Celebrating the Astute Learner / User

A case to induct a mainstream fiction writer to the e-learning hall-of-fame

This is not exactly a very famous quote and it does not exactly appeal to traditional design sensibilities but it is one that needs to go down in Instructional Design or Technical Writing history as the most relevant passage (for instructional or technical writers) ever written by a mainstream fiction writer.

Quote: “I like to believe that the audience is actually intelligent, because it’s made up of people like yourself. People don’t like to have their intelligence insulted. If you do something with sufficient enthusiasm and put enough into it, people are bound to respond, unless your judgment is totally cock-eyed.”

- Douglas Adams – Author of the famous or infamous Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

I like the above passage much more that the professors who taught me English Literature at the university would like me to. Among all the famous literary passages, I, as an English Major, blasphemously pick this one as a passage that can inspire many an instructional or technical writer (henceforth referred to as “writer”–may egos be suppressed until the end of the article please).

Not much is known about the background of the passage–probably because it has not found its place in any Hall of Fame yet. But, I do believe that the words were Adams’ reply to why people respond to his writing. The words are in tune with Adams’ tongue-in-cheek brand of humor. But, the inherent humor does not belie the message. People understand and respond to any writing that is sincere and relevant. And, that’s why this passage is extremely significant to writers.

A common complaint from many writers is that people do not understand–concepts need to be broken up to smallest possible terms and explained in complete detail. And yes, if users do not follow the information given despite all this, we do get defensive and place the blame squarely on the poor user’s inability to understand or reluctance to read.

But, it’s time we got less defensive and listened to what the user really needs. People do read and they do respond provided we write well enough. As writers, we need to revisit some writing fundamentals and make sure that we present information in a style that users want to read. Essentially, we need to begin by asking ourselves a few key questions: How does this help the user? What does the user really want? How does this help the user accomplish what he or she wants? Am I focusing on the product features or what the user can do with them?

Then, all we need to do is bring back the “fun” without being funny and add “engaging” to the terms instructional and technical writing. The best part is that this approach makes our jobs much more interesting.

The bottom line is users will understand what we write as long as we write in a style that is relevant (to the users and not us necessarily), sincere, and does not insult their intelligence. Finally, as expressed and proven by Adams, writing is not meant to be boring and the sooner we appreciate this fact as writers, the better it is.

So, with no further ado, I would like to see Adams’ assigned his rightful place in the instructional and technical writers’ Hall of Fame as a valuable inspiration. I know it is mine as these words are tacked up on my soft board as a constant reminder to write in a way that users respond.