Re: a question about writing instructions

["Dick Margulis " <margulis -at- mail -dot- fiam -dot- net>]

Becca Price <becca_price -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:

>Is this a "new style" of writing that I've not been much exposed
>to, or was our house style developed by a lazy writer? 

Becca,

That's exactly the style I use when I'm being lazy--dashing off an email or a newsgroup post for a two- or three-step procedure--especially if I know that the person I'm asking is a fairly bright person who just needs a reminder on a little-used procedure. So my guess is that your house style was developed by a lazy writer.

It is remotely possible that the writer based this style on some cockamie hypothesis about the typical learning style of your average user. (Women resist reading numbered steps, or some such nonsense.) So it may not have been motivated entirely by laziness.

Nonetheless, I think it's silly and that you should try to migrate the house style toward something more user-friendly.

Dick

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