There are distinct business advantages to using modular writing techniques, particularly in a team environment where the opportunity exists for content to be shared between writers for re-use among information products such as product descriptions, procedures, error messages, interface instructions, and boilerplate text. Writers who have made the switch to this type of writing, willingly or because of corporate adoption of modular design, generally profess they could never return to what they perceive as a chaotic, uncontrolled method of assembling content. The ability to efficiently and effectively construct a document with a building block approach using content chunks, with the confidence that the content inside those building blocks will all be compatible, is certainly seductive.

Pamela Kostur of Parallax Communications is keenly aware of the benefits. In her work with companies who want to move to structured writing for content re-use, she has found that making the case is important for those writers whose resistance is rooted in a fear of loss of creativity or autonomy. Download the white paper Whose content is it anyway? to understand the argument for modular writing.