: Re: 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

@Rambettina586

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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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