Instructional writing will be one of the most common types of writing I will do as a professional. I could design the best product in the world but if I am unable to explain to someone else how to use it that product would be useless. Instructional writing will also be used to increase knowledge with in a company by teaching fellow employees.

Partner Manual Chapter

The Partner manual is a document that is used to teach new Partners what they need to know in order to work in the labs. Partners are volunteer lab assistants in the MEEM and ChemSci. Partners enter the program with varying levels of knowledge therefore the manual must be written so that a novice can understand it but also it must hold the attention of a more knowledgeable person. I applied many things that I learned about technical communication when editing and updating the manual. A major change that occurred with the manual directly relates to one of the crap principles, repetition. Before editing the manual there was no consistency between chapters or in chapters. The first thing I did was set a standard format for each chapters defining type and size of fonts to be used in each section. This alone mode the biggest difference from a visual and ease of use standpoint. Chapter 7 shows the updated formating of the Partner Manual.

Mousetrap Instructions

The mousetrap instructions were a different type of instructional writing than the Partner manual. They were designed to accompany a product and instruct the end user how to use it. While writing these instructions I learned that I need to distinguish between actions that I want the user to perform and additional information. In the mousetrap instructions my team used consistent formatting in our instructions starting each with an action word. I also learned the importance of pictures in conveying information for instructional documents.