EFFECTIVE WRITING STYLE OF PRINTED DISTANCE ED.

MATERIALS (Rowntree, 1994)

1. Write as you talk.
2. Use the first person.
3. Use contradictions or contrasts.
4. Talk directly to the reader.
5. Write about people, things and facts.
6. Use active verbs and personal subjects.
7. Use verbs rather than nouns and adjectives.
8. Use short sentences.
9. Use points or steps form and number.
10. Use short paragraphs.
11. Use rhetorical or reflection questions.
12. Dramatize wherever possible.
13. Use illustrations, real life examples, and case studies.
14. Observe inclusive language.
15. Provide practice by having students mark text or label pictures.

WRITING STYLE OF ASYNCHRONOUS ONLINE LEARNING MATERIALS

1. Provide overview of purpose, scope of content and expected output.

2. Write in a conversational tone. Use “you” when addressing students.
3. Divide material in parts in line with the school’s learning process framework. Use the
components of this framework or stages of process as the subsection headings or titles of the
material’s different parts.
4. Indicate the competency being addressed and write activities and assessments aligned with
the competency.
5. Give clear and easy to follow directions for activities. Activities should have a resource or
material and questions for students to answer to enable them to process the information.
6. Provide screenshots of materials, esp. Websites (including their titles and clickable URL
addresses). Test that links are active.
7. Check that Website resources which require students to answer provide immediate feedback
to student actions, decisions or choices.
8. Provide varied formative assessments and at the end, ask students to reflect on the lesson and
comment on how helpful the material was.