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Topic : In a FAQ, should a question header take the form "Why does blah blah?" or "Blah blah happens, Why?" And why? Whilst writing technical documentation, there is commonly a section on troubleshooting - selfpublishingguru.com

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Whilst writing technical documentation, there is commonly a section on troubleshooting or frequently asked questions.

I know a FAQ should be real questions - not ones the publisher thinks might be asked.

But when wording the question header, should it take the form:

Why does blah blah happen?

or

Blah blah happens, Why?

The former might be a more natural way of simply asking the question.

In the latter the thing that is happening appears earlier in the phrase making it easier for readers to recognize relevance earlier. That's especially the case if there's a long list of questions, where it might appear odd to have every question starting Why, How, etc.

I'm also wondering about 'a third way'!

Blah blah is happening.

I can't find the blah blah.

The fact that it's in a FAQ implicitly suggests this is a question, so maybe it's enough to say what is happening, without explicitly wording it as a question.

What would be recommended, and why?

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You can write the FAQ in a mixed fashion. Depending on what the actual question is, you could choose any of the three styles (or maybe alternate styles too) that you have mentioned to frame that particular question. The idea should be that the readers find it useful.

If it is something obvious, then the style differences might not be too much of a deal. For example,

Why is the red light flashing continuously?

may not be too different from

I switch the device on. The red light is flashing continuously. What do I do?

However, if the question is pertaining to a particular series of steps that the answer gives, then it might be useful to frame it as a question. For example,

How do I get this annoying feature to stop annoying me?

If the question is something that turns up after the user has followed a series of steps, it might be more appropriate to word the question as a descriptive one. For example,

While jumping from one tree to another tree, I realized mid-air that the other tree has disappeared! What do I do?

In the different kinds of FAQs that I have read through I have seen people use all these variants depending on the question and not sticking to one single style. It might also be of importance to note that wording some questions in a particular style might sometimes be inconvenient or lead to vague/not-user-friendly questions.

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