DR5: Steps in Instructions
The Farkas reading proposes five components for procedures:
1. Title
2. Conceptual element
3. Infinitive subheading
4. Steps
5. Notes
Steps are the most important of these components. The Steps section contains
many subsections:
• Basic action steps
• Steps with a facilitating modifier
• User option steps
• Conditional steps
• Purpose explanations in steps
• Feedback statements in steps
Choose one of these subsections — other than Basic Action Steps — and write, in
your own words, a summary of when you would use this kind of step and why it
helps the reader.
THEN “Reply” to a classmate’s DR5 = Collaborative Comment 5
DR6: Style and Grammar
Reynold’s “Understanding Prescriptive vs. Descriptive Grammar” and OSU Writing
Center’s “Prescriptive and Descriptive Grammar” explain well these two differences
of “correct” grammar.

Prescriptivism states rules about style and grammar that writers must follow if they
want to write correctly. Professional and technical writing typically takes a
prescriptivist approach to style and grammar, such as the GNOME “Developer
Documentation Style Guidelines.”
In contrast, the spoken and/or informal grammar takes a descriptivist approach,
by recognizing that grammar is always changing and that you might use different
grammar and style in different settings.
• What place do you think informal grammar has in professional and technical
writing? Can you think of an example, from professional and technical
writing, when you would take a descriptivist approach to grammar instead of
a prescriptivist approach?
THEN “Reply” to a classmate’s DR6 = Collaborative Comment 6