Technical Writing: Instructions

Technical Instructions are one of the most important types of technical documents.  They are used to help readers accomplish a specific task or use a particular product.  If you are involved in helping people do any sort of task, whether its building something, or preparing food, or using your product, you will likely need to create this document.  In the course this project focuses on building something, but the document could also be modified to help users in other areas.

Technical Instructions contains several sections including:

·         Warnings and Cautions

·         Materials needed

·         Instructions

·         Troubleshooting

Some similar documents (such as Operation and Maintenance Manuals) may also have other sections, such as a Table of Contents, an index, or sections on how to use the product (rather than just assemble it).

This blog post will walk through the sections listed above, then show one of the projects that the author completed for this class.

Warnings and Cautions are usually included at the beginning of an Instruction Manual. They warn the user about potential dangers involved in following the instructions, or in use of the product.  There may also be reminders about the warnings throughout the document.

Materials needed contains a list of all the materials and tools needed to accomplish the instructions. If the instructions come with a product than the contents of the box should be separated from any other materials or tools needed.  Usually, this section will be accompanied by a picture or drawing of the materials and tools needed.  Both the picture and a list of materials should have quantities needed.

The actual instruction section should have a step by step list of actions needed to assemble or build the product. This section is often accompanied by diagrams of both how the product is put together and at least once should have a diagram of the final product.

Troubleshooting is usually the last section in a basic instruction manual.  Other versions of this document may have an index, completion report, or supplemental materials at the end.

One step that should not be neglected, if at all possible, when creating Instructions, is to conduct a usability test.  The idea is to get a sample of the target audience and give them both the instructions and the materials needed for the instructions.  Doing this with a survey of those who participate in the test, can reveal problems with parts of the instructions that can be resolved by revising them.

For this project I created an instruction manual that explains how to fix a wood screw hole (for example when a wood screw will not stay in the hole.) Here are screen shots of those instructions: