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[lusty]

Poll A dispute about technical writing

Comments

[navygreen]

I'm no help, apparently. I've split your poll.

[lusty]

The more I read them the more I don't know which I prefer. Except that the first one has "sequentially" in the wrong place. In the first answer, it sounds like you're doing steps 1-2 sequentially, which of course you are, but in actual fact the word "sequentially" in that sentence is supposed to apply to going through several systems one by one, not to the order of doing the steps 1-2.

[litch]

in that case I change my answer, I assumed from reading it that I could have my minions do steps 1 & 2 on all the machines at the same time as long as they did step one first

I'd instead phrase it as "Repeat steps 1 & 2 on each active appliance." I might then add "Do not start the procedure until you have completed it on the previous machine"

Re: Oh no, you triggered my secret editor

[lusty]

Our "tech writer" asserts that you must start with where to avoid people accidentally issuing a command on the wrong system. That's where this whole argument started. We have a history around here of tech writers who value form over function :-(

Re: Oh no, you triggered my secret editor

[pi3832]

"On the standby appliance use the CLI command Cluster Scan to associate it with each active appliance in the cluster."

Where -> what -> why

That's me journalist training at work there.

[iphy]

Frankly, I think they're all poor. You're trying to say too much in one sentence in both cases

[lusty]

Thanks everybody for the comments. They were very useful.