Monday, April 16, 2007
Chapter 21 Tresidder & Gustafson
Chapter 21 talks about instructions and how they are everywhere. There are several reasons to keep instructions updated, for the use of various audiences. Such as; personal safety and performance, process/product safety and performance, summary or overview of process/product features, orientation for new team members as well as sales and marketing personnel, or central location for documenting process/product specifications and modifications. Instructions are essential in everyday life, locally but also readable for across borders. Before instructions are published there are several factors to consider. One must analyze instructions by task, audience, and genre, in order to ensure that the instructions are correct and user friendly. There are several principals to consider in terms of your audience, such as; self-concept, rationale, experience, readiness, orientation, and motivation. Some other basic but important things to consider when making instructions is deciding the need for visuals, and then the amount of visuals. Not all people learn best from written text but more from visuals. Furthermore, when writing instructions a decision must be made on the level of difficulty they are. Based on the audience, they should either be user-friendly, which are directed to an audience who knows little about the product, or they can little pictures and use jargon because the audience that is using them has a lot of experience with the particular instructions. When writing instruction you need to make sure that the content of the instructions is accessible, comprehensible, and usable. A few things that should be consider about instructions that there is clear title, the necessary components are included, for example: a parts list, materials and equipment list, and definitions, the information is in chronological order, use clearer dictions, and accurate and verifiable details. Other things to think about in instructions are whether or not it is necessary to include justification in your steps, the steps should also be written in parallel form; meaning they all follow the same grammatical form. Another important and helpful part of instructions are visuals. Visuals can be essential in clarifying instructions if used right. It is important to use appropriate and accurate visuals and to consider whether it is even necessary to have them. It is also important to have a the right visual and verbal balance, you should look at the information you are using and consider if it would be best to use entirely visual, verbal and visual, or entirely verbal for the instructions. When making a safety sign is important that the right color and word is used to portray the level or danger or injury that is possible. It is recommended to use a graphic image on a warning sign to grab the attention of a person. It is also a liability to have the sign incase of injury, the sign should be accurate, accessible, and appropriate.
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It is very important to have your instructions up to date as the summary explaines. I think that it is important because it tells the audience how to do something. And if the instructions are up to date then it will keep the audience up to date as well. I think it is handy for the person who writes the instructions to go through them once they are finished and also have someone else go through their instructions. It will keep the person who posts them if someone will actually be able to follow and understand what they are reading. For our instructions that we wrote for class, we made sure that someone else could understand and follow what we wrote. The easier the better to follow.
Instructions are used everyday to provide people with information. This information can be used to conduct a process or procedure. A well written set of instructions can be very useful. They can save time and allow a person to complete the procedure more accurately. A set of poorly written instructions can be time consuming as well as frustrating. I use instructions everyday. I use them at school to complete labs, fill out paperwork, and register for classes. I use them at work to fill out paperwork, look up parts, and learn new information. Instructions are used everywhere and they need to be well written for them to be the most effective.
Instructions are very important to everyday life. We encounter instructions everyday and probably do not even realize it. Instructions can come in the form of how to cook food, how to get from point a to point b, how to accomplish an assignment, and many other things. It is important that we know how to efficiently and effectively write directions for others when we are in the position of explaining to other how to accomplish a task. The authors of this blog did a very good job of explaining to us how to write good instructions. The thing that caught my eye the most about writing instructions was knowing your audience. In my opinion, knowing your audience is probably the most important factor when writing instructions. If you know your audience you will know how simple to make your instructions, or how complex to make your instructions. This may seem a little strange. I think that you would write directions differently to a set of PhDs then you would to a set of first graders. I don’t think a set of PhDs would appreciate a set of instructions that are designed for a set of first graders, or vice versa. I think the two groups would lose interest if they got the other groups instructions. If one of the groups loses interest chances are they want follow the directions closely, and the set of instructions you made would be rendered useless because they are not being followed. This is the main reason I think knowing your audience is so important.
In this summary of Chapter twenty one they talk about many topics. They show you how to analyze task, audience, and genre. They also show you how to use elements of instruction. Its also states how to provide necessary warnings and of course cautions. They captured all of these key points in the summary very well. I agree that when making a safety sign it should be red. This alerts the individuals that there might be a certain dangerous object in the area. These signs are made so people are able to stay clear or proceed with caution. In conclusion, you need to have an appropriate and accurate sign to keep people out of danger.
Instructions are a huge part of life today because everything is getting more complicated and technilogical. It would be almost impossible to very rare to open some new piece of equiptment and not find any instructions to go with it. Almost everything the the 21st century is packaged with instructions not only to keep it clear and concise on how something is supposed to be done, but often times to avoid law suits towardds companies from individuals who feel they weren't correctly informed about the product. Instructions can be used for almost anything and most people would rather be safe than sorry and using instructions prevents being sorry.
This chapter was a very interesting chapter to read. I just did my last Burnett assignment in chapter 21. The question was for me to look a sign that was in Europe and to try and understand/ comprehend what the sign was saying. The only think that I could understand was where the hotel was, because they had a picture of a bed on the sign. I agree very much with this chapter when they talk about how much easier instructions are when visuals are incorporated.
Instructions are something everyone uses on a day to day base. We all use directions when we are trying to get somewhere or trying to accomplish a task. It’s very important that instructions are written properly. Instructions that are not written properly can be confusing and make a simple task, harder than usual. Just like we all found out when we did our instruction assignment that its all about details, even the smallest detail can be beneficial.
I use instructions everyday. I use instructions to make food, and I could have used instructions to set up a new TV or DVD player. I think instructions vary and they are found everywhere in the world. I would call it instructions if I had to get somewhere and someone was telling me how to get there. This also brings up that instructions can be given in many different ways. I could get them verbally or I could read them. I think different circumstances dictate to me which way I'd like to get my instructions, because sometimes one is easier than the other.
Instructions are very important. Kepping them up to date is also very important. If you didn't have an up to date insturction manula, then somebody might try and do something that they shouldn't have with an out of date instruction manual. If you don't keep it up to date, they could get hurt and possibly hurt others. Writing instructions is a very important process or procedure to conduct. Not just keeping instructions up to date is important, it is also important to have good writing instructions. Making safetly signs red is a good idea, to alert people when they have to be extra cautiouse.
More so than a presentation, instructions need to be crystal clear. Because in many cases, all people have to go on is the instructions (without the chance to ask the writer questions, like with a presentation) so they need to be direct and clearly stated. We learned how important this was when we wrote the box assembly instructions and did our instruction assignment in class. Having a partner read over our assignment helped. That really taught how vital it is for others to be able to understand what you are getting across without a lot of thinking and confusion.
Instructions are everywhere and I believe they are the backbone of technical communication. Alot of communication techniques are ones used in preparing manuals and instructions. They provide visual elements of instructions and provide necessary warnings and cautions for readers. If instructions are misheard or misunderstood; it can cause major problems. If a doctor is misheard or misunderstood in diagnosing a patient, major problems can arise causing unnecessary worry. When you prepare instructions you must remember that someone who is not fluent in your language may be reading them. Make sure you get multiple instructions in different languages to make sure you can appeal to more people with your paper or product.
Instructions serve the most basic purpose of informing people through type. This basic task is used by many people everyday and is crucial because if someone needs to know how to do something and they have no one to specifically explain it to them then they resort to instructions to explain what to do. The chapter also talks about aliteracy which I had not considered. Alitereacy is when people have the ability to read but choose not to possibly because they don’t have time or possibly because they prefer other forms of communication. In order to address these people instructions also need to be in different formats such as TV, Radio, and Internet.
Chapter 21 talks about instructions. It explains why they should be kept everywhere and reasons to have them. Instructions for installing, swimming, cooking and any other things are to help people how things work. Instructions should be updated as required and should be made audience friendly. Use of simple, appropriate language and related visuals will help them better understand things. Instruction should be analyzed in terms of task and audience before they are published. I had done an assignment where I had to work on a safety instructions to make them look more informative and attention grabbing. I used some language structure to make it sound more like an important safety issue and used some bright color combination to grab people’s attention.
After you read this chapter the amount of instructions that are floating around really jump out at you. There are instructions for just about any product you buy now, which usually just get thrown out as soon as you get them home. But to think of the amount of time that gets spent on writing these, you really have to appreciate it more. The process of writing instructions, as covered in this chapter, is far more complex than I thought of before. For the amount of instructions that you read, it would be good practice to just compare the instructions to the examples that Burnett uses in the text.
Instructions are very important to have in everyone's lives. Without instructions everybody would have a hard time trying to learn how to do anything. We all need instructions on how to learn to do things ourselves before we seek profesional help. Having instructions to follow is an important key factor in the start of learning and educating for all ages. It's essential in everyday life.
chapter 21 was summarized very well. in this chapter we leared how to ensure instructionsare usable by combating audience misunderstanding, using principles of adult learning, and confronting aliteracy. also to know how to analyze a task, audience and genre. we read abouthow to effectively use content elements of instructions. using visual elements of instions are very tricky you need to make sure you are using them effectivly. also how to provide necesary warnings and cautions.
Chapter 21 talks about a thing that I think I will use in my future when I get a job. Instructions are a very important thing in everyone’s life. If only for reading and following it makes difficult tasks manageable. If instructions are not written properly it can cause frustration and anger for the reader. I have written instructions not only in class but in my previous job. And it can be very difficult to write instructions that can be user friendly. Changing oil is what I did my instructions on in class and I found it difficult to limit to one page even though it is a simple process.
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