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Home > Patterns > How to articulate concepts > Explain the concept modularly |
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Explain the concept modularlyIf you must explain a concept, don't try to pour every point into a single long passage. Break the information up into a series of discrete modules. But what modules make sense? Research by major high-tech companies such as Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM suggests that when people look up an idea, a term, or a concept, they want several different types of information, in a particular sequence:
Here's a simple but effective pattern for articulating a concept:
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Resource: Creating customer assistance that actually helps, from Hot Text: Web Writing that Works (2002, PDF, 993K, or about 18 minutes at 56K)
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The Overview answers broad questions such as:
The section devoted to Understanding answers more focused questions such as:
The section on Using the concept answers questions about acting with the idea, such as:
Resources provides links to
If you have identified each object as an XML element, you can allow people to pick exactly what components they want to see. Here is an example of a personalized pattern. Joe and Josie Bishop, self-employed mountain adventure guides, want a lightweight concepts. Objects allow them to strip down the material to the elements they care about.
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Exactly what is the concept?
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