The experienced worker who gets to know the instruction by rote is not bothered by extreme detail.  On the contrary, he grasps it at a glance, and focuses his mind upon any new feature and upon the speed and exactness of muscular action needed for compliance with the card.

LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION CARD IMPORTANT.—­The language in which instructions and commands are transmitted on the instruction card is of sufficient importance to warrant careful consideration.  It would be helpful if the instruction card clerk and the man who is to use the instruction cards were both masters of English, but this is hardly to be expected.  The best substitute for such special English training is a “System” for the use of the instruction card clerk that will give him some outline of English that will by degrees make his wording terse, simple and unambiguous.

He should be impressed with the value of short sentences, and of sentences that will require no punctuation other than a period at the end.  The short sentence is the most important step toward brevity, terseness, conciseness and clear thinking.

The second most important feature is that the instruction card clerk always uses the same standard wording for the same instructions.  Repetition of phrasing is a virtue, and the use of the same word for the same thing and the same meaning repeatedly is very desirable.  The wording, phrasing and sentencing should be standard wherever possible.

STANDARD PHRASING DESIRABLE.—­After a short time a phrase or sentence that is often repeated will be recognized as quickly as will a word or a letter.  Men who cannot read and write at all are comparatively few.  Men who can read and write but little are many.  It is entirely possible to teach such men standard groupings, which they can recognize on the Instruction Card and use in a very short time.

For example,—­laborers who do not even know their alphabets will learn quickly to read setting marks on cut stone.

Just as mnemonic symbols save time and effort, so standard phrasing aids toward finding out what is to be done, and remembering how it is to be done.[5] Both of these can be accomplished if the standardization is so complete that directions can be read and remembered almost at a glance.[6]

SPECIFIC TERMS HELPFUL.—­To be most effective, directions should be in the imperative form, and in specific terms.

The history and growth of language shows that the language of the savage consisted of vague general terms as compared to the specific individual terms of the modern language of civilized man.  There are examples to be seen on every hand to-day where the oral language of instructions and orders to proceed, that are given to the worker, are still more vague, comparatively, than the language between savages.

SIMILARITY OF FORM AND SHAPE ADVISABLE.—­As for the form and shape, as Dr. Taylor says, “anything that will transmit ideas by sketch or wording will serve as an instruction card.”  He advises, however, taking advantage of the saving in time to be gained by having the instruction cards as nearly alike as possible.  They may, for convenience’ sake, vary as to length, but in width, ruling, spacing and wording they should be as nearly alike as possible.