Perform vs. do

[Barbara Philbrick <caslon -at- windstream -dot- net>]

Our writing group is trying to decide if we should start using "do" instead of "perform" for lead-in statements to procedures.

For example:
"To set the language, do the following steps:"

compared to:
"To set the language, perform the following steps:"

Using "do" sounds odd to our ears, but plain language guidelines recommend it and we can't find any grammatical reason why it's wrong.

Another consideration is that our audience is heavily English as second language readers (especially Asian languages).

Have any of you found substantive reasons to use one or the other?

Thanks!

Barb


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