Monday, February 22, 2010
Instructions: How to Write for Busy, Grouchy People
Did the title of this post grab your attention?! It certainly got mine! As I perused documentation for my Information Technology students, I came across this article from Dennis Jerz of Seton Hill College in Pennsylvania; it addresses how to write instructions for busy, grouchy people. As students work in their small groups to develop technical instructions (for parents) they need to keep in mind that most people hate to read instructions.
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ReplyDeleteThis article will really help me to write down instructions to the reading parents trying to find out how to work with their phones
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ReplyDeleteThe Intructions in this article are good enought to be able to write instructions. Also Interesting pictures in this article.
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ReplyDeleteReading this article made me want to write a brief introduction to explain to the reader what my instructions are and are not for.
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ReplyDeleteIn addition to my comment previously posted, I would like to add that in order to help my readers I will use verbs as often as possible since most people rather "do" then just read. Using numbers and bold lettering to show important steps that will guide the reader to improve their understanding of their phones will be key in my instructions.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good article. This helped me by making me think that many people hate just reading things. So thie tells me that you need to put some pictures on the side that they could see. Because people like to see what they are supposed to do rather than read about it.
ReplyDeleteThis helped me understand to cut down sentences and make them more like direct statements toward the reader, this leaves the instructions closed ended so there are no questions later.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this article I saw 2 great tips that I will use when I write my instructions. One tip is to help my readers determine, even before they open the brochure, whether this document will help them do whatever it is they want to do. So I will provide a brief, simple introduction to my instructions. Another tip is to know my audience; which aren't very technical, so I would have to instruct them in a way that they would understand.
ReplyDeleteWhile i was reading the article made me do different things when im writing my article like providing a brief introduction and writing intructions so the readers could understand what we are talking about.
ReplyDeleteThis article contained key points of writing easy to use instructions. It used humorous examples, and was clear about how to be clear. It was also helpful by including tips, such as not including the company slogan in the instructions, as this could make the user even more frustrated.
ReplyDeletei learned that if you put the vital information into the form of a checklist, rather than a long, essay it will help my audience more.
ReplyDeleteThis article is really interesting because it teach me that there is difference type of audience out there that approaches information in different ways. But really instructions have to be very good so that impatient, fatigued, readers can understand the information and also intructions have to be in a specific format so the reader could understand it better and be able to read it faster. The problems with much intrucution is they are really hard to read because they dont have simple short words.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this article "How to Write for Busy, Grouchy People" I'm going Write each step as a command and give vital information since the readers likes to read the steps then the introduction and also write them easy so they undestand and also its going to help me how to write to that audience.
ReplyDeleteThis article now can help me with my project because I can learn more about how to write instructions. I would include pictures in my instructions even though there were not any pictures in this one.
ReplyDeleteThis article is good. It helped me how to write short instruction but very informative at the same time.
ReplyDeleteThis article has many good advice and information on how to create a good instructional guide on to either do or make something. when my team and myself are creating our guide we will make sure to have proper english with complete and readable instuctions. also we will have clear and accurate photos that show exactly what the instructions are stating so the reader can understand what they are trying to do or make.
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