Six lines stand between a reader and your first numbered action, and each one answers a question that gets expensive later if it goes unanswered. Build the front matter for a real specimen procedure, then send a novice through it — she only knows what you wrote. Watch where she stalls, guesses, or starts a task she should never have started.
Front matter
One choice per element. Longer is not stronger — watch what happens to a line nobody can check.
And the ending
Readers invent a finish line if you do not give them one.
SOP-114 · draft · page 1
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0reader readiness
The field test
Priya, 3 weeks on the unit, outpatient draw station. No help, no explaining.