An underrated writing skill: chunking

Chunking examples and an activity so you can help people read and remember your content better.

Illustration by Cynthia Marinakos.

I got an email recently telling me to confirm subsidy details for vacation care. Here’s how it went:

“To receive your Child Care Subsidy you must confirm these details by logging into myGov.

This is to ensure your entitlements are paid correctly. If this step is not confirmed via your myGov account, you will not have your Child Care Subsidy applied.

To confirm this, please follow the below steps:

• Log into your myGov account
• Click on Centrelink
• Select Menu, then My Family
• Select Child Care
• Select Enrolments

From here there will be a list of your children and the childcare services they attend.

You need to look for the ‘Pending Confirmation’ items under the Enrolments Status. Click Review to undertake the step.”

Line breaks after each sentence. A list of steps as dot points. Short sentences. Incredibly, all the steps worked too.

What a dream email!