One of the most common and important uses of technical writing is instructions—those step-by-step explanations of how to do things: assemble something, operate something, repair something, or do routine maintenance on something. Although this might sound simple, writing a clear, easy-to-understand set of instructions requires attention to detail and careful crafting of sentences. Instructions are often some of the worst-written documents you can find. Like almost every consumer in the developed world, you’ve probably had infuriating experiences with badly-written instructions.
![Graphic instructions for planting and growing a tree, waiting until you're old, then cutting down the tree and making a cane from the wood.](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/courses-images/wp-content/uploads/sites/4560/2019/06/20140426/Ikea-Parody-as-a-Birthday-Present-1024x707.jpg)
Writing clear, user-friendly instructions is challenging. (Ikea Parody as a Birthday Present by Daniel is licensed CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Ultimately, good instruction writing requires:
- Clear, simple writing
- A thorough understanding of the procedure in all its technical detail
- Awareness of audience and purpose
- The ability to put yourself in the place of the person who will use your instructions
- The ability to visualize the procedure in great detail and write a step-by-step analysis of the procedure
- Willingness to test your instructions on the kind of person you wrote them for
This chapter will show you what professionals consider to be the best instruction-writing techniques.