Recently, we looked at how much detail is required when writing procedures. Let’s look at the title section of your procedure.
As this is the first piece of content the reader encounters, so it’s important to give it some thought. You want to make sure it’s accurate but also effective. For example, how long should it be? How do you phrase the procedures? Let’s take a look.
Procedure Titles: 5 Ways to Improve
- Highlight the main task – for example, if you’re describing the different ways you can print something, start with Print as this is the main activity.
- Identify related tasks – for example, list the different ways you can print a document. Then, once these are identified, you can group them. This helps the reader see the different options available to them. If publishing the procedures online, remember to cross link from one procedure to another.
- Start with a gerund – for example, write Printing the Report in Landscape. A gerund is a verb that ends with ING. So, printing, deleting, copying, updating etc .Don’t start with nouns, such as Portrait or Landscape as readers don’t think like this. They tend to scan for the action to perform and then which option they need.
- Short but not too short – personally, I try to keep procedure headlines between 5-7 words. In some cases, you need to add more words, but I find I can usually distill the procedure into less than ten words most time. Saying that, don’t shorten the title if more words are necessary. Use your judgment. If necessary, add more words but – in principle – try to keep them short.
- Scannable – when we’re in a hurry, we scan for information. We look for keywords and phrases that match what we’re thinking of. For that reason, write your title so that readers can scan the title and decide it this is relevant or not. If not, they’ll continue to scan. If that fails, they’ll turn to the Index. Remember him?
They are exceptions of course and cultural preferences need to be factored in.
Note that you can add options such as Portrait and Landscape into your Index. This is where many readers will go when they get lost or don’t know where to start.
So, keep a list of items for your Index and link these – if publishing online – to each related topic page.