Which style of giving instructions is more effective?

[Ryan Pollack <ryan -at- clicksecurity -dot- com>]

Hi all,

I'm debating the merits of two different styles of commands:

"Enter the following command to restart the device:"

(followed by the command itself)

and

"Restart the device by entering the following command:"

(followed by the command itself)

I've been flipping back & forth on these for years; now that I am creating
a new documentation set, I'd like to be consistent, if that is even
possible (or desirable).

Any thoughts on the relative merits of each style? Situations when either
would be useful? etc.

Thanks for your input!

-- 

Ryan Pollack
Senior Technical Writer | Click Security
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Writer Tip: Create 10 different outputs with Doc-To-Help -- including Mobile and EPUB.

Read all about them: http://bit.ly/doc-to-help-10-outputs
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to
techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com


Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwhirl.com/email-discussion-groups/ for more resources and info.

Looking for articles on Technical Communications?  Head over to our online magazine at http://techwhirl.com

Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions?  Search our public email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives