Re: Procedures - Must we use numbered steps?

[Rebecca Stevenson <rjstevenson -at- sprynet -dot- com>]

Hm. I think that the majority of my cookbooks use numbered steps, but now I'm going to have to go home and check. Leaving aside the question of culinary illiteracy, "must" and "all" aren't words I readily apply to work. I'm sure there *are* situations in which numbered steps somehow are at a disadvantage in describing a procedure, but I don't know that I've come across one yet. I shall keep my eyes open for them today, though. :-) 

Rebecca

-----Original Message-----
>From: Steven Brown <stevenabrown -at- yahoo -dot- com>
>Sent: Apr 18, 2006 9:39 AM
>To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>Subject: Procedures - Must we use numbered steps?
>
>Hello all,
>
>But I wonder, is it really necessary to use numbered
>steps at all? Gordon Meyer's Usable Help blog
>(http://www.g2meyer.com/usablehelp/index.html)
>recently discussed what techncial writers might learn
>from recipe writers. While he doesn't raise the issue
>of numbered steps, it struck me that recipes rarely
>use numbered steps at all, yet somehow cookbook
>readers are able to follow a fairly complex sequence
>of tasks.
>
>So I ask, have you ever considered writing procedures
>without numbers?

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