RE: Step One. Done.

["Pinkham, Jim" <Jim -dot- Pinkham -at- voith -dot- com>]

Thinking out loud (yes, always dangerous :), it would seem procedure/process imply more than one step, by definition -- a "going forward" (see the Latin etymology) from here to there.

For example, take a look at two of the four definitions of "procedure" at OneLook (http://www.onelook.com/?w=procedure&ls=a):

"â noun:  a process or series of acts especially of a practical or mechanical nature involved in a particular form of work
â noun:  a set sequence of steps, part of larger computer program"

 

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+jim -dot- pinkham=voith -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+jim -dot- pinkham=voith -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of John Posada
Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 3:17 PM
To: Sarah Stegall
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Step One. Done.

There must be a reason to open the TargetApp window. Isn't that the next step?

OTOH, why can't a procedure be one step?


On Wed, Jun 23, 2010 at 3:49 PM, Sarah Stegall <sstegall -at- bivio -dot- net> wrote:
> I'm editing a user guide written by a subcontractor who is (clearly) 
> not a technical writer. I am consistently finding "procedures" which 
> consist of only one step, such as:
>
> 1. Click Start>MenuOne>SubMenu to open the TargetApp window.
>
> I was trained to never have a procedure consisting of only one step.
> This sort of thing is a new experience for me. I'd really rather not 
> rewrite 50 or so procedures, but how weird would it look to leave all


> these one-step procedures in place? Would it seem weird to un-number 
> the single-step procedures, and leave all the multi-step procedures as 
> they are (correctly numbered)?

Why not?

--
John Posada
Senior Technical Writer
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