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re: instructions for a pb&j sandwhich - a little OT
Subject:re: instructions for a pb&j sandwhich - a little OT From:Sean Hower <hokumhome -at- freehomepage -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 29 May 2002 09:21:31 -0700 (PDT)
I agree with Sean B's assessment that at some point we have to assume some level of knowledge for our audience. It's unlikely that a ramapithicene will be using Microsoft Word any time soon, so the writers of those docs really don't need to worry about explaining what chairs and writing are. :-) The problem is how much knowledge should we assume, and how do we determine it?
Before you say "audience analysis," I know that.
But even with good audience analysis, we make assumptions about shared knowledge, and we have to make decisions about what information to include and what information not to include. I ran into this problem when I was documenting a 3D graphics program. The company wanted to market the product to newbies, and so I had to walk a fine line between assuming a certain level of knowledge and explaining the field of computer graphics.
Saying "put the peanut butter on the bread" (a direct quote from the show) assumes several steps that are not explicitly stated, such as open the jar and use a knife to take some peanut butter out of the jar. Obvious to us, because we've done it before, or at least understand that jars hold stuff that we take out. Not so obvious to others who haven't seen jars, or to three year olds who have never made a pb&j sandwhich before.
Rediculous example? Well, yeah, but sometimes it takes the rediculous to make a point. But it's perfectly valid.
How many people do you know that can't "boil water." Pasta is probably the easiest thing in the world to cook...but when you're first learning, it's not so easy.
How about driving a car. That's something "everyone" does. That's something "everyone" has to learn. If you wrote instructions that stated something like:
1: put the key into the ignition
2: turn the key
3: put the car into gear
4: press the acccelerator
that's a pretty obvious set of instructions...but what if the car doesn't go? What went wrong? Well, maybe the emergency break was on. It's obvious to us to take off the e-break, but may not be so obvious when you're first learning about driving. What if you're driving an automatic instead of a stick? "put the car into gear" calls for several steps, which are different depending on what sort of transmission the car has. Even if you include these instructions, the car still might not go because the person following them may not know to keep their foot on the acccelerator. Nevermind the fact that the second step doesn't tell the reader that they don't need to continually turn the key...."What's that grinding sound?". Is this so rediculous? It's the kind of problems I remember my friends and my brother running into when they were learning to drive. It's the kind of problems that customer service people get with software, especially software designed/marketed for newbies or techno-phobes. It's the same sorts of problems that article in the Washington Post was mentioning. Where I work, we get people who don't know how to use a mouse. Granted, our instructions do assume training in using a computer. My father-in-law used to write technical documentation for the military. He had to include instructions about the angle your head should be at when you're using something, where to place a part when disassembling something (and at what angle/facing the part should be in relation to you), and much more. Granted, that's military precision for you, but it was something he had to write.
On a more applicable note, I've run into many tutorials/instructions like the watch instructions that Keith mentioned. I guess my point was that when we're writing, we need to think about what's "obvious", because those "obvious" things may not be so to some people. The decisions about what's obvious and what's not should be based on our understanding of our audience, some common sense (which is not always so common) and a little bit of luck. Rock-paper-scissors anyone(jan-ken-po for our Japanese readers)? :-)
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Sean Hower
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