I do so love the Numerical List.

Conversationally they are admittedly a little dull but in terms of displaying a sequence of events and demonstrating those events space in time they are very effective. Take the events through which I started my day;

1. Woke up,
2. Realised where I was,
3. Swore loudly,
4. Got out of bed,
5. Swore loudly,
6. Had a cigarette,
7. Swore less loudly,
8. Made a cup of tea,
9. Turned on the TV news,
10. Swore loudly and threw things at the TV.

As you can see the numerical list breaks down a complicated operation into a series of simple processes that must be completed one after the other.

I'm sorry if this post doesn't make much sense to you but don't be disheartened. The people it's aimed at have done 12 years at private school, three years at one of the UK's better universities followed by two years of vocational training yet they still can't grasp the idea that 2 may only occur after 1 and before 3.