragraphs. > 4c. If you must include the context, put that first.          

 

Diagram

Background

Examples

Audience Fit

Challenges

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4c. If you must include the context, put that first.

  • If users really need a little context before they can understand the paragraph, put the orientation session at the start.  But don't take more than a phrase or two. 
  • Keep the context to a sentence or less.
  • If referring back to the previous paragraph, use the same words you introduced toward the end of that paragraph, to make the connection.
  • Explain why we should bother to read on.  Motivate us. Set a vision of our goal dancing before our eyes.
  • Tie this paragraph back to the one before...if you are sure that everyone saw that one.  If you introduced an idea there, start with that, and move on.

  Diagram

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Background

Background:

Repeat contextual information each time it is needed.
Walker (1987a)

Put at the beginning of a sentence those ideas that you have already mentioned, referred to, or implied, or concepts that you can reasonably assume your reader is already familiar with, and will readily recognize.

Give your readers a familiar context to help them move from the more familiar to the less familiar, from the known to the unknown.—Williams (1990)

Writers can help readers find coherence and retain information by placing known, or old, information before new information. The "given-new" contract contends that new information is best retained when it is linked to given or "old" information, in other words, when words and ideas presented by the text connect to earlier words and ideas in the text (Clark and Haviland 1977; Just and Carpenter 1980). In fact, sentences that relate to previous context are processed more quickly (Albrecht and O’Brien 1993; Suh and Trabasso 1993) and are remembered more frequently (Trabasso and van den Broek 1985) than sentences that do not relate to the previous context.—Spyridakis (2000)

See bibliography: Albrecht and O’Brien (1993), Clark and Haviland (1977), Just and Carpenter (1980), Spyridakis (2000), Suh and Trabasso (1993), Trabasso and van den Broek (1985), Walker (1987a, 1987b), Williams (1990)

Examples

Original Paragraph

We don’t use stories to amuse, warn, arouse, inform, explain or persuade, the way most people do, according to Williams. But stories can do a lot. Stories are the most common form people know and enjoy—people we write for. As technical writers, we like to think of ourselves as unemotional, neutral, factual, leaving "exciting writing" such as stories to marketing folks. But wait a moment. Aren’t procedures, essentially, narratives? Aren’t examples? Perhaps we could borrow a bit more from short story writers, when we narrate any tale of problem solving, goal seeking, decision making, or step-by-step success.

Revised Paragraph

As technical writers, we must recognize that stories are the most common form our audiences know and enjoy. The story does a lot. As Williams points out, most people use stories to amuse, warn, arouse, inform, explain, or persuade. We don’t. We like to think of ourselves as unemotional, neutral, factual, leaving "exciting writing" such as stories to marketing folks. But wait a moment. Aren’t procedures, essentially, narratives? Aren’t examples? Perhaps we could borrow a bit more from short story writers, when we narrate any tale of problem solving, goal seeking, decision making, or step-by-step success.

Other ways to make chunky paragraphs:

4a.  Design each paragraph around one idea.

4b. Put the idea of the paragraph first.

4d. Put key conclusions, ideas, news, at the start of the article.

Resources on chunkiness

Taking a Position on chunkiness

Poster

 

 

Audience Fit
 
If visitors want... How well does this guideline apply?
To have fun These people want lush context, not less.  They enjoy spotting several themes operating within a paragraph or article.  Just make sure you highlight your idea within the forest.
To learn People learn better when the teacher starts with the familiar, and moves to the unfamiliar.  Same here.
To act In instructions, assume people have done the previous step.  That's the main context.  At the start of a step, limit yourself to saying where to operate, or why--briefly.
To be aware All is context, no?
To get close to people Keep the context-setting to a minimum.  Like a person who takes forever to set up a joke, you may bore people if you lose yourself in setting the scene or laying out your rationale before you ever get to the point.

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