RE: Is there a study on reading warnings, notes?

["Rochelle McAndrews" <rmcandrews -at- csiu -dot- org>]

Although this information may also be a bit dated, I believe it remains
relevant.

See 
http://www.prc.dk/user-friendly-manuals/ufm/tip-9709.htm

Where to place the hazard texts
ALWAYS in the procedures where relevant. Always before the dangerous
procedure (step) -- otherwise it may be too late!!!

I also found this topic has been discussed before on techwr-l (thanks
Barbara!):

From: Barbara Philbrick [mailto:caslon at alltel.net] 
Sent: Monday, August 28, 2006 3:48 PM
To: techwr-l at lists.techwr-l.com
Subject: RE: Attention-getters: Warning, caution, danger...

Here's some info I pulled together many moons ago for a technical
writing
textbook ... It's dated, but the general idea and sources of information
should be worth pursuing.

Three organizations have set forth guidelines for hazard alert messages:
the
American National Standards Institute (ANSI), The Occupational Safety
and
Health Administration (OSHA), and the military. The ANSI standard is
listed
in its Z535 specification; OSHA's in its Guidelines (Chapter XVII,
Sections
1910.145 and 1926.155) and the military in specification MIL-M-38784 (p.
92,
Figure 10). In addition, many industry groups and even individual
companies
have set up their own guidelines for hazard messages. The following
table
details some of the differences between the standards.

[sorry about the formatting here; it was a 4-column table with the
consequence | ANSI designation | MIL designation | and OSHA designation]

Consequence                             |  ANSI Z535	| MIL-M-38784 |
OSHA
Will result in death or serious injury |	 DANGER	| n/a   |
DANGER
Could result in death or serious injury.	| WARNING |	 WARNING
| WARNING
Could result in minor injury or damage to equipment	 CAUTION | n/a |
n/a

Could result in damage to equipment or long-term health hazard to
personnel.
Notice (does not include long-term health hazards)	| CAUTION
(includes
long-term health hazards) |	 CAUTION (includes long-term health
hazards)

Essential operating information or helpful tips	| Important	| Note |
Note

<snip>
This message may contain privileged, confidential information that is 
exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you are not the addressee 
indicated in this message or if it does not apply to you or your 
organization, you may not copy or deliver this message to anyone. In such a 
case, please delete this message and reply to the sender immediately. Thank 
you.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 2009 is your all-in-one authoring and publishing 
solution. Author in Doc-To-Help's XML-based editor,  Microsoft Word or 
HTML and publish to the Web, Help systems or printed manuals. 
http://www.doctohelp.com

Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info. 

Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat