We are often tempted to include more material in a document than users want or need.

Sometimes we do that because we write from our perspective rather than from our readers’ perspective. We are so interested and excited by the topic that we assume others want to read as much as we want to write.

Omit anything that you are not totally convinced is essential content – serve your reader with ‘maximum meaning, minimum reading’. Only include content in your main text that readers need to act on the document.

You can include other non-essential content by layering. That is, include interesting, but not essential, content in a footnote, sidebar or appendix so that your reader can choose whether or not to read it.