An unfortunate thing about headings is that they are spoilers. I like the idea of a writing style where headings come at the end of sections rather than at the start. Or even a “starting heading” which is a motivating question and an “ending heading” which is the key insight discovered …
Analogous to a “reverse mathematics” style of writing where motivation precedes proofs/theory precede theorems.
edited to clarify: I’m talking about technical writing; I don’t care about fiction.
By the way, there was a time where spoilers were considered normal and maybe even desirable. I remember reading an old book, I think it was by Jules Verne, where chapters started like this: “Chapter 5, in which the protagonist succeeds to overcome the obstacles, collect enough resources, and launch a rocket to the Moon”.
I have no idea whether all fiction books used to be like this, or only some of them, and whether it was universal, or only a specific time and place.
At first I was going to say this sounds like the exact opposite of what I would want but, now I’m wondering can you give some specific examples of where heading “spoilers” are unwanted—and what context are we talking about.
For example, I hate blog posts that don’t tell you what the blog post is “about” and therefore why I should read it- I often feel myself shortchanged finding half way through what it is really “about” and realizing I have no interest or use for reading it. But if you’re speaking about chapter headings in a non-fiction book, then I would assume as a reader you’re already invested for the “long haul” and to one extent or another it will satisfy your expectations. Then again, for a reference or text-books in particular spoiler headings are necessary because the purpose is to have quick access to specific information without reading “cover-to-cover”.
Are there any specific headings that you recently came across that caused you to notice this problem?
So I’m learning & writing on thermodynamics right now, and often there is a distinction between the “motivating questions”/”sources of confusion” and the actually important lessons you get from exploring them.
E.g. a motivating question is ”… and yet it scalds (even if you know the state of every particle in a cup of water)” and the takeaway from it is “your finger also has beliefs” or “thermodynamics is about reference/semantics”.
The latter might be a more typical section heading as it is correct for systematizing the topic, but it is a spoiler. Whereas the former is better for putting the reader in the right frame/getting them to think about the right questions to initiate their thinking.
In some of Daniel Dennett’s books, each chapter is introduced with a brief abstract of what’s about to be discussed, and concluded with an abstract of what has just been discussed. These are not the same.
An unfortunate thing about headings is that they are spoilers. I like the idea of a writing style where headings come at the end of sections rather than at the start. Or even a “starting heading” which is a motivating question and an “ending heading” which is the key insight discovered …
Analogous to a “reverse mathematics” style of writing where motivation precedes proofs/theory precede theorems.
edited to clarify: I’m talking about technical writing; I don’t care about fiction.
By the way, there was a time where spoilers were considered normal and maybe even desirable. I remember reading an old book, I think it was by Jules Verne, where chapters started like this: “Chapter 5, in which the protagonist succeeds to overcome the obstacles, collect enough resources, and launch a rocket to the Moon”.
I have no idea whether all fiction books used to be like this, or only some of them, and whether it was universal, or only a specific time and place.
matter of taste for fiction; but objectively bad for technical writing
Yeah, we don’t want spoilers for how to quit Vim. :D
At first I was going to say this sounds like the exact opposite of what I would want but, now I’m wondering can you give some specific examples of where heading “spoilers” are unwanted—and what context are we talking about.
For example, I hate blog posts that don’t tell you what the blog post is “about” and therefore why I should read it- I often feel myself shortchanged finding half way through what it is really “about” and realizing I have no interest or use for reading it. But if you’re speaking about chapter headings in a non-fiction book, then I would assume as a reader you’re already invested for the “long haul” and to one extent or another it will satisfy your expectations. Then again, for a reference or text-books in particular spoiler headings are necessary because the purpose is to have quick access to specific information without reading “cover-to-cover”.
Are there any specific headings that you recently came across that caused you to notice this problem?
I’m talking about technical writing/explanations of things.
Can you give a specific example, maybe even the specific one that moved you to write about it?
So I’m learning & writing on thermodynamics right now, and often there is a distinction between the “motivating questions”/”sources of confusion” and the actually important lessons you get from exploring them.
E.g. a motivating question is ”… and yet it scalds (even if you know the state of every particle in a cup of water)” and the takeaway from it is “your finger also has beliefs” or “thermodynamics is about reference/semantics”.
The latter might be a more typical section heading as it is correct for systematizing the topic, but it is a spoiler. Whereas the former is better for putting the reader in the right frame/getting them to think about the right questions to initiate their thinking.
In some of Daniel Dennett’s books, each chapter is introduced with a brief abstract of what’s about to be discussed, and concluded with an abstract of what has just been discussed. These are not the same.