Web writing rule 8 – know a little but not a lot

In my 12 rules for Web writing, one of my favourites is this one:

8. Know a little but not a lot. Know enough to write about it but be sufficiently ignorant to ask the right questions.

I came to this conclusion while doing marketing and technical writing. In some cases it was support material and in others it was information on what a product could do and the benefits of this.

I suppose it was more a combination of editing and writing. I was getting information from technical people and product managers and trying to form it in a way that would make sense to customers.

Here's the thing: when you know something inside out, particularly when it is something fairly complex, as most technical products are, you tend to make assumptions. Certain things are so simple, so basic (from your perspective), it often doesn't occur to you that someone who is new to the technology may have no inkling of what you are talking about.

Or, it's possible you are so immersed in the business and the marketing end you make other assumptions, such as acronyms and industry terms. It doesn't cross your mind that no one outside of your field knows what they stand for or what they mean.

As a writer, if you know a little but not a lot, you may have a vague familiarity or awareness of a product, even some obscure sense for what it might do. But since you are largely ignorant, you ask the right questions, like:

• What does this mean?
• What does that do?
• Why would I do that?
• How did you turn that on?
• You did what to what?

The best approach for assembling the right questions and asking them (of the right people), is to take the product and treat it like a user, beginning with square one, like taking it out of the box. Be simplistic, question everything and lay it all out on paper, sequentially, step-by-step.

A sophisticated user can always skip ahead to the information he or she is looking for. But if the information isn't there for the less sophisticated user, you've left them confused and abandoned - and you can bet your support desk will get calls. And calls from less sophisticated users generally cost the most because they take the most time.