---
title: "10 pet peeves of technical writing"
date: 2007-01-27
description: "$( document ).ready(function() { // Handler for .ready() called. $("
canonical_url: https://idratherbewriting.com/2007/01/27/10-pet-peeves-of-technical-writing/
---
# 10 pet peeves of technical writing
### Pet Peeve #1. Instructions that aren't modular.** **

I wish I had a better adjective for this, but do you ever find that instructions you are trying to follow require some unmentioned starting point that you can't get to because the instructions assume you were following along chronologically in their manual or help file, but really you keyword searched your way to your location? I absolutely hate this. It makes me want to squeeze the writer's neck!

### Pet Peeve #2. Instructions that aren't task-based.

I almost always want to *do *something, right away. I once began reading the AuthorIT manual and found that even up to page 87, I still hadn't come across a task. It was all introductory, explanatory fluff — this button does this, this is this screen, this is the so and so forth module, etc. I read "to do."

### Pet Peeve #3. Instructions that are inaccurate.** **

Nothing is worse than realizing half way through some task that step 4 (for example) is impossible to complete because the button or menu simply does not exist. Do you realize how frequently this occurs in technical documentation? I once served as our team editor and would try out instructions. At least a quarter of the time the instructions were wrong — the writer omitted a step, called something by the wrong name, or the interface had changed, etc. Truly frustrating for the user.

### Pet Peeve #4. Steps that confuse bullets for numbered lists and vice versa.** **

It's really the mark of a beginner when you see a list of steps the user is to perform in sequence, but the steps are written as bullets. Or when there is no specific sequence, yet the list is written with numbered steps. This seems like tech writing 101, so when I see the writer has gotten it wrong, I lose faith in the instructions immediately.