Procedese

Procedese is a proposed form of prose designed to describe procedures and steps in a clear, unambiguous sequence. Unlike narrative prose, procedese emphasizes order, conditions, and outcomes, and is often used in technical writing, manuals, and instructional materials. The term is a neologism found in discussions of how to express complex workflows in natural language.

Etymology and scope: Coined from procedure and -ese (as in language), procedese signals a focus on procedural content rather than descriptive or narrative devices. It aims to align human-readable text with the logical structure of tasks and workflows.

Characteristics: Core features include numbered steps, imperative mood, explicit sequencing, conditional branches (if/then), loops (repeat), and short, domain-specific terminology. Sentences are typically concise, with each step describing a single action or decision. The language favors determinism and testability, and may employ standardized phrases to minimize ambiguity.

Context and uses: Procedese appears in user manuals, maintenance guides, software documentation, and robotics or automation contexts where humans need to reliably implement a task or program a device. It often coexists with diagrams, flowcharts, or pseudocode to bridge human language and machine interpretation.

Example: A procedese description for installing a driver might read: 1) Connect the device to power. 2) Open the computer's control panel. 3) Select "Install new hardware" and follow on-screen prompts. 4) When prompted, load the driver file from the provided medium. 5) Verify installation success by checking device status.

See also: procedural writing, instruction manual, pseudocode, controlled natural language, recipe writing.