Content Structure

At its most basic, a hand guiding the pen over paper or chisel over stone is working in the media domain through handwritten-bitmapdirect physical interaction with the media. But this is not structured writing in the sense we mean it here. No computable structures are involved because no computer is involved.

The process of creating and delivering content consists of translating ideas (stuff someone thinks or knows) into concrete physical form that can be read (dots of ink or pixel on a page or screen). The writing and publishing process is all about how we get from ideas in a head to dots on a page.

The phrase “structured writing” seems to demand something in the way of definition, not because its meanings are obscure, but because they are so varied. This is a product of diversity of interests, not lack of definition. My definition is a declaration of my interests; no more.

Structured writing is contentious in the tech comm world. I suspect the objection to structure is more rooted in structured writing practices that were not actually designed to improve or maintain the quality of the content, but to save costs somewhere in the content process through techniques such as single sourcing or reuse.

All of these tips and tricks come from my own personal list of things that I like to do when building a template. While I will talk about FrameMaker 12 templates, many of these tips apply to other tools (like, for example, Microsoft Word).

Rather than taking the entire burden of communication on our own shoulders, we must accept that the reader is fundamentally responsible for their own learning. Their aim to to understand something useful about the real world.

As you begin to explore structured content and how you can leverage it for your organization, you’ll need to consider quite a number of things, including what structured model to use. Perform a proof of concept with some of your existing content to understand your ability migrate to that standard.