Stem sentences, glue text, and other transitional information

Transitional information, such as stem sentences, is largely redundant in DITA's minimalist, topic-based, semantic mark-up architecture. The role of transitional information in contextualising the content has been eliminated through the use of smaller chunk sizes, meaningful titles, information typing, structure, and demarcation labels automatically-generated in the output.

Transitional information, or glue text, is text used to inform readers of what has come before and what will follow later. In other words, it leads the reader from one idea to the next idea. When working in a modular documentation system, the author cannot assume what will come before or after, because information chunks can be assembled in different sequences and combinations to form different publications.

Some common forms of transitional information are found in:
  • stub content, such as In this chapter...
  • stem sentences, such as To change the wheel:
  • transitional phrases , such as Before starting, make sure you have...
  • cross-references, such as For more information, see...
  • locational markers, such as Next, we will describe... and Having completed the previous...
In DITA, devices other than transitional text are used to maintain cohesion and to manage transition.
  • Smaller information chunks, labelled with meaningful titles, reduce the need for stem sentences, particularly in task topics.
  • Information typing separates content that may otherwise have been bundled together into distinct topics, thus breaking up generalist topics into, for example, concept, task and reference topics. This separation reduces the need for transitional text within topics.
  • Using a structure where much of the context of a document is defined in the ditamap, rather than the topic, and the careful use of well-crafted short descriptions, allows stub content and cross-reference information to be automatically generated during the publishing process. For example, a prereq semantic element in a topic can be differentiated from other content by the application of labels or icons during the publishing process, and relationship tables can be used to form the links to related topics in the output.
  • Adopting a minimalist approach to writing can also serve to eliminate superfluous transitional information.

In summary, avoid using transitional text, and rely on structure, meaningful titles and short descriptions, the separation of document context into the ditamap, and the publishing process, to achieve coherence, cohesion and transition.