Ten questions to ask yourself when writing for non-experts. Part one

The challenge of writing for beginners

If there is one thing subject matter experts are rarely short of, it is knowledge. However, taking that knowledge and shaping it into something a complete beginner can follow requires a very different kind of effort.

The more you learn about a subject, the further you move away from being a beginner. Concepts that once felt complicated become obvious. Processes that once required careful thought become second nature. Over time, it becomes harder to remember what it felt like to encounter the topic for the first time, and harder still to anticipate which parts might feel confusing, unfamiliar or overwhelming to someone new.

That distance creates a particular challenge when writing for digital learning. You are not only deciding what is accurate; you are deciding what is essential. You are weighing up what to explain in detail, what to summarise and what to leave out. For many experts, especially those who care deeply about their field, that process can feel uncomfortable. The instinct is often to include more rather than less.

We recognise that instinct well. Get any of us talking about digital learning for more than a few minutes and you will see how quickly enthusiasm overtakes restraint. When you are invested in a subject, it is easy to include more than a learner needs.

In an asynchronous course, clarity depends on deliberate focus. Learners cannot interrupt to ask for clarification or signal confusion in the moment, so the explanation must anticipate their questions, bridge gaps in their knowledge and guide them from unfamiliar territory to confident understanding.

The first five questions

The questions that follow are designed to support that process. Use them as a starting point to focus your content and shape it with your learner in mind. In Part One, we focus on the foundations: what to include, what to leave out, and how to structure your content so that it is clear, coherent and manageable for a beginner. In Part two, we turn to the writing itself, exploring how language, sentence structure and examples can either support or hinder understanding.

1. Is this essential, or just interesting?

This is often the most useful filter when writing for beginners.

When you are developing an introductory-level course, it is natural to want to include context, nuance and additional detail because they reflect the richness of the subject. If you care about the topic, it all feels important. The question, however, is not whether something is interesting or accurate; it is whether a beginner needs it in order to meet the learning outcome.

Introductory courses work best when they focus on foundations. Learners need clarity about what matters most before complexity is layered in. That may mean setting aside material that is valuable in its own right but does not directly support the central aim of the course.

This doesn’t mean that additional depth needs to disappear. You can still include links, supporting documents and further reading for those who want to go deeper. The key is to make a clear distinction between what every learner must grasp and what is there to extend their understanding.

A simple test is this: if this paragraph were removed, would the learner still be able to meet the learning outcome?

Introductory courses work best when they focus on foundations.

2. What am I assuming the learner already knows?

The longer you work in a subject, the more background knowledge you carry without noticing it. Ideas begin to feel obvious, and references slip in without explanation because they seem standard or familiar. That is often where new learners begin to lose their footing.

Try reading your draft as someone who is intelligent and capable, but new to this area. Are you using terms that have not yet been defined? Have you moved from one idea to the next without explaining the link between them? Would a newcomer understand why this step follows the last?

It can also help to ask a colleague from a different specialism to read through the draft. They do not need to be the target learner; they simply need enough distance to spot what feels assumed rather than explained.

Making those assumptions visible strengthens your explanation and reduces unnecessary friction. It also saves time later, because fewer clarifications and changes are needed once the content moves into review or build.

3. Does the structure feel coherent and balanced?

Structure shapes how learners experience your content. Even when individual explanations are clear, an illogical order can make the overall argument harder to follow.

There are lots of different ways to organise a course: chronologically, step-by-step, problem-to-solution, theory-to-application. What matters is choosing an approach that fits the content and being deliberate about it. That often means mapping the sequence out early, even if it is only a quick post-it note exercise to test the flow before drafting in full.

Across multiple sections and modules, coherence matters just as much. Your modules definitely do not need to be identical; in fact, when they are too closely matched, they can blur together. What matters is being intentional in your approach. If the way you structure one module is very different from the next without a clear reason, or if the level of depth varies significantly without explanation, learners have to work out the pattern each time.

Small design decisions help to create consistency: repeat familiar elements where appropriate, keep sections broadly comparable in length, and maintain a similar rhythm of explanation and application. This is also one of the most valuable checks to make early. Structural changes made late in the process are disruptive and time-consuming; taking time to sequence at the start prevents unnecessary rework later.

4. Is there a recognised framework or structure I can use here?

Many specialist fields already have established models, stages or taxonomies. For example, we frequently work with humanitarian organisations where frameworks such as the socio-ecological model are commonly used to explain how different influences interact. When a recognised structure like this is genuinely relevant, it gives learners something familiar to anchor to. Instead of processing each point in isolation, they can place new information within a pattern they already understand.

The key to doing this well is relevance and clarity: a framework should make relationships between ideas easier to see. If it is commonly used in your field and straightforward to follow, organising your material around it can reduce cognitive effort and help learners connect new knowledge to what they already know.

Where no formal model applies, it is still worth shaping the material into a clear and deliberate sequence. One of the most helpful things you can do for a learner is make the path through the content visible. When they can see where they are going and why, the subject feels more manageable and the progression more purposeful.

One of the most helpful things you can do for a learner is make the path through the content visible.

5. How many new ideas am I introducing in this section?

Learners rarely struggle because of one difficult idea; more often, they struggle because too many new ideas arrive at once.

If a single screen introduces a definition, an exception, a process step and a case study, your learner has to work out not only what each element means, but which one matters most. When everything feels equally new, nothing stands out. Slowing the sequence usually helps. Establish the core principle first and make sure it is clear, then introduce additional detail once that foundation is secure.

There can be a temptation to compress content, particularly when it feels more efficient to keep everything together. In practice, it often takes less effort to move through five focused slides than to decipher five ideas packed into one. Spacing ideas out does not dilute them; it gives your learner time to read and absorb them.

When reviewing your draft, consider how many new concepts appear in a single section. If several cluster together, separating them can make the logic easier to follow and reduce the cognitive effort required.

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Getting the structure right

Clarity begins before the first sentence is refined. It depends on what you choose to include, what you leave out, and how deliberately you guide the learner from one idea to the next.

In Part two, we look more closely at the writing itself, and how language, rhythm and examples can support — or disrupt — that clarity.