The other day I set myself the task of assembling a new piece of furniture. I spent several minutes in quiet meditation before I started, knowing that I had a frustrating job in front of me. Not the job of putting the cabinet together. No, that wouldn’t be a problem. What typically is the nightmare for me is trying to understand the instructions.
Fledgling writers are often advised to read great writing, but I think there’s something to be gained from reading the bad stuff, too. You won’t find much worse than assembly instructions or user manuals. The one for the cabinet I assembled was clearly not written by someone with English as a first language. In fact, I am pretty sure the instructions were written in Chinese or Korean and then translated. Really badly translated. So badly that I suspect that the instructions were a cruel practical joke. Very funny, guys. Please stop it.
But there’s an opportunity for the writer here, and that’s today’s Writing Assignment.
For today’s assignment, rewrite a set of assembly instructions or a section of a badly written user guide.
Look for those user guides that come with software or virtually every piece of equipment or tool you buy, even furniture assembly guides. Collect them up and read through them with a highlighter and red pen. Mark up everything you find confusing, a missed step, a bad reference. Seek out the poorly translated piece of mangled English. An even better approach is to keep your red pen and highlighter handy as you use the supplied instructions to perform the task or assemble the object, noting every point that is assumed, unclear, confusing, has mangled English or is outright wrong.
Then rewrite it. If you’re using a manual, just focus on a single unclear or badly written section.
After you’ve finished, use your new instructions and perform the task. Are your instructions better?
Doing this assignment will give you a feel for what technical writing is about. Do this often enough and you’ll develop a valuable job skill.
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