Week 6iii: Scannable writing - using lists

Besides using the inverted pyramid style and chunking, writing lists also makes your text more scannable and reader-friendly.


It is harder to read a long list of words or items within an online paragraph. Often, the semi-colon is not seen clearly on the screen as well. It would be useful to turn any lists you have into a bulleted or numbered list.


Lists can save readers time by allowing them to see specific items, etc at a glance. You can include a greater number of lists on a web page than on a printed paper page.


Creating and organizing a list of items:


If you have three or more items in a row, within running text, take them out of the paragraph and put them in a bulleted or numbered list.


Use bulleted and numbered lists - bulleted when the order of the list is not important; numbered when it is, with the most important first.


Keep items as short as possible.


If items have two parts, eg a term and definition, boldface the first part, and plaintext the second part.


If items have links and descriptions, put the link first, and indent the description underneath it/.


Put the longest item at the end of the list, if that makes sense.


Organize the list in a pattern that the user recognizes, such as important to unimportant, beginning to end, 1 to 10, etc.


Group related items where possible without disrupting the larger pattern.


If the list is too long, use groupings and subheadings to break it into several smaller lists. Limit the number of items in a single list to no more than nine.


A few lists help divide a page visually and let readers see related chunks of information, but too many lists make a page look cluttered.


You can find an example of a bulleted list at the solaswebdesign page.


Further reminders on using effective structure to enable scannability

v split long information into multiple pages according to subject
v use the inverted pyramid style that starts with the conclusion, and with the first two paragraphs stating the most important information (Remember the F-reading pattern)
v start sub-headings, paragraphs, and bullet points with information-carrying words that users will notice when scanning down the left side of your content in the final stem of their F-reading behaviour

http://www.its.monash.edu.au/staff/web/slideshows/webwriting/all.htm

Activity: Rewrite the text to include bulleted or numbered lists. You may also wish to create new paragraphs.

a.

The person who is humble and retiring has three characteristics: mysterious charm, unspectacular excellence, and unnoticed influence. We consider the charm mysterious because the person does nothing we can see to draw our attention. We call the excellence unspectacular because the person does not boast, or make announcements, but completes all work with thoroughness. We call this person’s influence unnoticed because although everyone looks to this person as an authority, they hardly mention the name. The influence spreads like water underground, invisible.


b.
The TCP/IP protocol is found in major operating systems, such as Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows NT, and Novell’s NetWare, a LAN operating system. Because it appears in so many operating systems, TCP/IP has become the most common way to connect desktop PCs and workstations with each other within an organization and over the Internet. But customers have asked for a number of innovations to make TCP/IP more reliable in mission-critical applications: expanded addressing capability, so it does not run out of addresses, additional security features, to prevent hacker breakins, autoconfiguration, to save installers’ time, and real-time service, to enable transactions. Moving from 32 bit to 128 bit addresses will probably solve the first problem, all vendors agree; but on the other improvements, vendors disagree, and have, so far, refused to agree on standards. Some vendors are offering their own security packages; others are creating new ones specifically to work with TCP/IP. Autoconfiguration, unfortunately, can be done in dozens of ways, and vendors are looking at all of them. Real-time services tend to be the playground of mainframers, so IBM and ATT lead the way, here, with PC vendors trailing badly. Our estimate is that the new standard is at least one year away, and even then, the standard may be a weak one in the real-time and autoconfiguration areas.


c.
We offer a complete line, including fashion-inspired jeans, casual wear for men and women, color-coordinated cosmetics, and matching fragrances.


d.

A bridge connects two local area networks (LANs). The bridge physically joins separate LAN segments, such as two Ethernet cables. We offer four main types of bridges: transparent, encapsulating, translating, and source routing.

e.

New in this release are additional items of information about each song, such as encoding options, handheld devices that play these formats, genre, total length of the track, name of the original album the track belonged to, and a summary of any preferences you set in your download profile.


Activity:
Rewrite the following text to make it more scannable. Remember to put key conclusions first.
Original paragraph
Actions available to most firewall audit software include activating a Simple Network Management Protocol trap, signaling when the trap has snared an apparent violation, sending a mail message, relaying information to the management platform (such as Open View, NetView/6000, or SunNet Manager), emailing the administrator, or shutting down an account. Thus, companies look to firewall auditing software for activity logging, application usage tracking, and security breaches. Firewall auditing software has grown beyond simple security measures to include a much more sophisticated security setup, as well as features normally associated with network monitoring software. In fact, the real news is that the two software types are merging.