Tony Karrer, writing in his recent post about writing style, noted that the type of writing that is considered “good” changes not only over time (Hawthorn’s sentence-long paragraphs were once considered cool) but dependent on the audience (high school English teachers look for different flags for “good” than do blog readers).
There is, in writing instruction, the notion of discourse communities (groups with specialized language–jargon–and particularized format). Blogging is a discourse community, as are IMs, e-mails and linked-in recommendations.
Instructional materials should reflect the community to which it addresses (the traditional audience) as well as the “grammar” or “rules” of the training medium. PPT slides are visual with very direct text. E-learning classes can offer more social scenarios for greater contextualization of content. And so on.
Readers read to the point they have to (especially in business and especially in training). Nothing says “is this going to be on the test?” more than training mandated for a job. If there is no test, which there probably should be if you want any measure of retention, then the reader will skim, sleep and hope that the manual will be within reach when they need to do X, Y or Z.
When developing training materials, keep in mind the skimming reader. Encourage, with both carrot and stick, to actually read the material. The carrot can be as simple as making the information engaging (incorporate the social side of training–scenarios, case studies, real life impact, etc.) or very, very direct (push this button and your entire warehouse inventory will be deleted from the system).
Also, use a stick. The best stick is a certificate of completion that only comes from completing a test or survey that draws directly upon the material. Without the passing paper, social/corporate pressure comes to bear. Use that pressure to nudge your learners to their knowledge.
Good luck.
