On Deck:

• Finishing our Project 1 Feedback (40 minutes to adapt and finish Last Class' Workshop) 
• Reviewing the evaluation criteria for Project 1  
• Discussing Project 2 and Chapter 28: Writing Reader-Centered Instructions

Due Next Class:

• Final Project One linked in the appropriate: Project Drop-off before Monday at 11:59pm
• Three ideas for Project Two posted on your roster page

Overview of Project 2

Overview of Chapter 28

• Introduces the superstructure for instructions, a type of writing that most employees compose at sometime in their careers.
• This chapter’s advice applies to both printed and online instructions.
• Graphics are especially useful in instructions.
• This chapter models for students the strategies for preparing effective instructions.
• The exercises require students to analyze both print and online instructions.

Main considerations Next Week: 

Superstructures are general, conceptual patterns that you need to adapt to particular readers and purpose. They are not outlines to be followed blindly -- they must be adapted to your purpose and your audience's needs.  For instance, next week we will need to also look at the discussion of superstructures in Chapter 4, and consider which we need for our project (just the introduction and the directions? or, should you consider whether readers might be helped by some of the other sections, such as a description of the equipment?)

We will emphasize the points that you want to keep in mind as you write instructions. Possible points include the use of one action per step, segmentation of the overall procedure into sub-parts, provision of a separate column for the step numbers (i.e., all lines of the text of the steps are indented to the right of the step numbers), and the use of indented text for conditional steps (i.e. in step 4 of the example “Determining the Percentages of Hardwood and Softwood Fiber in a Paper Sample”).

We will also need a discussion of warnings or risks, and how writers fulfill an ethical responsibilities (protect their readers from harm). 

We will prepare planning guides and review one another’s planning guides.

We will need to work through Chapter 14: Creating Reader Centered Graphics -- and begin applying general guidelines for constructing effective visual aids and incorporating them into a communication. One part of the reading gives specific directions for constructing visual aids for two purposes: to show the reader how something looks (such as equipment used by people following their instructions) and to show the reader how to perform a step in a process.