Instruction sets are common technical documents for many disciplines and occupations. Employees read instructions to learn how to assemble a product or complete a procedure. Supervisors write out company policies that oftentimes serve as instruction sets. Customers read instructions for using a product. For this assignment, you will develop a set of instructions advising users how to perform a specific task.
Instructions are ubiquitous. And they are important to businesses that sell any products that must be assembled (or even simply used effectively). Check out the feedback on a crummy badminton set I bought a few years ago–news spreads, and bad news spreads faster than good news.
We can’t escape instructions, even in preparing the food we eat. Here’s comedian Brian Regan commenting on Pop-Tart instructions:
WARM-UP EXERCISE: Let’s spend some time on the first day of this unit completing a Lego exercise together in class. The purpose of this exercise is to begin to familiarize you with the types of verbal cues, word choices, and design that make for a useful set of instructions that help readers do what they want to.
DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS FOR THIS PROJECT: The assignment sheet on ANGEL provides details about what to include in your instruction sets, how to approach idea-generation and drafting, and how the project will be assessed.
EXAMPLE INSTRUCTION SETS TO EXPLORE:
- Real-life Example 1: Voting Instructions
- Real-life Example 2: 7-Outlet Power Manager Instructions
- Real-life Example 3 Preventing Child Drownings
- Real-life Example 4: VPN Client
- Real-life Example 5: How to Email a Professor
- Student Sample 1: Building Happy Nests (individual website)
- Student Sample 2: How to Create an Assertion-Evidence Slide Presentation (individual)
- Student Sample 3: How to Rig a Hudson Rowing Shell(individual)
- Student Sample 4: How to Erect a Kelty Grand Mesa 4 Tent (individual)
- Student Sample 5: Text Messaging for Adults (team)
- Student Sample 6: How to Set Up and Manage a Compost Bin (team)
- Student Sample 7: How to Run the Steeplechase: A Beginner’s Guide (team)
- Student Sample 8: Screenprinting 101 (team)
(More student samples on instructor Leslie Mateer’s 202C website.)
MORE INSTRUCTIONS HUMOR:
1) How to Use a Shower Curtain
2) Silly Warnings
More information about how and when to use these signs.