English 8115 Project–Tutorial
For this project, you’re to design a step-by-step tutorial for your classmates on a software application or a particular aspect/functionality of an application that will be useful for technical writing purposes.
Purposes
The purpose of this assignment is two fold: 1) to provide something that will be genuinely helpful for your users in their future technical writing contexts and 2) to have a chance to practice what Kimball (2017) defines as “tactical technical communication.”
Your Audience
Your intended audience will be your classmates and other users who have similar backgrounds as your classmates. On the one hand, this audience obviously has knowledge about the common software typically used in daily technical writing contexts: for the purposes of document design, desktop publishing, graphic design, web design, etc. On the other hand, like most graduate students here, they probably don’t have much experience using some of the more advanced software or the more advanced functions of some commonly used software.
Choosing the Software/Application
In choosing your software, aim for the kind of software applications that your target users (your classmates and people like them) most likely are not familiar with. Avoid either the type of applications or functionalities that your users are familiar with or those that are rarely used by your users in their everyday technical writing tasks. Applications or functionalities that might be appropriate for the purpose of our project could include, for example,
- how to define style in Word
- how to edit/manipulate certain aspects of your photos in Photoshop
- how to use MediaWiki to create a simple online help page
- how to use Publisher to create flyers
- how to do X in WordPress
Ultimately, what’s appropriate will depend on the background knowledge of your intended users. You might want to do a quick poll of your classmates to see if what you picked is the right tool that they need. Keep your project within a manageable scope. You probably don’t want to pick something that would require a 50-page tutorial.
Creating a Step-by-Step Tutorial
Your tutorial should be self contained and comprehensive. Like any good instructional guides, it should not only include the detailed step-by-step instructions but also provide an appropriate overview/introduction, an explanation of intended users, a rationale on why your users should learn this software, prior knowledge or skills required to use this software, etc. The ultimate criterion for assessing your tutorial is its effectiveness, in other words, how easy it is for your users to learn to use the software/functionality by just following your tutorial. In designing your tutorial, you should pay good attention to both content and format design.
Once your tutorial is done, email a copy of your tutorial to your classmates the day before your workshop.
Leading the in-Class Tutorial Workshop
You’ll run a workshop to teach your classmates the “how-to” of the particular application. You’ll be the master, and your classmates will be your students. Your objective is to make sure that your classmates will “master” the “how-to” after your workshop.
Technicalities
Save your file as “Tutorial(YourLastNameYourFirstName).”