Today, we are having studio time to work on your instruction projects. We will also share team assignments for the next project, which will be a collaborative effort.
Remember, the new due date for the instruction manual project is before class on Tuesday, 11/12.
Adding to the sample instruction manual shared in our last class, here is an excerpt with useful examples of the materials and directions sections for a photograph-focused set of instructions.
I am going to talk about How to Set Up the Icloud Account
https://docs.google.com/document/d/14p6ckLs4lHwIuaFLFmw4QWf01tkt_VwH806n3p0qG-o/edit?usp=sharing
Please pay attention to these upcoming changes:
Today, we’re focusing on your instruction manuals. We will go over the general layout and how to publish your work.
NB: I want you to produce the highest quality instruction manual possible given the time that we have available. Therefore, I am extended the deadline for this assignment to Nov. 12.
We will be using Google Docs to create your instruction manual. Use this document as a model for your instruction manual.
You will be able to share your document and link to it from our OpenLab site. Use the directions below to submit your work.
After copying the link to your instruction manual, create an OpenLab post for your project. Follow these steps:
Confirm that your post appears on our OpenLab site and that the link to your instruction manual on Google Docs works correctly.
Here are some pro tips for using Google Docs:
For this project, I created an instruction manual for assembling a skateboard.
During next week’s class, we will focus on the instruction manual project. We will go over how to lay out the instruction manual using Google Docs (make sure you have a Google Account that you are comfortable using with this assignment). To maximize our in-class time on the project, we will not have a beginning of class writing assignment using a magazine article on 10/30. We will resume these assignments the week after next.
During today’s class, we’re going to focus on the main components of your instruction manual and do the brainstorming work needed to identify what should be included in your instructional manual. In our next class, we’ll focus more on the formatting and submission of your deliverable.
Let’s look at the sections of the Online Technical Communication textbook on Instructions, User Guides, and Standard Operating Procedures.
Before class, you found sample instructions and user guides to use as models. We can take a look at some online-based guides that I published on my blog here, too.
James Burke is a British historian of science and technology. He wrote and starred in a several documentary television series that shared his research with a general audience. One of those series is called Connections. It explores how much of the modern world’s culture and technology are interconnected and interdependent. While the show is a little dated, its overarching message is worth learning and thinking about. This first episode looks at the New York City blackout of 1965. You can view it here on Archive.org.
You might have noticed in my writing and lecturing, I use a few Latin terms that you should know:
NB, nota bene. This means “note well” or “pay attention to this.”
e.g., exempli gratia. This means “for the sake of an example” or “for example.” It is used to show examples.
i.e., id est. This means “that is.” It is used to explain or restate or clarify a point.
For today’s beginning of class writing assignment, we will focus on time. Before coming into class, you should have read your article and thought about its contents. You will have 30 minutes from the beginning of class to complete and post your memo as a comment to this post. Use the following example as a guide for your memo:
TO: Professor Ellis FROM: Your Name DATE: Today's Date SUBJECT: Brief Summary of an Article About X (replace X with the main topic) One sentence describing the purpose of this memo (e.g., I wanted to bring your attention to this article about X--again, replace X with the topic). Two-three sentences summarizing the main point of the article. These sentences should be all in your own words. No quotes and no paraphrasing. APA citation for your article. Look at the example, "Article in a Magazine" on this page.
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