An Apple alum, Jonathan Price created the first styleguide for Apple documentation (How to Write an Apple Manual), which morphed into How to Write a Computer Manual, which became the current release, How to Communicate Technical Information (Benjamin/Cummings). He has written tutorials for America Online, AppleWorks, AppleLink, and FileMaker. He graduated from Apple in 1986, and for years afterward, produced help systems for Apple software.

As a freelance, Jonathan Price has also created online information systems and coached teams developing online tutorials, help, CD-ROM, and Web materials in an A-to-Z of major computer hardware and software companies. He regularly writes, lectures, and conducts workshops on preparing content for Web publication.

He has taught at Bentley College, New Mexico Tech, New York University, Rutgers University, the University of California Berkeley, the University of California Santa Cruz, the University of New Mexico, and Yale.

He is the co-author, with Lisa Price of Hot Text: Web Writing that Works, available on the Web at http://www.WebWritingThatWorks.com.

Jonathan has also published two dozen other books about writing, art, video, and technology. For more background, see http://www.theprices.com

Judging Critera

• Are the behavioral objectives clear?
• Does the title reflect a goal the user might want to achieve?
• Is the introduction kept to a minimum?
• Does the introduction exclude actual steps?
• Do steps begin with imperatives, in general?
• Does the author avoid offering permission ("You may now...") in favor of telling the user directly, "Do this"?
• Is each step devoted to a single action?
• Are explanations distinct from steps?
• Do some explanations offer remediation, when things might have gone wrong?
• Are diagrams or screenshots offered as explanations, when needed?
• Are the steps in order?
• At the end, is it clear that I have succeeded?
• Is the language generally simple?
• Is the whole module written with the user's perspective, not the point of view of an engineer?