How to Write a Procedural Task

TECHNICAL WRITING | Tech Com Center





© Ugur Akinci

Tasks are divided into two main groups:

Procedural tasks have sequential steps that you need to follow in linear order to complete the task successfully.

Example: changing the oil filter of your car is a procedural task because there are individual steps that you have to follow. You have to shut off the engine BEFORE taking off the old oil filter, for example.

Non-procedural tasks do NOT have sequential steps that you need to follow in linear order to complete the task successfully.

Example: blinking your eye is a non-procedural task because it doesn’t have any individual steps that you need to follow. You just blink, and that’s it.

A great majority of the tasks we perform every day are procedural tasks that can be described in linear logical steps that follow one another.

1) Start a procedural task by giving it a TITLE.

In technical documents, the title starts with an ACTION verb either in its INFINITIVE or GERUND form. (Quick reminder: “To do” is the INFINITIVE form. “Doing” is the GERUND form.)

Example: “To Change Your Oil Filter” or “Changing Your Oil Filter”.

2) Follow the title with a SHORT DESCRIPTION of the task.

Example: “Follow the steps below to change the oil filter of your car.”

3) Right after the short description, make sure to specify any special conditions or any piece of important information that the user should be aware of BEFORE starting to follow your steps. We’ll call this META INFORMATION.

Example: “Follow the steps below to change the oil filter of your car. These steps are good for all 2- or 4-door sedan models of Ford, Chevrolet, Honda or Toyota brands manufactured between 1979 – 1999.”

4) Next comes the BODY of the task description itself. But before that, make sure to spell out all the PREREQUISITES (place, tools, software/hardware, time of the day, room/air temperature, etc.) needed to successfully complete the task.

Example:

Tools needed:
1] Oil filter wrench
2] Oil collection bucket
3] A pair of gloves
4] A pair of goggles
5] Etc…

5) Then spell out the INDIVIDUAL STEPS necessary to complete the task successfully.

Example:

ASSIGNMENT:

TASK: Write a procedural task describing how to set the ALARM of your manual/analog and electronic/digital alarm clock.

QUESTION: Which one is harder to write? Why?

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