Your Prose Revision Assignment is due on Canvas Wednesday, 2/15, 11:00 pm
Preview Set of Instructions Assignment
Your Set of Instructions Assignment is due next Wednesday (2/22).
Chapters 5
Chapter 5 covers information on document design, which is an entire class in itself, and reinforces effective ways of focusing the reader’s attention on information. Read the entire chapter carefully because all reading is fair game for the Midterm and Final Exams. Below are some highlights to consider from Chapter 5:
- p. 86: Readers do judge books by their cover and technical documents by their “look”
- p. 87: branding guidelines standardize the look and feel of an organization’s communications
- p. 87: most readers scan documents and hunt for information
- pp. 90: don’t just tell them what you’re about to tell them; tell them how you’re going to tell them–provide an overview of the document’s organization
- p. 93: making your document easy to use–technical documents are used, not just read
- p. 103: be parallel in content as well as headings
Look at the user documents below. Consider what makes the following effective or not-so-effective user documents:
- Download UNC Charlotte VPN
- Changing Your Car’s Oil
(“Don’t you ditch the car when the oil gets dirty?”) - InDesign Tutorial
- How to Customize Internet Explorer 9
- How to be More Photogenic (Review all 3 and compare)
- 5 Steps to Being More Photogenic (this is from the Wayback Machine internet archive)
- 5 Photogenic Tips
- Five Tips to Becoming More Photogenic
Make sure you can explain why something is effective (provides clear information for users) and why something isn’t effective (does not provide clear information for users).
Future Work
Remember, you have your Prose Revision assignment (three paragraphs) due Wednesday (2/15), and your Set of Instructions assignment is due the following Wednesday (2/11).