TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:"one action per step" in instructions From:holland -at- CVAX -dot- IPFW -dot- INDIANA -dot- EDU Date:Sun, 4 Jun 1995 09:24:57 EST
Nancy Hayes proposes as a universal standard putting "one action per step" in
instructions. Yes, but like most universal rules, there are exceptions and
complications:
o Some steps must contain concurrent actions: "While holding down the <CTRL>
key, press Z."
o Sometimes defining what constitutes "one action" can be difficult: Do I write
"6. Type your username.
"7. Press <ENTER>."
or do I write
"6. Type your username and press <ENTER>." ?
Clearly, in the above example not every keypress is a separate action, but is
the <ENTER> keypress sufficiently different from the others that I'd put it
into a separate step? (I'd probably base my decision on a judgment about my
readers--and I'd be CONSISTENT throughout a given document, of course.)
o Sometimes a series of actions is so simple that putting each action into a
separate step would condescend toward the reader, so lumping them together
becomes wise: "9. Turn the computer, monitor, and printer OFF."
Perhaps the only universal rule is that there are no universal rules. . . .
Steve Hollander
English
Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne
holland -at- cvax -dot- ipfw -dot- indiana -dot- edu
