"one action per step" in instructions

Subject: "one action per step" in instructions
From: holland -at- CVAX -dot- IPFW -dot- INDIANA -dot- EDU
Date: Sun, 4 Jun 1995 09:24:57 EST

Nancy Hayes proposes as a universal standard putting "one action per step" in
instructions. Yes, but like most universal rules, there are exceptions and
complications:

o Some steps must contain concurrent actions: "While holding down the <CTRL>
key, press Z."

o Sometimes defining what constitutes "one action" can be difficult: Do I write
"6. Type your username.
"7. Press <ENTER>."

or do I write
"6. Type your username and press <ENTER>." ?

Clearly, in the above example not every keypress is a separate action, but is
the <ENTER> keypress sufficiently different from the others that I'd put it
into a separate step? (I'd probably base my decision on a judgment about my
readers--and I'd be CONSISTENT throughout a given document, of course.)

o Sometimes a series of actions is so simple that putting each action into a
separate step would condescend toward the reader, so lumping them together
becomes wise: "9. Turn the computer, monitor, and printer OFF."

Perhaps the only universal rule is that there are no universal rules. . . .

Steve Hollander
English
Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne
holland -at- cvax -dot- ipfw -dot- indiana -dot- edu


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