Learn English – Do “how to proceed” and “how to do” express the same meaning when giving instructions

grammaticalitymeaningmeaning-in-contextvocabulary

Since "proceed" generally means to continue a course of action, how do you understand the sentence "how to proceed" when used before instructions?

How to Proceed

  1. Step 01
  2. Step 02

How to Do

  1. Step 01
  2. Step 02

Here's a real example of "how to proceed" being used to introduce a series of steps http://www.ceracfp.ca/en/how-to-proceed, but I'm not sure it would be the case if I want to teach someone how to perform an exercise (e.g., meditation) or how to edit an image in Photoshop.

Best Answer

Proceed: meaning to continue as planned would be better than "How to do". How to do what?

However, if writing instructions it is better to use a 'Task-oriented' Active voice, for example:

To make a cup of coffee:

  1. Fill kettle
  2. Heat water to 87.6 C...
  3. Select cup or mug
  4. Select coffee of choice
  5. etc....

"How to proceed" is a bit redundant as you 'proceed' to explain how to proceed... So why not tell the user what they are about to do?

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