I've been thinking a lot recently about how to present encounters. Pathfinder and D&D do this very differently; here are a few examples showing what I mean.

* The Pathfinder Method: Makes encounters very long in column-length; different sections and effects are set apart; aims to be comprehensive.

D2. Goblin Prison
The goblins keep the rare prisoners they capture in the five wooden cages in the back of this room. They aren't particularly skilled at locksmithing, and have simply attached stolen door handles to the cage doors, which open easily. They are also particularly poor woodworkers, and a [test difficulty] Strength check is sufficient to burst a cage open.
Creatures: Five goblins guard this room, including their commander Bidger Manykeys. Concerned about being caught and punished for laziness, these goblins fight to the death.
Bidger Manykeys CR 1
XP 400
Male goblin fighter 2
[20 or so lines of stat block follows]
Goblins (4) CR 1/3
XP 135 each
hp 6 each
Treasure: A tattered cloak lies on the floor of one of the cells. Although currently stained with blood, it is a cloak of resistance +1 that magically cleans and repairs itself when donned.
Development: The magic cloak conceals the corpse of a sprite that didn't survive the goblins' cruelties. If the sprite's body is uncovered, it draws necromantic energies from the Shadowy Well of Shadows (area D15) currently tended by the goblin necromancer Falkior Bone-Nose. The sprite's body twitches and shrieks for 1d10 rounds. Although this shrieking likely alerts the goblins in the adjacent barracks (area D4), it also reduces the Shadowy Well's power by 1 Soul Point, as described in area D15. 

* The D&D Method: Encounters are shorter in length, as bolded monster entries automatically mean "go look in the Monster Manual, or in the back of this book if a page number is given"; aims to be more narrative.

D2. Goblin Prison
Four goblins and a goblin boss named Bidger Manykeys watch over this prison. The goblins keep the rare prisoners they capture in the five wooden cages in the back of this room. The goblins aren't particularly skilled at locksmithing, and have simply attached stolen door handles to the cage doors, which therefore open easily. They are also particularly poor woodworkers, and a [test difficulty] Strength check is sufficient to burst a cage open. A tattered cloak of protection lies on the floor of one of the cells. Although currently stained with blood because it conceals the body of a dead sprite prisoner, the cloak magically cleans and repairs itself whenever it is donned. If the sprite's body is uncovered, it twitches and shrieks for a minute as it pulls necromantic energies from Falkior's Shadowy Well of Shadows. Although the corpse's keening shrieks likely alert nearby goblins, particularly those in the adjacent barracks, it also reduces the Shadowy Well's power by 1 Soul Point. 

The clarity of the Pathfinder method is useful for referencing; if you needed to know where that tattered magic cloak came from, you can just skim the "Treasure" subheaders until you find it. It creates uneven cross-referencing in monster statistics though, sometimes putting complicated stat blocks right in the middle of the narrative flow and other times just making you look in a different book (or, as in the example above, both in the same encounter). However, the Challenge Rating and XP granted are very clear, making doling out rewards and gauging difficulty very easy. I'm not going to go too deeply into how this is presented for the 2nd edition of Pathfinder, but the core impetus of clarity even at the expense of making encounters long is still there.

The D&D method is a lot more narrative, and therefore helps the GM understand the key elements of the encounter quickly and provide them narratively to her players. This text is almost never interrupted by lengthy rules; monster stat blocks are always tucked at the end of the book or found in the Monster Manual.

Other games take a middle approach. I've been running a lot of Torg: Eternity recently, and those encounters call out monsters in a separate block of text but always put the necessary stat blocks in an appendix at the end (much the way Pathfinder Society adventures, unlike other Paizo products, put the stat blocks in an appendix at the end). It's otherwise quite narrative, but heavy on subheaders to present unusual things that might occur (such as the shrieking sprite corpse). I'm also running The Strange RPG, and that takes another, different middle ground. Monsters and treasure are included in running text that is exceptionally narrative and concise, with a short note in the margin telling you where you can find the rules whether in that book or in a different one. 

So what's the right answer? I'm not sure there is one. The most important things for the text are that it is (i) enjoyable to read, and (ii) useful at the gaming table. As long as those are met, there are a lot of viable options. I'm thinking of experimenting with a Pathfinder product that presents encounters in the D&D fashion--I can certainly get a lot more adventure in a lot fewer pages that way, and I think that can still be very clear and yet point GMs to all the rules they need. I'm alternatively wondering whether starting each encounter area at the top of a column is feasible, although I know this is quite similar to the "Delve Format" that Wizards of the Coast tried several years ago with mixed results.