Genres in Technical and Professional Writing: Instructions

While working at Krimson Kultuur, one of my main assignments was to write procedures and methods for the store. This assignment was particularly important to the store, since the store is ran by volunteers. These people do not actually receive training before working their hours. They are given a crash course on how to use the register, and are encouraged to explore the store and ask questions as they arise. Most do not ask questions, pretend to understand how to use the register, and then are left alone in a store they know nothing about.

Therefore, I created “cheat sheets” for them to follow. How to use the SQUARE register system, what to do when opening and closing, and other information was provided. These instructions were written clearly in a reader-friendly font, order, and size. Usability is important when creating instructions for people; they need to be able to read and act as the steps go on.

A large portion of technical and professional writing is found in writing clear instructions and procedures for people to follow. An important part of the language and genres taught in the technical writing is writing for a common person or writing in a commonplace way. This means that the writer must be able to write in an informative and simple manner that would make it easy for a person to follow the instructions set before them. This seems to be one of the main types of genre writing professionals associate with our field.

This genre will be used in most work forces; either for permanent working procedures or for something specific that is arising. Either way, oftentimes people will need to know exactly how to do something, whether new technology is being explained, or old instructions need to be updated. It is important that these instructions be clear, concise, orderly, and reusable. Very often companies will hire based off of the need for an “instruction writer” alone. It is important to have instructions in your portfolio as a technical writer, especially because of the commonplace attitude of that genre in our field. Be prepared for this, even if you have little experience in actually writing them. It's something a writer develops a knack for, rather than learns. It is as essential to our area of expertise as editing and design.