Traditional writing modes such as essays and narratives use long blocks of text in order to build gradually and inevitably to a conclusion. Technical authors cannot make the same assumptions, because time is money in the professional world, which means that people will bail out of what looks like a boring document, unless they see concrete signs of useful information. Scannable P eople dislike reading long paragraphs of electronic text. Technical paragraphs are often inefficient ways of conveying complex information, and electronic text is harder to read . U sers prefer scannable text , so that they can glance over a page and quickly gauge its value.
Scannable text uses descriptive subheadings , highlighted keywords , and bulleted lists .
Technical Paragraphs Are Often Inefficient M ore traditional writing genres, such as the five-paragraph essay or the short story, build gradually and inevitably to a conclusion . Long paragraphs are acceptable in this kind of writing, because the reader is expected to read every word , in strict sequential order. T echnical readers want the conclusion up front . They will bail out quickly, unless they find something interesting. They will scan ahead in order to predict a page's usefulness , focusing on the words and phrases that jump out at them.