Simple Language Is Better for Training Manuals

Davies 1

Jeremy Davies

English Composition 1

Instructor Ashlyn Dugan

September 17, 2015

        Simple Language is Better for Training Manuals

Learning to do a new job in today's fast paced production driven workforce        can be very stressful and intimidating for most people. Of training manuals are written in simple easy to understand instructions it will help to make the new employee's job easier and less confusing.

One very important reason to simplify training material is to keep the employee's attention long enough to successfully learn their job. Zinsser stated in  “Simplicity”

“He is a person with an attention span of about twenty seconds. He is assailed on every side by forces competing for his time: by newspapers and magazines, by television and radio and stereo, by his wife and children and pets, by his house and his yard and all the gadgets that he has bought to keep them spruce, and by that most potent of competitors, sleep. “

In most job environments you will encounter more distractions than Zinsser talks about, so your attention may be pulled in many directions. Being able to read and understand the job instructions quickly will allow the employee to focus on their task and not get lost in a lot of big words and clutter.

Davies 2

When writing training manuals the author needs to look at many different things about who will be using the information and what skill level they have coming into the new job.  By understanding what the reader needs to properly learn and succeed at his or her job the author will be able to break the job down  so the least skilled employee can understand but still not make it to boring for a more skilled employee.   There are many different methods for training someone , Oral instructions, written manuals, visual aids, and hands on, all of these are effective as long as they are used properly and simply enough for the person being trained.  

Being a good author of anything requires that you edit your work. Read what you wrote several times. Make sure it makes sense and doesn't have to many overly complicated words and excessive explanations of things you have covered more than once. Let other people read it and have them tell you  if they could understand what you are trying to say.  Do not allow your ego or your need to show how smart you are to get in the way of writing the best and  least complicated work you can.

If you want to write training manuals, you must learn all you can about the job you are writing the manual for, explore all the different ways of presenting the information, find out what you target audience will be, and write it in a simple yet exciting manner to help keep your reader interested in learning their new job.  Writing training manuals can be fun and rewarding knowing that you are helping someone to master a new skill that will help them to better their future and provide for their family.  ”Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time. or the third. Keep thinking and rewriting until you say what you want to say. “(Zinsser)