Document Structure and Its Effect on Engineers’ Reading Strategies

Seven hundred and forty four professional engineers in training courses on engineering documentation were given two versions of a text containing identical information. One version was structured as a linear argument leading up to the main item of information at the end; the other was structured so that a document summary was placed at the beginning, and the remaining text formatted so that the detail lay under a series of section summaries. They were asked to choose the version that most aided their information retrieval and to analyze their methods of extracting detailed information from both texts. They unanimously preferred the second version. All participants first read the summary (Abstract in this case) then read the section summaries in sequence. They then regressed to read the detail associated with each section summary. It is proposed that when reading a technical document, we look for overview information at successive levels of detail. Using this principle, documents can be designed to incorporate a navigational route of overview information; this will aid both the expert and nonexpert reader to obtain the individually required level of detail.