Minimalism (technical communication)
Encyclopedia
Minimalism in structured writing
or topic-based authoring
is based on the ideas of John Millar Carroll
.
Like Robert E. Horn
's work on Information Mapping
, John Carroll's principles of Minimalism were based in part on cognitive studies and learning research at Harvard and Columbia University, by Jerome Bruner
, Jerome Kagan
, B.F. Skinner, George A. Miller, and others.
Carroll argued that training materials should be constructed as short task-oriented chunks, not lengthy monolithic user manuals that explain everything in a long narrative fashion.
The historian of technical communication R. John Brockmann points out that task orientation had been enunciated as a principle a decade earlier at IBM by Fred Bethke and others in a report on IBM Publishing Guidelines.
Carroll observed that modern users are often already familiar with much of what is described in the typical long manual. What they need is the information to solve the particular task at hand. They should be encouraged to do them with a minimum of systematic instruction.
Darwin Information Typing Architecture
(DITA) is built on Carroll's theories of Minimalism and Horn's theories of Information Mapping.
Minimalism is a large part of JoAnn Hackos
' recent workshops and books on information development using structured writing and the DITA XML
standard.
Structured writing
Structured writing is a form of technical writing that uses and creates structured documents.The term was coined by Robert E. Horn and became a central part of his Information Mapping method of analyzing, organizing, and displaying knowledge in print and in the new online presentation of text and...
or topic-based authoring
Topic-based authoring
Topic-based authoring is a modular content creation approach that supports XML content reuse, content management, and makes the dynamic assembly of personalized information possible....
is based on the ideas of John Millar Carroll
John M. Carroll (information scientist)
John M. Carroll is currently Edward M. Frymoyer Professor of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State. Carroll is perhaps best known for his theory of Minimalism in computer instruction, training, and technical communication...
.
Like Robert E. Horn
Robert E. Horn
Robert E. Horn is an American political scientist, who taught at Harvard, Columbia, and Sheffield universities. Currently he is a visiting scholar at Stanford University's Center for the Study of Language and Information...
's work on Information Mapping
Information mapping
Information Mapping is a technique that divides and labels information to facilitate comprehension, use, and recall. It was originally developed by Robert E. Horn.- Overview :...
, John Carroll's principles of Minimalism were based in part on cognitive studies and learning research at Harvard and Columbia University, by Jerome Bruner
Jerome Bruner
Jerome Seymour Bruner is an American psychologist who has contributed to cognitive psychology and cognitive learning theory in educational psychology, as well as to history and to the general philosophy of education. Bruner is currently a senior research fellow at the New York University School...
, Jerome Kagan
Jerome Kagan
Jerome Kagan was born in 1929, and grew up in Rahway, New Jersey, USA. Kagan is currently retired after being a professor at Harvard University in the Developmental program . He is one of the key pioneers of developmental psychology. He is Daniel and Amy Starch Research Professor of Psychology,...
, B.F. Skinner, George A. Miller, and others.
Carroll argued that training materials should be constructed as short task-oriented chunks, not lengthy monolithic user manuals that explain everything in a long narrative fashion.
The historian of technical communication R. John Brockmann points out that task orientation had been enunciated as a principle a decade earlier at IBM by Fred Bethke and others in a report on IBM Publishing Guidelines.
Carroll observed that modern users are often already familiar with much of what is described in the typical long manual. What they need is the information to solve the particular task at hand. They should be encouraged to do them with a minimum of systematic instruction.
Darwin Information Typing Architecture
Darwin Information Typing Architecture
The Darwin Information Typing Architecture is an OASIS standard XML data model for authoring and publishing. Many third party tools support authoring, including Adobe FrameMaker, XMetaL, Arbortext, Quark XML Author, Oxygen XML Editor, easyDITA, and SDL Xopus...
(DITA) is built on Carroll's theories of Minimalism and Horn's theories of Information Mapping.
Minimalism is a large part of JoAnn Hackos
JoAnn Hackos
JoAnn T. Hackos, Ph.D., is a noted lecturer, consultant and author of a number of books about technical communication. She is also a fellow and past president of the Society for Technical Communication...
' recent workshops and books on information development using structured writing and the DITA XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
standard.