How to Give Great Directions
What does it take to be a good technical writer? Grammar skills? Organizational skills? Desktop publishing skills? What about being able to give directions? Yep. That’s it. That’s the number one quality of any good technical writer.
Can you tell me how . . .
The biggest asset a technical writer can have is giving good directions. Now, that seems pretty darn easy, doesn’t it? Of course. On any given day, you probably gave someone directions for something, right?
Ok, so let’s see how well you did. “Excuse me, could you please direct me to the airport?”
“Sure, get on the highway, take exit 9 to the airport. Bang. You’re there.”
Easy enough. However, did you take into consideration anything about the person who was asking? Did you know if the person had a car of was capable of driving? Was the person blind? Was the person from out of town? Did the person even know how to get to the highway? Is there more than one highway?
Do you see where I’m going with this?
Giving directions is a little more difficult than you first thought. Let’s try it again.
“Excuse me, could you please direct me to the airport?”
“Sure, are you from around here?”
“Not really, I just moved here a few weeks ago and I’m still trying to find my way around.”
“Well, you can take Highway 60 west for about 5 miles until you get to the State Road 320 exit. There’ll be a sign that indicates “airport” with an arrow. Turn right and go approximately three more miles until you get to the State Road 450 intersection, otherwise known as Airport Rd, and turn left. That road will lead you directly to the parking lot of the airport.”
Do you see the difference?
Try it without any interaction
Giving easy to follow directions can be a snap when you have someone to ask the right questions. What if there isn’t someone there to prompt you? That’s what technical writing is all about. You must anticipate all of the possible questions and have the answers ready.
To start, lets try something simple, like vacuuming a floor.
- Get out the vacuum cleaner.
- Plug it in.
- Turn it on.
- Vacuum the floor.
- Turn it off.
- Unplug
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