RE: Use of Optional in instructions

["Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com>]

Boudreaux, Madelyn wrote:
 
> Richard Combs wrote:
> 
> >RIGHT: "To accomplish X, do A."
> >WRONG: "Do A to accomplish X."
> 
> Interesting. I've always preferred the other route, on the grounds
that
> Richard's method buries the lede. The procedure is what you do, and
any
> explanation, editorializing, or notation is secondary. A user who is
> just following orders reads the DO THIS step, and skims the
explanation
> that follows; a more curious user reads it all. Users are like ornery
> horses: you can lead them to understanding, but you can't make them
> partake.

"Buries the lede"? But we're not writing news reports, inverted-pyramid
style. We're telling people how to perform a task. As others have noted,
the user who reads "Do A" and immediately does it may not be happy upon
discovering that she just "accomplish[ed] X" when she really intended to
accomplish Y. 

IMHO, the critical information -- the "lede," if you want to call it
that -- amounts to this: "Dear reader, you now have a decision to make.
Do you want to accomplish X? If so, ..."

Sorry, but I thought this was TW101 since at least the 80s. If an
instruction has a qualifier, state the qualifier first so the reader can
determine whether the instruction applies. 

Richard


Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
------






 


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