Common sense is not so common. You can’t always predict what people will or won’t do. This is why special notices (warnings, safety information, notes, and tips) are an important element of your technical documentation. As technical writers, we have a legal and ethical responsibility to the reader.
I chose the user manual for my Samsung washing machine as an example of special notices. I may be biased because it’s the first washing machine I’ve had that sings to me. It really does… it plays a song when it’s done. Now no one can pretend that the machine is still going when asked to put the load in the dryer. I also think it has one of the better manuals I have come across. All the safety information is at the beginning of the document to set its importance. Some of the warnings seem excessive. I was almost afraid to use it. Then I reminded myself that most people use a washing machine, so I took my chances. But this is in line with most manuals these days. I’m sure the company’s legal department runs it all through a grinder several hundred times before it is published.
I like that the manual uses icons and provides a legend for those icons (see below).
There is a warning not to allow children or pets near or in the machine. This makes sense. However, the following warning takes a darker turn. I’m not sure how ethical it is to put animals and food in the same sentence.
Also, I’d like to know who they had to make this warning for. Cleaning with benzene? That’s pretty hardcore.
Learning Activity
Look through some print or online manuals for examples of special notices. Why do you think the writer included it and what is its importance to the reader?
Source:
Samsung. (2016). Samsung Washer User Manual [PDF]. Retrieved from https://images.homedepot-static.com/catalog/pdfImages/8c/8cb55da7-ac42-4d53-97ba-7cdbc3e10cc1.pdf.
