ABSTRACT
This chapter explains digital tools and techniques that help to think, write, and present information clearly, without clutter, in service to audiences. These techniques include layering to facilitate drilling, surfing, and scanning; headline writing; hyperlinking; and listing. Another useful tool to break up text is the pull quote. By magnifying a particularly colorful, provocative, or summative quotation, we can draw attention to the story, attention that doesn't distract from the headline, and provide another entry point into the article or package. None of the arrows in a digital writer's quiver is more powerful than the hyperlink, the most common form of hypertext, which is simply computer-coded text capable of taking the reader somewhere else. Though hypertext can enable non-linear and multi-linear presentations, or those that can be read or accessed through multiple pathways, digital readers still prefer traditional narrative formats.
