he good folks who buy your how-to manual do not want to read
anything complicated or hard to comprehend. They bought your
manual to help them solve a specific problem, quickly, easily,
and efficiently.
You’ve heard the acronym “KISS” – “Keep It Simple, Sport!” Obey
this admonition and you can’t go wrong. This isn’t Hemmingway
we’re writing here, folks. Just the facts. Write what’s in your
head, then fine tune it, but don’t over-write! We’re trying to
clear the fog here, not contribute to it.
Fortunately for users of word processing programs, there are a
number of tools to help us in our quest for simplicity and
clarity.
In Microsoft Word, for example, under the Tools menu item,
there’s a selection for “Word Count”. Clicking on this option
will display (logically enough) the number of words in our whole
document plus some other information about the document.
More importantly, when you run the Spelling and Grammar checker
from the Tools Menu, at the end you will get a display of the
number of sentences per paragraph, along with other statistics,
two of which we’ll focus on next.
When Word finishes checking spelling and grammar, it can display
information about the reading level of the document, including
the following readability scores. Each readability score bases
its rating on the average number of syllables per word and words
per sentence.
The Flesch Reading Ease score rates text on a 100-point scale;
the higher the score, the easier it is to understand the
document. For our how-to manual, aim for a score of
approximately 60 to 70.
The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score rates text on a U.S.
grade-school level. For example, a score of 8.0 means that an
eighth grader can understand the document. For most standard
documents, aim for a score of approximately 7.0 to 8.0.
I’ve mentioned word processing programs several times in
reference to writing your how-to manual. You are certainly not
required to use a computer or a word processing program to write
your how-to manual.
I know of several writers who prefer to write (at least the
first draft) with a pencil and legal pad. An advantage of the
handwritten draft method is that you can carry it with you
conveniently practically wherever you go. And it’s available and
ready to be used quickly, without having to wait for a laptop
computer to boot up. I always carry a notepad (or my handheld
palm-style computer) to jot down ideas whenever they occur to
me. (I just haven’t figured out how to take it into the shower
with me yet!)
And there’s one other method I’ve referred to that I personally
like in certain situations: the audiocassette recorder.
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