Re: Sentence structure: Indeed it depends

[Bill Konrad <konrad -at- SAGE -dot- CC -dot- PURDUE -dot- EDU>]

Date:    Mon, 26 Jun 1995 15:40:26 -0700
From:    "Dave L. Meek's User Account" <dave -at- ROGUE -dot- DISC-SYNERGY -dot- COM>
Subject:

Dave L. Meeks wrote in reply to Tracey May:


>> Putting an explanation after the action works for me.

> I agree with all of Tracey's points except the last one.  If I
don't know why I'm doing something, I find it difficult to repeat
the task without referring back to the manual.  That's
frustrating; at some point, I want to save time by just doing the
task, or I'll want to adapt the procedures to fit a special
circumstance or need.  In a modular design, knowing the "why"
lets the user "mix and match" without having a specific procedure
for each circumstance.

My one point of divergence from Tracey is I *usually* prefer
knowing the "why" just before the action.  Otherwise, the
question of "why" is on my mind until I find out, which keeps me
from fully concentrating on the item at hand.  Of course, this is
a personal preference that might not be typical.


Explaining the "why" before every individual step can get very tedious and
wordy.  I prefer a brief note at the beginning of a set of procedural steps
which provides a big picture context, and then if it is helpful, provide a
very brief indication after individual steps about how the step fits into
the big picture. This way the readers can read the additional info if
they're curious or skim over it if they just want to get to the end result
as quickly as possible.

Of course, an important exception to this FYI sort of placement is warnings
and cautions and conditionals which should always come before a step.


Bill Konrad
konrad -at- sage -dot- cc -dot- purdue -dot- edu

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