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Laura Winkelspecht reports: <<I am working with an instructional designer to
develop insurance open enrollment materials for our company. I had started
to develop a standard document with organized headings, etc. She said that
this would be better as a Q&A because it's easier for people to understand.
I think it would be unorganized, and it would make writing it harder (I am
not as familiar with this type of documentation).>>
Unfortunately, you're both right. <g> The problem with standard insurance
documents (in my experience) is that they're intimidating, full of jargon,
and difficult to understand. On the other hand, Q&A formats can be very
frustrating to read unless they're short, because it's hard to find the
answers to specific questions, and with longer ones, the sequence of the
information isn't at all clear. Moreover, they usually don't provide the
depth of information I need to make a decision.
What's the solution? Combine the best of both approaches! Create a powerful
outline that follows the order readers are likely to want questions answered
(there may be more than one sequence!), then turn the outline headings into
simple questions, followed by answers. If you start with the "five w's" of
journalism, you'll have a powerful tool for simplifying the presentation and
answering all the main questions. After the answer to each question, provide
a link or cross-reference to more detailed information. This way, you lead
the reader by the hand through all the steps necessary to convince them to
look deeper and perhaps even to buy your product, plus provide links to that
deeper level of detail should they choose to seek it.
--Geoff Hart, geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada
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