STC Rochester Spectrum 2017

Structured writing is big news in technical communication today, but it is usually practiced more for its ability to enable content management systems than for its potential contributions to content quality. Indeed, systems designed to facilitate content management can often do positive harm to content quality.

The presentation will introduce the three domains in which writing can be structured, the media, document, and subject domains. Traditional desktop publishing tools work in the media domain. Structured writing for content management typically takes place in the document domain. But structured writing for content quality takes place in the subject domain.

Working in the subject domain is fully compatible with standard content management practice but it frees the writer from the complexities of content management systems while providing far greater levels of author guidance and a far greater capacity for content validation, auditing, linking, and integration.