by Robert Levine

Created on: May 05, 2009   Last Updated: May 07, 2009

I once worked for two months as an administrative assistant at an accounting firm. In the hopes of shortening the learning curve, the firm provided written instructions during my training for major tasks like processing clients' payroll. However, among the many irritations about the job that made my tenure so brief (by my decision, not theirs), I had to bug a co-worker or boss every few minutes because a step had been left out of the instructions and the computer program wouldn't let me proceed. Nothing if not forthright, I told the office manager once I had identified all the missing steps that the instructions were unclear and inadequate and should be revised and that with my writing background I was just the man for the job. She agreed. My newness enabled me to write the instructions from the perspective of the people they were intended for: those who don't already know what they're doing.

You might think structuring instructions or directions shouldn't pose much of a challenge normally; just list each step in the order in which it must occur. But you should be mindful of a number of details in your instructions. Wienbroer et al. mention as one of the first things in their section on instructions and directions, "Define all unfamiliar terms." This especially applies to technical terms, and to names of parts in the case of product assembly instructions. You can't expect the customer to put the product together correctly without an explanation of things included in it that most consumers have never seen. As Angela Lunsford and Robert Connors, in The New St. Martin's Handbook, remark about writing in general, "If you are writing an article for a journal for nurses about a drug that prevents patients from developing infections from intravenous feeding tubes, you will not need to give much information about how such tubes work or define many terms. But if you are writing about the same topic in a pamphlet for patients, you will have to give a great deal of background information and define (or avoid) technical terms."

"List the necessary materials and equipment," Rules of Thumb For Business Writers also states. A chef needs to know all of a dish's ingredients before cooking; that's why recipes list them first. Likewise, list all the parts included for the reader and name any unprovided tools or other materials the reader will need on hand (such as a screwdriver or glue) before starting with the steps of the procedure.

Wienbroer et al. note the

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