- Maker: Multiple Students
- Genre: Instructions
- Level: Graduate
- Program: Composition, Rhetoric, and Digital Media
- Course: WRIT 5400: Technical Writing
- Instructor: Dr. Eric Mason
- Semester Created: Fall 2019; Fall 2021
Introduction
Instructions are at the heart of technical writing. Not only do they focus on communicating useful information to a specific audience, they require authors to think beyond the text to consider how and where those instructions will be used. They often solve real-world problems or have timely practical applications. Typically, instructions will go through a writing process that includes user analysis as well as usability testing where the author observes a user attempting to follow the instructions. Such practices ensure that the writer has considered likely obstacles to understanding. For this project, students chose the topic of their instructions and then observed other students attempting to follow their instructions. The need to connect with other people as part of the composing process is something that connects technical writing with social constructionist views active across composition studies. In Carolyn Miller’s essay, “A Humanistic Rationale for Technical Writing,” she writes that To write, to engage in any communication, is to participate in a community; to write well is to understand the conditions of one’s own participation–the concepts, values, traditions, and style which permit identification with that community and determine the success or failure of communication. Since community is so important to the production, distribution, and reception of technical documents, this project asked students to post their instruction sets to Instructables.com, an online community for “people who like to make things” and share how they made them. This real-world audience provided valuable feedback, allowing students to see first-hand how successful their instructions were, to receive comments and accolades from the public, and to revise their instructions based on this feedback as well.
Student Instruction Sets
Students’ instructions were uploaded to the Instructables site, where they could be commented on, favorited, featured, and entered into community contests. Students also gained access to data collected by the site about reader’s viewing habits. Students in WRIT 5400 posted instructions for the following:
- Origami Paper Heart
- Fast and Easy DIY Homemade Organic Ice Cream – No Mixer Needed!
- Friendship Bracelet Teardrop Loop : 9 Steps (with Pictures)
- Teaching a Deaf Dog to Sit
- Ballet for Beginners: How to Do a First Position Plié
- How to Create a Candidate Profile on Broward County School Website
- Palm Tree Hanging Car Decoration
- Flowerpot Sundial Garden Decoration
- Homemade Instant Pot Curd
- Buffalo Jack Fruit Dip
- Spooky Spider Chocolate Cheese Ball (won “runner-up” in an Instructables Halloween contest)
- Iguana Snare
- No-Bake Golden Raisin Walnut Protein Balls
- DIY Magic Polaroid Film
- Berry Bananza
- Milkshake Straw Lightsabers (by Dr. Mason)
