One type of project often given to a technical writer is explaining a process. It can be anything from a brief product description to an important document detailing the workings of a complicated machine.
A couple of interesting examples that come to mind from my own experience are a video for technicians on how to use the Rotunda fuel injector cleaner/tester and an installation and service manual for the KWAUN 4600 copier. Both required extensive research. to determine exactly how the machines worked, followed by careful consideration of the best ways to design the processes.
If you don’t have a lot of experience with this type of work (and sometimes even if you do), it’s possible to fall into several traps when it comes to providing a clear, concise, and comprehensive description of a process.
You have to consider:
– who is your target audience
– what they already know about the topic
– what experience, if any, they have had with the process
– what experience, if any, they have had with similar processes
– what you will have to explain in words, pictures or both
Your job is to explain how to make toast.
The exercise is divided into 2 parts. They involve the same process, but each one is aimed at a different audience. It will be good practice to determine the exact steps involved in this seemingly simple process. You will also need to modify your content and approach based on your target audience.
Toaster details:
The toaster is an ordinary two-slice home kitchen toaster. It has a slider to push down to start the toasting process. There is a “light to dark” dial from 0 to 10. It has a separate button to toast only one side for bagels and English muffins.
Exercise – Part One
Write a step-by-step process for turning a single piece of bread into dark toast.
The audience is made up of young people between the ages of 18 and 25 who live in cities with more than 10,000 inhabitants. These cities are located west of the Mississippi and north of Kentucky.
Exercise – Part Two
Write a step-by-step process for turning a single piece of bread into dark toast.
The audience is made up of young people between the ages of 18 and 25 who have lived their entire lives on an island in the South Pacific with a population of fewer than 500. They know but are not familiar with electrical and indoor plumbing.
After you’ve written your two processes, check out the solutions below to see how their work compares. Look for what you missed or what you thought the solutions missed.
Solutions
The task was to write a short process on how to make toast with a regular toaster. His target audience was two very different groups of people.
Part One – Solution
It’s reasonable to expect that the first group, young Americans, have a fair amount of knowledge about how to make toast, even if, for some reason, they’ve never done it. That tells you that you can start with a fairly high level of experience and familiarity with bread and toasters. What you need to do is balance what they already know with what you need to tell them.
The basic steps for making toast for this group would look like this:
1. Take a slice of bread [Graphic A: hand holding a slice of bread]
2. Place it in one of the slots at the top of the toaster. [Graphic B: bread being inserted into a slot in the top of the toaster]
3. Set the “light to dark frame” scale from 0 to 10 depending on how toasty you want the bread to be [Graphic C: illustration of the scale with an arrow pointing at one of the numbers]
4. Push the slider all the way down [Graphic D: fingers pressing slide down with arrow indicating direction]
5. When the toast is ready, it will appear automatically [Graphic E: slice of toast sitting in the toaster slot]
Second part – Solution
The second target audience, South Pacific island youth, presents an entirely different challenge. I wouldn’t make the same assumptions of experience and familiarity. In fact, you have to assume that these people may not be familiar with the whole concept of making toast.
You have to start at a much more basic level.
The basic steps for making toast for this group would look like this:
[Graphic A: Illustration of a toaster with the various components called out]
1. A toaster is an appliance that must be plugged into a 120v outlet [Graphic B: illustration of the power cord of the toaster plugged into an outlet with plug and outlet called out]
2. Bread comes in many shapes and sizes. [Graphic C: a number of illustrations of representative shapes and sizes of bread]
3. To start, select a single slice of bread that fits into the toast slot [see Graphic D: toast slot]
4. The slice of bread should not touch either end of the slot and should be thinner than the width of the slot. [Graphic E: illustration of bread slice in the slot]
Note: If the slice of bread is too thick or too wide, it could get stuck in the slot or get burned by the heating elements.
5. Set the “light to dark frame” scale from 0 to 10 depending on how toasty you want the bread to be [Graphic F: illustration of the scale with an arrow pointing at one of the numbers]
Note: The toast will be darker (more toasty) the higher the number you select on the scale.
6. Press the slider at the front of the toaster down as far as it will go. [Graphic G: fingers pressing slide down with arrow indicating direction] and let it go
Note: While in operation, the toaster will get hot. Do not touch the toaster while it is in operation.
7. When the bread finishes toasting, the slice will appear automatically [Graphic H: slice of toast sitting in the toaster slot]
It is obvious that the focus and content is very different for the two groups.
In general terms, the process steps should:
– be in a logical order
– provide information indicating what to do next
– provide information that tells what to expect when a step is completed
– provide graphics and illustrations to support the text
As a technical writer, you can’t assume that everyone knows the same things or knows as much about a process as you do. You need to consider not only what the audience knows, but also what they can do to make their understanding of the process sound.