Writing Instructions
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 explain a personal process (enrolling in college, for example) so that readers may better understand it and possibly use it themselves.
Process texts are extremely common in school and professions. In school, teachers frequently assign process assignments. For example, humanities professors may ask for a description of how an artistic or literary period evolved; history professors, the contributions of a culture’s leaders over time; social science professors, the chronology of inventions; engineering professors, explanations of how sound is changed into electrical signals; business professors, how the Federal Reserve works or how to sell a product.
On a daily basis, we read descriptive processes, including recipes, user manuals for new software, or advice columns on how to lose weight or how to succeed in school or a profession. These texts focus on answering one of the following questions:
- “How is this done?”
- “How can I do this?”
While the topics of a process report or a set of instructions may vary, many share similarities: most are written to explain how something works, most are structured in chronological order using numbered steps, and most rely extensively on visuals. In writing instructions for learning a new software program, for example, writers might use screenshots and/or screen videos to walk users through the tutorial.
Generally, it is good to have both text and visuals in your instructions since your audience is likely comprised of people with different learning styles. However, the use of visuals can vary depending on your audience and the intended use of the instructions. Visuals help to clarify a concept that is difficult to explain using only words. Graphics may be used to show how something looks, how something should look once the step has been completed, how something is done or constructed, show trends or relationships, add liveliness to the project, or simply help to organize information. Graphics are useful since almost everyone (including children and others of a different language) can understand visual instructions and see exactly what they need to complete.
Types of Instructions
There are three main types of process texts:
-
-
- Descriptive processes: these answer the question, “How is this done?” These texts describe how a process occurs so that readers can understand it better. For example, writing a descriptive process about how you registered for a course online rather than in person might be useful to someone who has never done online registration.
-
-
-
- Prescriptive processes: these are explanatory in nature; they prescribe how something is done (or should be done) so that readers can do it themselves. These are the most common type of instructional documents. For example, you might write a prescr