Final Draft of Instructions Introduction: This assignment allows you to use feedback from your instructor and classmates, as well as the material from Unit 5 on document design, to revise a set of instructions. Directions: Using the feedback you got from your instructor and classmates, and the materials in Unit 5 about document design, revise the instructions you submitted in unit 3. The prompt is included again here to remind you what the final requirements are: Write a set of instructions for a process or procedure you know how to do well. You can choose something related to your field of study, but that is not required. Prepare your instructions for an audience who has never performed the task before, but who you can assume has a general understanding of the topic area. Your instructions must be complex enough for several pages, but not so difficult that you’d need an entire manual to perform the task (aim for the equivalent of 3 single-spaced pages of written instructions, including visuals). The specific format of the instructions is a document design choice you can make to enhance the usability of your instructions (thus, your instructions in their final form may be more than 3 single-spaced pages). Some tips for choosing topics: Try to choose something that doesn’t already have a million examples of instructions. Think creatively about things you know how to do that other people do not. No recipes are allowed, though instructions for how to perform a particular kitchen-related task or how to use a more complicated tool might be ok (how to roll your own sushi, for example). You might also try looking at requested how-to topics on wikihow – this is a list of requests from the wikihow community for topics that have not already been covered: http://www.wikihow.com/Special:ListRequestedTopics (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. Perhaps you know how to do something on the request list! Your instructions should include: A good title and overview Complete, clear directions Effective visuals (with sources cited if you do not create them yourself) Effective document design Effective organization and transitions Appropriate warnings, cautions, notes, and/or troubleshooting where necessary Appropriate style, including direct address, active verbs, imperative mood, parallel and affirmative phrasing Effective grammar, punctuation and spelling choices A separate bibliography page in APA or MLA style listing any work consulted and image sources Please note that copying someone else’s instructions, in whole or in part, is plagiarism. Likewise, copying directions from elsewhere, but changing every few words is still plagiarizing as you are using someone else’s organization and sentence structure without attribution.
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