RE: Usage of second person or third person when writing procedures

Subject: RE: Usage of second person or third person when writing procedures
From: "Nancy Osterhout" <bluetwilight -at- home -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Sat, 1 Sep 2001 19:52:06 -0700

Cindy Hill asked:

"Need a little help. Our style guide is almost finished but have
conflicting source references as to second or third person usage.
When writing instructions, use the implied second or third person?
Example...Eat dinner before eating dessert or Dinner should be eaten
before dessert. Does anyone know which is correct when writing
procedures?"

Here's my 2 cents (as a policy & procedure writer):

Give reason for acting prior to giving the command -- in active voice.

Of course, the actor (title of the person who is to do the task) is
named in one column of the page while the action is told in the column
next to the actor, so this is a non-question for the kind of writing
that I do.

Example:

Eater Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first.

HTH.


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

A landmark hotel, one of America's most beautiful cities, and
three and a half days of immersion in the state of the art:
IPCC 01, Oct. 24-27 in Santa Fe. http://ieeepcs.org/2001/

+++ Miramo -- Database/XML publishing automation. See us at +++
+++ Seybold SFO, Sept. 25-27, in the Adobe Partners Pavilion +++
+++ More info: http://www.axialinfo.com http://www.miramo.com +++

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.


Previous by Author: '97 PowerPoint problem and question
Next by Author: RE: Usage of second person or third person when writing procedures
Previous by Thread: RE: User's guide for Web applications
Next by Thread: RE: Usage of second person or third person when writing procedures


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads