After watching this week’s lecture, begin thinking about what tasks and processes would be appropriate and interesting for you to write an instruction manual on for the next individual project. Possible instruction manuals should focus on your degree and career goals so that you create something relevant to your training and illustrative of your communication skills.
For this week’s Weekly Writing Assignment, write a 250-word memo addressed to Prof. Ellis with the subject line of “Instruction Manual Topic Selection.” In the body of your memo, discuss the pros and cons of three possible instruction manual topics and state which one you choose to work on for the project. Copy-and-paste your memo into a comment made to this post.
To aid in your thinking, review the links below for sample instruction manuals, and see a sample instruction manual outline at the bottom of this post.
Sample Instruction Manuals
- LEGO Instructions
- IKEA Instructions
- ASUS B550 Motherboard Instructions
- Multimeter Instructions
- Examples of Instructions and User Manuals in David McMurrey’s Online Technical Writing Textbook
- Prof. Ellis’ Skateboard Assembly
- Prof. Ellis’ Lightsaber Assembly
- Prof. Ellis’ Raspberry Pi Touchscreen Computer Assembly
Sample Instruction Manual Organization
1.0 Introduction 1.1 Purpose 1.2 Intended Audience 1.3 Scope 1.4 Organization Description 1.5 Conventions (abbreviations, left/right) 1.6 Motivation (answers the “so what” question) 1.7 Safety and Disclaimers 2.0 Description of the Equipment 2.1 Illustration of the Equipment 2.2 Description of the Equipment’s Parts 3.0 List of Materials and Equipment Needed 3.1 Illustration of the Parts Needed to Carry Out the Instructions 3.2 Tools needed 3.3 Table of the parts with description of each 4.0 Directions 4.1 Assemble the Skateboard 4.1.1 Step 1 (don’t write Step 1--write a brief statement on what the first step is) 4.1.2 Step 2 4.1.3 Step 3...Step n (write as many steps--briefly--as you can think of--you can fill this list out later) 5.0 Troubleshooting 6.0 Glossary 7.0 Reference List
Paste your memo here.
To: Professor Ellis
From: Ishtiaq Mahmud
Date: 10/18/2021
Subject: Instruction Manual Topic Selection
The purpose of this memo is to choose a topic on which I’m considering discussing for Instruction Manual. I worked with several different applications and tools which comes in handy in the interests of my career path or field of study. I thought of topics that involves in technology which are router and modems, printer and scanners, and installation or configuration of case projects. Routers and modems are things I always enjoyed installing or troubleshooting. It is very easy and simple to use or work with these yourself rather than other things which can be done by an expert only. I was excited about router and modems at the beginning but then realized that I am accessed to the services of these only at home. Even though, I can write about services for my home, I won’t be able to get more information which is required from other places. Installing case projects or configuring them is something I’ve dealt with since start of my school. Hence, it is comfortable for me to do any of the installing and configuration. However, it is not possible every time getting access to the applications as they required different permissions. For instance, I have had difficulties working with DNS as certain privileges weren’t available working outside of the campus so these are things that might put up troubles working further. Printers and Scanners is something we always need whether in home, business, or school. I will be able to connect more describing this in details dealing with as I am currently working as tech support in DOE. Apart from all the options, I’ve selected printers and scanners as these are devices which is ideal for me.
To: Professor Ellis
From: Rosario Garcia
Date :10/20/2021
Subject: Instruction Manual Organization
The purpose of the summary is to choose a topic about software development related to computer with good software for the Instruction Manual. Expanded more about programming, software. The reason why I to focus on software development because to understand how to learn different programs and understand how to create software, computer. So, the topics I chosen is computer and program since both are related to software develop. Abilities to java to create a simple AR or learn more about program mobile device through program. Programming and coding in general that brought into to software development. The items need to learn software develop I think is understand the know about basic coding. Able to find way to improvement, gain different opportunities to gain more experience about the coding in general. The pro about ability to read and get information about the laptop or computer. Also, ability to see the guideline and requirement about the specification of the products. Determine if it benefits the user person need for the laptop or computer usage for example some laptop built for gaming, coding, businesses, work, education, or simple task use like browsing the internet. Another pro that manual instructions can information explain step instruction to setup the products and sometime another one for installation. The con of a manual instructions for the computer or laptop that they don’t explain if you more into issues with the product. It just explain the step by step to turn and specs of the laptop.
To: Professor Ellis
From: Muztahid Sakif
Date: 10/21/2021
Subject: Instruction Manual Topic Selection
The purpose of this memo is to choose the topic for the instruction manual project. For this project, I will be discussing a guide to configuring a virtual network on packet tracer. This guide will walk the readers through the step-by-step process in configuring a network. I will dive into how to set up routers, switches, end-user devices to make sure they can communicate and exchange data. I can also show how to assign IP addresses to the routers and end user devices, as well as assigning them with default gateway addresses. I will also talk about the basics step in ensuring that communication is successful through the ping test. This is a relevant topic, especially for me because I am pursuing cybersecurity. I have done several class projects regarding this, so I have plenty of examples to show and dive deeper into. I can also create a new project for this particular assignment and provide the relevant information (including pictures). For this project, I can also do an instruction manual as to how someone can set up a secure network to avoid cyber attacks. This will be more difficult to do but is differently possible.
TO: Prof. Ellis
FROM: Alex Cheung
DATE: Oct. 21, 2021
SUBJECT: Instruction Manual Topic Selection
The purpose of this memo is to discuss and choose a topic on what I’m going to be making an instruction manual for. While brainstorming, I have come up with 3 different possible topics: installing Ubuntu on a virtual machine, building a computer from scratch, and how to set up a mesh network. Out of these three topics, I decided to choose installing Ubuntu on a virtual machine. I will be showing the step by step instructions from installing oracle virtual box to installing the Ubuntu operating system. This is kind of related to my major because as a programmer it’s important that your program runs on as many operating systems as it can and because it is lightweight and has good performance. I have done several labs on this topic and I feel like I have enough knowledge to teach others on how to accomplish this also. The pro about this topic is that it teaches every programmer a skill they should know which is setting up a virtual environment for when one is needed. Another pro is that it allows you to have multiple operating systems that can be run on your system. Virtualization has become very popular in the past couple of years. One con of this topic is that not everyone will be able to run a virtual machine on their computers. This is because running a virtual machine requires a computer that has enough CPU cores and ram to be able to dedicate to the virtual machine for it to run properly without any issues. I believe this is an important skill that people in any tech related major should learn.
To: Professor Ellis
From: Jared Williams
Date: 10/20/2021
Subject: Instruction Manual Topic Selection
The purpose of this memo is to list the pros and cons of three potential instruction manual topics. The three topics I was considering was creating a choose your own adventure game in python, building a computer, or making a basic HTML site. Since I am thinking of going down the software programming track, I wanted to think of some things that pertain to the CST major as a whole and the software development track. I’ve decided to go with building a computer as it is the most accessible of the two. A choose your own adventure game in python and making a basic HTML page are possible to make a manual for but may prove boring for some as it requires a bit of explanation to get the concepts down before you put it to work. I also wouldn’t be able to cover all the errors that could possibly go wrong either in the syntax or logic. The motivation for making an instruction manual for building a computer comes from the experience of creating my own computer last summer. I believe everyone should build a computer at some point in their life. We take these machines for granted every day and putting one together yourself can teach you a lot. You can learn what each part is and how they work, how to create a budget for parts, and how to assemble them.
To: Professor Ellis
From: Victor Li
Date: 10/20/2021
Subject: Instruction Manual Topic Selection
The purpose of this summary is to choose a topic about computer systems related to Python for the Instruction Manual. I expanded the words Python and Networking. The reason why I choose Python and Networking because to understand how to learn different programs and understand how to create programs and troubleshoot laptops. Programming and coding in general that brought into to software development. You can watch YouTube videos to learn Python, or you can search up examples online on the internet. The pro about Python is that is easy and fun to use. You can create a database or website just by using Python as the main coding language. Another pro is that Python is used in our daily lives. The cons on Python is that it is slow in running the program. Another con is that it might create errors after finishing running the program. The pros on Networking is that you can share things on your laptop or desktop more quickly. The cons about Networking is that internet might be slow sometimes due to multiple users using the same WI-FI and depending on the weather conditions, which can make you lose access to the internet for a short period of time. Another con about networking is that it creates viruses and malware problems which can affect your laptop or desktop.
To: Professor Ellis
From: Olamide Yomi
Date:10/31/2021
Subject: Instruction Manual Organization.
The purpose of this memo is to choose a particular topic which I am considering writing an instruction manual. I am going to write an instruction manual about HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
After taking a CST 2309 class I came to love Web designing and front-end development in general. I want to show how easy, and fun web development is. By using the main course of web development itself which is HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. I will be focusing on showing the basic elements of each and using it to create multiple responsive webs. Demonstrating how to design and add styles to an HTML code using CSS and make it function well both for computers and smartphones, using JavaScript.
I will be making a replica of Facebook using HTML and CSS and I will be creating a replica of YouTube also using the method. These are two mega-companies and I want to show people how easy is it to get a web application just like that on a beginner level.
To: Prof. Ellis
From: Mamadou Sakho
Date: 10/21/2021
Subject: Instruction Manual Topic Selection
The purpose of this Memo is to propose my instruction manual topic. My instruction manual is based on how to make a speaker. The reason why I chose this topic is that it touches my area of study. It is not simple to make a comparison to what I expected when I have a similar assignment a few semesters ago. In this assignment, I will explain the process from the beginning to the end. I will be discussing the items needed to make a speaker. The process involves some calculations which tell us the resistors and capacitors values. I will be explaining the type of material needed for soldering and the type of PCB board that will be good for this project. The hardest part which I will explain fully is to make the PCB board and soldering. In addition, I will explain the wiring process which can be very tricky because if you miss wire, the project will not be successful. I myself have had this problem which took me time to fix. Soldering has a technique that will make your work fast and clear. If your soldering is not proper, your pins may touch one another which will make the speaker not work. Therefore, proper soldering has to be done. I am emphasizing this because, in one of my previous projects, I struggled a lot with soldering. I hope to explain the manual clearly to a point that anybody can make their own speaker.
TO Prof. Jason Ellis
FROM: Pape Diop
DATE 11/03/2021
SUBJECT: Instruction Manual Organization
The purpose of this memo is to choose a topic about finding Data in computer systems and looking forward to writing an instruction manual about it. I chose this because I am taking this XML course about computer programming, find it Data using Python and Java. I love finding data of any kind using programming languages.
In the assignment, I will explain how to find simple data such as stocks data using Python language with the help of Terminal/Command Line (Cmd), and Visual Studio Code application. This will be an easy manual step to step on finding data using Python which is a very popular programming language and very easy to get used to and the command line to store the stock database. I will demonstrate how to store data in memory using the command line, and how to find a piece of specific data information based on the database we stored.
To: Prof. Ellis
From: Gani Graceni
Date: November 11, 2021
Subject: Instruction Manual Topic selection
The purpose of this memo is to choose a topic which is going to cover a set of instructions and provide a complete manual in a step by step format. Being an Electrical engineer major and computer engineer minor I chose “Programming a Microchip Microcontroller “as a topic. Reason behind these selections is to help myself and other review or get detailed information on how to be able to program Microcontrollers.
Being that PIC microcontrollers are extremely useful tools for use and development in many electronic and computer applications any electrical or computer science engineer should know the basic steps how to program a PIC microcontroller. Still even though PIC’s are not very hard to program and there is always datasheets that can be followed, setting up and programming these devices can be tricky and too many students and young engineers take a step back and might never learn this process. This process will show how to get the set up ready and build the hardware required, get used with software used to program these chips, get familiar with the tools that will be used and use the features and programming skills to configure the micro properly.
This set of instructions would come handy to a hardware and software engineer at the same time. For this list of instructions Microchip data sheets will be used to get the specs for programming PIC16F689.
To: Prof. Jason Ellis
From: Edwin Baez
Date: 11/05/2021
Subject: Instruction Manual Topic Selection
The purpose of this memo is to choose a topic on which I’m considering for my Instruction Manual project. The first instruction manual topic that I was considering was how to create a microservice. I was thinking about this topic because it’s what I’m currently doing in one of my classes and it’s something that’s fresh on my mind. I think it’s an interesting topic since not a lot of people know how to do it or what it even is in the computer systems world. The only con I see to this topic is that I’m not 100% sure on how to write it as a manual because I’m not proficient at creating MicroServices. Like I said, it’s a class that I’m taking this semester so I’m still learning my ways around the rope. My second topic, and probably the one I’m going to go with, is how to build your own computer. I hold this topic very dear to me because it’s something that I’ve wanted to do ever since I was a child and I got to accomplish that dream last year. Ever since I built my first PC, I’ve gone on to build several more PCs for close friends and even got hired by someone to build theirs. I feel like I’m qualified to write a manual about this topic because I have a lot of experience building computers and I’m able to proficiently share my knowledge. My last resort would be how to ride an ATV. I don’t think this manual topic would be as interesting but it’s do-able. Riding ATVs is one of my favorite hobbies and I’m in the process of modifying my very own ATV and riding them isn’t super difficult but does require a lot of technique and practice. I doubt i would go with this topic but it’s still an option, also the manual wouldn’t be very long as the techniques and processes aren’t very lengthy to learn.