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Re:

Adobe

IBM

IRS

4. Taking a Position on Chunkiness

Take a position on one of these topics.

Adobe

Adobe offers tips and tutorials for users of its products at http://www.pacific.adobe.com/epaper/tips/main.html

These little articles combine marketing pitches and instructional steps with gorgeous graphics. If you have an Adobe product, check the tips for that one, and see how well you can transfer what you learn to actual practice. If you do not own an Adobe product, just analyze the prose objectively.

  • How well is this material chunked?
  • What impact does the level of chunkiness have on you, as a user?

Quote generously, and give us the path or the URL to find the pages you discuss.

IBM

IBM offers product descriptions and case studies, organized around industries, at http://www.ibm.com/us/

The marketing people have poured a lot of information into these pages, selling fast.

  • How successful do you find the chunking, or lack of it, given the purposes of the site?

IRS

The Internal Revenue Service has a perky little site, featuring many of their publications in PDF and HTML. Take a look, for instance, at the material for businesses, at http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/businesses/index.html

Or search forTaxInteractive, their online zine for understanding taxes, http://www.irs.gov/individuals/page/0,,id%3D15548,00.html

  • How well are these pieces chunked?
  • In what ways?
  • What seems to be the reasoning behind the IRS approach to chunking, and how successful do you think they have been, in achieving those goals?

 

How to  make chunky paragraphs

4a.  Design each paragraph around one idea.

4b. Put the idea of the paragraph first.

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

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

Resources on writing links

Taking a Position on Chunkability

Poster

 

 

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