8 tips on how to write a manual

I’ve been writing manuals for all sorts of things for many (many) years. I have found that over the years I have become more comfortable writing manuals and have honed my writing skills for the audience. I have written operations manuals, instruction manuals, training manuals, national contracts, and even Franchise Disclosure Documents (which is probably my least favorite). After writing manuals for so long, I have developed my own list of tips on how to write a manual.

1. Create a List – Write down all the topics you should/want to include in your manual. They don’t have to be in any particular order yet. Simply writing down topics can help with the thought process. If something randomly occurs to you on a specific topic, you can open your document and jot down your ideas to expand on them later.
2. Always have a pen and paper handy – you will have random thoughts and ideas when working on other tasks in your day job. If you write them down right then and there, you can include them in your manual later.
3. Consult with other people in your company; in most cases, you won’t know all you need to know about a specific topic or procedure. Instead of scrambling to come up with something that sounds good, talk to the expert on that topic…and take good notes to translate into the manual later.
4. Don’t redo work that’s already been done: If you’re including sections in your manual that have already been written on that topic, find those documents or parts and start there. For example, I like to include an introduction about the company (ie, who the company is, its mission and values, etc.). Most companies include this information on their company website. You may have to redraft some things, add or even remove some things from existing material, but this is much easier than having to start from scratch.
5. Get everything in writing and so format the document – there is no point in formatting and putting everything in the correct order until everything is written. If you start formatting before you finish writing, you may find that you spend more time formatting than writing.
6. Write in the third person and whose use specific nouns – using me, you, we, etc. in manuals it can get quite confusing (and really looks unprofessional). Continuing to use the company name and employee titles is also more secure. By including employee names, you may be able to update the handbook every time someone leaves or joins the company. This is not only time consuming, but unnecessary. Using headings just simplifies your life and makes the document much easier to manage (especially if it’s hundreds of pages long as mine often is).
7. Always Ask someone else to proofread the document, either all at once or in sections. You wrote the document, so when you try to fix it, you’ll probably miss at least a few errors. Having someone else do the review for you will allow a new set of eyes to examine the document and find things you may have missed.
8. Find a co-writer, if you can. If this is your ‘baby’, then you’ll write by yourself, but if you can find a co-author and split the issues, it’s likely to be completed in half the time. A word of warning though: the two may have very different writing styles, so the document may not flow very well. Finding someone with a similar writing style, or finding someone you can edit to make it sound like it was written by the same person, can help with document flow.