How to Write Information on How to Read a Tape Measure

Tape measures are part of any project where exact measurements are necessary.

Tape measures are perhaps one of the most basic tools used for measurement on projects ranging from basic carpentry to moving in furniture. But sometimes it helps to have an instruction guide for using a tape measure, especially for those who haven't had the need to use one before. If you want to write a basic guide for the first time user, you need to explain step by step and item by item what they need to know.

Things You'll Need

• Word processor
• Tape measure

Instructions

1. Choose which type of tape measure you're going to record information about. Whether you're writing about metric or standard doesn't matter, but you need to choose which variety. You could also write two separate informational pieces, one for metric and one for standard if you choose.

2. Explain the largest unit of measurement that the user will have to deal with. For a metric tape it's the meter, and for standard it's either a yard, or a foot. Most projects are measured in feet. Begin the measurement at the end of the tape, and tell the reader where to stop.

3. Move to each lower unit and give a similar explanation. For instance, there are 3 feet in a yard, 12 inches in a foot, and inches are divided up into quarters, eighths and sixteenths. Metric goes from meters to decimeters to centimeters to millimeters; it's always ten of the smaller measurement that make one of the larger one.

Tips & Warnings

• It helps to provide pictures of a tape measure, marking where this unit begins and ends so that the readers can see on their own tape measure what they're looking at.

References

• Mighty Guide: How to Read a Tape Measure
• IHowd: How to Read a Tape Measure