Who writes owners manuals?

[ProfJeff]

Whoever wrote the manual for my GC1735 either knew it too well that they skipped a lot of steps that they did from memory, or they didn't know it at all and wrote it from looking at it without trying anything. The directions on installing / removing the mid mount mower were useless and skipped three steps, and there were no instructions on the rear hitch. I know 99% of you all know all about a 3pt, but not all of us have experience when buying a SCUT so a manual written for us and not the experts would be more helpful.

 

[grsthegreat]

I’m a technical writer and could write a book on this subject but I'll give you the abridged version of my experience. All the warnings come from the lawyers of course, and those are nonnegotiable. If legal says you have to do something then you have to do it no matter how little sense it may make IRL.

As to consumer manuals in general, most are bad because companies don't want to pay for a writer/editor. They figure anyone can write (how hard could it be?) so when a product ships they usually give that job to a dev volunteer, or maybe even a marketing droid or someone in support. There are various problems with this, but one of the biggest with devs is that they don't know the product. Sure, they know their one little area very well, but the whole thing as an assembled, functioning unit? They're clueless. That's not meant to be a slam because if you design taillights for Chevy why would you know or care about how the transmission works, or how to even drive a car for that matter. The other problem is they universally cannot write. They always think they can, but that goes back to thinking anyone can write. There are college degrees given in the subject for a reason, so this makes as much sense as thinking someone can be an architect simply because they live in a house. The third is companies are lazy and just don't care, and I see this all the time. For example, there's one major tractor company that right now has multiple grammar and punctuation errors in their two page online sales pdf. How many people had to check off on that before it went out? How expensive would it have been to have one of those people be a trained editor who understood the English language? Not very. Another good example is all those manuals for stuff from Harbor Freight. Is it really that hard or expensive to hire someone who's a native English speaker to give those a quick edit/translation? Of course not, but they don't because manuals are an afterthought and nobody cares.

All that is for companies that don't have pro writers on staff. For those that do, there's a whole other assortment of problems that get introduced but I'll leave all that boring stuff for another day.

My father was a technical writer. He did detailed work for government equipment. Was exacting work before computers and cad.

 

[stuckmotor]

When I used to write tech manuals, my checker was the big boss's admin.
She was really good at pointing out whatever looked like nonsense to her,

Good idea. If a secretary could understand it an old clod hopper like me might understand it.

 

[GoatHerd]

In a previous life, I was a manuscript editor for a publisher you would recognize.

This is an excellent topic and one not considered nearly often or deeply enough. I'm not a mechanic, but give me a well-written and clearly illustrated manual and I can do a whole lot. I'm a Kioti man going quite a way back, and although the tractors are great, the manuals suck and are written in what I call Korean English, with frequent incomprehensible or barely comprehensible statements. Ambiguity is one of the many delightful specialties of Korean English. Another is bizarre diction (word choice). Just when you really need to know some detail is when the manual likes to *^(# up. Why is it, when they're spending billions of dollars to develop and produce tractors, they hand the job of writing the manuals to ESL (English as a second language) people? It's the height of arrogance and carelessness to assign this critical task to Koreans who THINK they know English well enough to write a manual. A good manual is hard enough even for a native English speaker to write. Another issue I have with manuals (not just Kioti ones) is photos that are too small, grainy, and dark. Nice big white arrows point at fuzzy blobs. In my view, a good manual is one of the best sales tools a manufacturer can have, at least for potential customers with experience buying equipment. Stihl manuals are pretty good, which doesn't hurt Stihl's reputation one bit. The Germans figured that one out, too.

English is one of the easiest languages in the world to learn poorly and one of the hardest to learn well.

 

[Wyobuckaroo]

they are intimately acquainted with it, know every nook and cranny and, by simple human nature, unconsciously, take lots of stuff for granted.

The engineers write them, the marketing department embellishes them then the lawyers redact them
+ + +
Many years ago I learned to write machine shop set up procedures for certain parts we did on a routine basis and new parts that would be repeat runs....
Best advise I got was from a guy from 3M who wrote procedure manuals..

He said write the instructions like you were describing how to de fuse a bomb....
Meaning don't say things like....
Cut the blue wire only after cutting the red wire...
Think about it...

 

[oosik]

So many pages of warnings, don't do this, don't do that. Makes you wonder if the product you just bought is even safe to use.

 

[kenlip]

so this makes as much sense as thinking someone can be an architect simply because they live in a house.

What a great line! Reminds me of a story a mate of mine tells about a buddy of his who said he was going to open a steakhouse. My mate asked him, "What on earth do you know about running a steakhouse?". His reply was, "I eat a lot". His steakhouse adventure lasted a mere few months.

Puffy C, your description of the shortcomings and the reasons for them is excellent.

 

[workinonit]

The same people that six months later go to work at a nuclear power plant writing work procedures. Tech manuals used to be written as the mechanic was performing the work. I'm sure that's not the case any longer.

 

[dougtrr2]

I have written instructions for various procedures, usually involving computers. For my "testing" I would find someone who is not familiar with the task and have them try to follow the instructions. It was a good way to find errors or missing knowledge that I assumed everyone knew.

Doug in SW IA

 

[PuffyC]

I have written instructions for various procedures, usually involving computers. For my "testing" I would find someone who is not familiar with the task and have them try to follow the instructions. It was a good way to find errors or missing knowledge that I assumed everyone knew.

Doug in SW IA

Great practice, I do that too and find it really helpful. When I coach people on writing I say "make the steps clear enough that your mother could do it". In this case it's all highly technical so the analogy usually works (no offense Mom).