Teacher Notes on Instruction-Writing Exercises

Exercise 3: How to boil water in a microwave oven

Context for this case:

Prerequisites:
  • Instructions with scaffolded safety warnings.

Cognitive Apprenticeship Features:
  • Models warning design.
  • Connects instructions to real-life risks.

Supporting References:
Relevant CA Content Standards  
Goal:
To show that even apparently trivial tasks can have serious hidden risks for which good instructions should compensate.
Strategy:
GENERAL ISSUES:
Risk management is one (more) important way that good technical writers help their readers. This is especially true if the danger (here, getting burned) is high or if the risks are clear to the writer but the reader is likely to overlook them. Warnings are the rhetorical device used to manage risks when writing instructions, as suggested by the last item in the instruction-writing guidelines ("Are common problems covered?"). Many companies and laboratories today use "integrated safety management," according to which each employee is "responsible for their own safety." This means each person must recognize impending work-related risks and plan for dealing with them (instructions certainly help). And it means that each person must in turn recognize when they have been given inadequate instructions (because they are in themselves a risk) and ask for better ones. So Exercise 3, however basic, is also very relevant to work life at all levels. It shows a standard way that writers help readers handle safety problems on the job.
SPECIFIC ISSUES:
Despite the classic joke about the person so clueless in the kitchen that they can't even boil water, microwave ovens in the office or shop actually pose a serious hazard when people use them to boil mugs of water (for coffee or tea) on the job. The danger is twofold:
(1) Physical. Microwaving water may raise its temperature to the boiling point without causing enough internal movement to trigger actual vaporization. Vaporization can then occur suddenly, without warning, scalding anything near by.
(2) Psychological. People have a natural but foolish tendency to check if water is boiling by putting their face close to the top of the mug. The resulting severe burns are widely reported industrial accidents.
Therefore, two warnings are needed in safe instructions for boiling water in a microwave oven: one to explain why the precautionary stick is appropriate (step 2) and one to alert oven users not to test for boiling with the skin on their face (step 5).
Do such warnings have practical value? Well, at least one company has built them into the design of a commercial product: a clear microwavable mug with a plastic safety cap that automatically dangles a bubble-inducing plastic tongue into the water inside. You can share a picture with your class by searching for the string "microwave tea kettle" or by trying the URL http://www.shoppingwarehouse.net/prod-86776.html
STUDENT VERSION:
Like Exercise 1 and 2, Exercise 3 is a worked example, so that even the preliminary version signals students about the importance of the last item in the guidelines.
ANNOTATED VERSION:
This is almost the same as the student version, but just shows how to integrate the warnings with the rest of the instruction text. Proper placement of warnings can be crucial, since readers must see them in time to help avoid trouble, not after mistakes have been made.
Case:
Student version:
Example of good instructions with SAFETY WARNINGS.

(3) How to boil water in a microwave oven.

1. Fill
   a nonmetalic cup or bowl
   with warm water.

2. Insert
   a nonmetalic spoon or stir stick
   diagonally into the cup.
                                         PROBLEM: SAFETY HAZARD
                                         SOLUTION:
                                         WARNING--without this, the
                                         water may appear not to boil,
                                         then vaporize suddenly and
                                         severely burn your face
                                         when you check it.

3. Set
   the microwave oven to
   3 minutes on HIGH

4. Place
   the cup of water into the oven
   and close the door.

5. Start
   the oven.
                                         PROBLEM: SAFETY HAZARD
                                         SOLUTION:
                                         WARNING--never put your
                                         face close to the cup to
                                         check if the water is
                                         boiling.
Annotated version:

Example of good instructions with SAFETY WARNINGS.

(3) How to boil water in a microwave oven.

1. Fill
   a nonmetalic cup or bowl
   with warm water.

2. Insert
   a nonmetalic spoon or stir stick
   diagonally into the cup.
    WARNING--without this, the
    water may appear not to boil,
    then vaporize suddenly and
    severely burn your face
    when you check it.

3. Set
   the microwave oven to
   3 minutes on HIGH

4. Place
   the cup of water into the oven
   and close the door.

5. Start
   the oven.
    WARNING--never put your
    face close to the cup to
    check if the water is
    boiling.
Note:
This exercise most closely supports the following 1998 California English-Language Arts content standard(s).
Reading:
Grade 5--"Understand how text features make information accessible and usable" (p. 28).
Writing:
Grade 6--"Compose documents with appropriate formatting by using word-processing skills and principles of design" (p. 37).
Grade 9/10--"Make distinctions between the relative value and significance of specific data, facts, and ideas" (p. 60).

Contact: T. R. Girill trgirill@acm.org