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Category: Technical Writing.
Another funny incident yesterday: while using the restroom at Bountiful High School during the Murray/Bountiful volleyball game, I was drying my hands on the cloth rotary-type towels when I read the following instructions (this is more-or-less close to the actual instruction list, however it is from memory):
1. Pull gently on the towel, and dry your face and hands.
2. Do not hang from the towel. Do not put your head in the towel loop.
3. Failure to follow these simple instructions can result in serious injury.
This is funny to me because this is not really an instruction set. Item number one is the complete instruction. Item number two is a series of Do Nots, not dos. Item number three is a warning.
Procedural instructions that are numbered should be able to be followed in order from one to the end.
What are they teaching these kids??
September 29th, 2004 at 12:56 pm
Maybe they were trying to make sure that people read the whole thing? (You know, so they would read the warnings and stuff, too…) Hmm, anyway, you’re right, it’s not really a set of instructions. But it was funny nonetheless, not the least because of the comments to not hang on the towel or put your head in the loop. Only in high school!