The Fifth Rule

I’m going to skip the fourth of my five gold rules (Be Complete) for the moment because I have a good example for the fifth rule, Be Useful.

A lot of documents have two readerships, some entity that makes rules about the writing, and the people the document is intended for. For example, a. an Army manual has to conform to the Army’s style guide, but b. it’s aimed at the soldier who needs the information in the manual. Bank IT documentation has to a. demonstrate that the bank is being responsible in its development of software that handles your money (iow the auditors like it), and b. it has to describe the part of the project that it’s about, such as requirements. Say you have to write a term paper. The teacher might a. specify things like length and topic, and maybe a style guide to follow. And b. you want also to make the paper an interesting read that says something appropriate about the subject.

Forget about the a. category for now. You can’t control that. But the b. category is the actual content, and usefulness is key.

Recently my DSW (dear sweet wife) asked me to write some instructions about how to operate our wood stove for people who aren’t sure how to make it go. So I wrote up a nice set of instructions; where to set the controls, how to build the fire, and how to keep it going. Here’s a little of it:

1. Turn the lever at the top left so it points up. This bypasses the catalytic unit and speeds the draft a little. (Rotate the lever up and down to get a feel for it.)
2. Turn the lever on the top right toward you. This opens the draft.
3. Open the glass doors all the way. They tend to get in your way if you open them part way.
4. Put in a baseball-size wad of paper. Don’t use magazine paper.
5. Stack a generous handful or two of the smallest wood you can find on the paper. Pencil diameter and smaller.
6. …

Seems okay, right? The whole thing took a little less than a page. Since my youngest was a likely user of this information, I gave it to her to read. She read several lines and castigated me, in detail, for patronizing her, and for using the word “catalytic,” which she didn’t care about, and she tossed it back to me. Not very tactful or friendly (hey, she’s 17), but I’m a professional, so I took the information, not the approach, to heart, and produced something in line with what she actually needed:

Woodstove Levers

Top right: Toward you to start a fire.
                   Away to keep the fire from getting too hot, and when you put in wood.

Top left:Up when starting the fire.
               Down after the fire has lots of coals.

Bottom right: Keep it shut unless you’re cleaning out the ashes.

That’s all that was necessary, a cheat sheet.

When you write, consider what your readership needs, and stick to that. It’s the information, not the words, that are valuable.