Skip to content

Topic Writing Without Borders

Contributed by Jeremy Hawkins

"A practical strategy to applying minimalism and topic based writing to maximize customer satisfaction and team collaboration" ~Liz Fraley and Janice Summers

Overview

Cognition results from our combined abilities to comprehend and retain

Cognition = Comprehend + Retain

Every day, each of us stretches our capacity for content consumption. The average American consumes 11.88 hours of content a day. That is 50 bits per second! Minimalism and topic based writing enables writers to deftly maneuver and capitalize on readers limited attention.

In other words, we must respect the audience's time.

Minimalist Topic Based Authoring requires authors to chunk information. Authors should chunk information into topics that focus on just one of the readers' questions at a time. When we keep topics specific they are easy to reorganize and remain connected yet independent.

Product information typically falls into 3 main kinds of information topics:

  1. Concept Explain in order to provide depth of understanding.

  2. Reference Information that the reader knows they can look up and therefore don't need to remember.

  3. Task How-Tos and other instructional content.

Each topic has the same basic structure - they all have titles, short descriptions, and a body. This triangular structure allows us to make our writing more searchable. As a result, we are left with modules that we can arrange and rearrange however we see fit to match the audiences expectations - like LEGOS!

Key takeaways

Data specs for the average American:

  • Hours = 11.88
  • Words = 100,000 (23/sec)
  • Bytes = 34 GB
  • Face-to-Face conversations = 100 mb/sec
  • Touch = 11 million bytes/sec
  • Conscious Mind = 50 bytes/sec

Imagine your audience and edit, edit, edit to ensure you:

  • Remove distractions
  • Avoid stating the obvious
  • Eliminate long complicated sentences
  • Recognize the reader as an active participant

Three main types of topics:

  • Concept
  • Reference
  • Task

Each topic follows the same structure:

  • Title
  • Short Description
  • Body

Benefits of Minimalist Topic Based Authoring

For Audience:

  • Readable from search
  • Easy to get exact answers
  • Higher user satisfaction

For Authors:

  • Collaborative Writing
  • Easy to manage
  • Content sharing

Reflection

The advice described in this LavaCon video is straightforward advice for writers across all genres. Knowing, understanding, and respecting your audience is the first step to successful communication. I like the simple structure Fraley and Summers present, and I believe tasks, concepts and references encompass pretty much all of the topics a typical reader will need.

The really interesting part of the presentation was how it demonstrated the benefits of Minimal Topic Based Authoring for the author. Busting the information we present into smaller chunks, defined by a single question, allows for super flexible and dynamic rearrangements. When we can easily rearrange and reorganize our writing, then it is easier to meet the audience/user with a more tailored display of what they are looking forward to.

I appreciate that the human mind is not at risk of maxing out, but it is vital to remember that the limited bandwidth most of us has does drive a competition for our attention. Minimalism is a fine principle for many aspects of modern life, but writing content stands to benefit exceptionally.

Written with StackEdit.