active vs. passive voice

[Janice Gelb]

Leonard C. Porrello wrote:
> Good question. I was assuming the reader would read both sentences
> before carrying out the directions. In other words, he's going to read,
> "1. Click <New Entry>. The New Entry window will appear" in its entirety
> before he gets around to actually clicking <New Entry>. So, the event
> that takes place after he clicks <New Entry> actually occurs in the
> future. Hence, the way I formulated the sentence is most mimetic of
> reality (according to my assumption). And although I do not have strong
> objections to what I think you are suggesting, namely, "1. Click <New
> Entry>. The New Entry window appears," it seems to me that this
> formulation does not represent reality quite as well (as it is entirely
> in the present). 

One could equally assume that readers are doing the
action when you tell them to do so and that they they
read the result after they've performed the action.
(As we all know, sometimes users just perform actions
by guesswork without reading any documentation at all!)

I think it's dangerous to assume that readers read the
explanatory text before they commit themselves to
performing an action. I often ask writers to move any
warning or information that it's important for the
reader to know before performing an action to a location
prior to the imperative instruction to avoid a situation
where the reader clicks first and then finds out later
that this action wasn't appropriate for the situation.

-- Janice

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