Many an author of instruction manuals and how-to guides write as if you know “how to” before reading the first word of their expertise. To make matters worse (for you), if these experts followed their own instructions, they wouldn’t be able to operate a doorknob. From gardening and parenting to dieting and updating your computer, experts tell you how smart they are without making you any smarter.
While it isn’t necessary for a how-to writer to start at the beginning (how to read), it is necessary that they start at the beginning of their topic. A glossary or list of terms is dry reading, but not when it’s incorporated into the text of a subject that interests you - nor is it difficult to do so:
A perennial plant lives three or more years. An annual plant lives only one year or season.I am the author of these two sentences - and I’m not even an expert. In 17 words I defined two basic terms the beginner gardener needs to know. I didn’t make my reader turn to the back of a book, open their dictionary, or click on a link that goes to a different site to understand what I said or the context in which I said it. Compare this to a 429-word article with six links and numerous terms the beginner would not know, called “The Difference Between Annual Plants and Perennial Plants in the Garden” by The Garden Helper.
I’d hoped to get a surefire, year-round garden going. I researched the holy crap out of the subject online and in the library and would have benefited from any number of diagrams, layouts, and detailed instructions if they hadn’t left out two crucial pieces of information: The names of the plants and what they look like.
Not even my beloved (and quintessential gardening authority) Capper’s Weekly could resist the temptation to indulge in its own brand of self-serving rhetoric. Of 828 words, C’s W doled out a whopping 19 words that could be loosely translated into a shopping list. The rest of the article was made up of information you could only use if you already knew what you were doing (so why would you be reading the article?) and an unholy amount of “here’s how smart I am.”
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