By Kirk St.Amant

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed almost every process of our lives. As societies reopen, the challenge becomes maintaining social distancing during essential interactions. As with prior public health crises, effective social distancing will be essential. Such practices require organizations to provide procedures for maintaining a safe distance when moving through daily activities.

Technical communicators can play a central role in such processes. By tapping their expertise in providing instruction, they can create the content that promotes safe interactions in pandemic contexts. The key is focusing on areas where social distancing can be difficult. This can be done by focusing on prepositions that convey how individuals move through public spaces. Such approaches apply to any public health situation where social distancing is essential to safety.

Preposition 1: Into

All buildings have a limited number of entry points, and individuals often cluster there at the start of the workday or school day. Social distancing can be difficult in these locations as individuals try to get into a location on time.

To address this situation, organizations need instructions explaining how to enter into such spaces in safe ways. These instructions might include staggered entry times (e.g., “Individuals in Group 1 enter from 8 to 8:05 a.m.”), order of entry (e.g., “Individuals in Group 1 will enter in the following order …”), and direction for spacing when entering (e.g., “Wait two seconds before following another person into the building.”).

Preposition 2: Through

Once inside a location, individuals usually need to move through that space to a particular place within it. This movement often involves traversing confined areas like hallways, stairwells, or elevators—spaces where social distancing can be difficult.

To address this factor, organizations need to provide individuals with procedures for moving through confined spaces when going to locations within buildings. These procedures could include instructions for when and how individuals should move through restricted areas (e.g., “Move in single file on each side of a hallway, with both parties moving down their respective right side of the hallway.”). Procedures should also include guidelines for maintaining distances when moving through such spaces (e.g., “Keep a one-second gap between you and the person in front of you, and stop when they do—while always maintaining a six-foot gap between you and the person in front of you.”).

Preposition 3: Within

Once individuals reach their intended destination within a building, there is a new challenge of how to interact in that location. Telling individuals to “maintain effective social distancing at meetings” leaves it up to each person to determine such spacing, and even if individuals assume a particular distance upon entry, that does not mean they will maintain it during interactions (e.g., reflexive movement toward others to show them something).

Organizations should therefore provide guidelines on maintaining effective social distancing during meetings (e.g., “Keep two arm’s lengths, or six feet, between you and others at all times.”).

Preposition(s) 4: From

In addition to entering locations, organizations need to provide individuals with processes for exiting from a location.

These materials could include instructions for how to depart a room in a building (e.g., “To leave this space and move through, go out of, and depart this location, do the following …”).

Alternatively, such procedures might simply inform individuals to use a reverse of the instructions for entering a location to leave it (e.g., “Follow the same instructions for moving through hallways/exiting buildings when departing work.”).

Such materials make individuals aware of the need to follow certain protocols when entering into and departing from a location.

Disseminating Information

In developing these resources, technical communicators need to determine the best method for sharing information with individuals. Making these resources available online and for mobile access, for example, makes them readily available to many people entering, moving through, or exiting buildings.

Limited or spotty mobile access in a location, however, can limit access to essential information. For this reason, organizations also might consider providing printed instructions at entry points and in key locations within buildings for visitors to consult when moving through a setting.

The central point to remember is to provide such procedural information on social distancing via different media and in different locations to ensure it can be accessed and used by audiences.

Final Thoughts

Creating protocols and procedures for social distancing during pandemics can be challenging. Thinking of such processes in terms of prepositions for movements into and through locations can help technical communicators identify situations where such materials are needed.

The suggestions described here are one approach to processes that are important when addressing public health concerns involving communicable disease. Technical communicators can expand upon these ideas to help their organizations—and society overall—address safety concerns through effective social distancing during a pandemic.

Note: This column is adapted from the online article, “Prepositions for Planning Post-COVID-19 Processes,” available online at https://communicating-about-covid19.weebly.com/prepositions-for-planning-post-covid-19.html.

The author wishes to thank Tom Johnson for his help in drafting this text.