Posted: February 10th, 2015

3-Tech Writing-Instructional Guide – Outline and Sections of Instruction Guide (5 pages)

Paper, Order, or Assignment Requirements

There are 2 parts to this assignment. One is to create an outline of the instructional guide that includes the following:

• Overview of relevant websites

• Guidelines for evaluating websites

• User security

The second part is to create sample sections of the instructional guide (suggested length of 5–7 pages).

Full assignment description below.

Scenario:

You are working with one of the organizations below to create an instructional guide. You will be conducting research and promoting the instructional guide to the organization’s board. Your instructional guide should explain the real-world use of an Internet product or products to your audience in a way that is sensitive to your audience’s needs, expectations, and level of expertise. The Internet sites you use for this task must be sites that are available to the general public (such as software support sites, social networking sites, search engines, video-sharing websites, etc.). Websites where users create accounts that are free of charge are preferred.

• Organization 1: A local parents group. Members of this group are evenly split in technological ability; half are very comfortable with technology, while the other half struggle with it. They need a guide that is geared to parents who want to learn about social networking sites that their children (of all ages) are using, as well as smaller, emerging sites. Parents are looking for explanations of how the sites work, accounts and account settings, “friending” and posting pictures and links, and hands-on instructions for monitoring their children’s accounts and postings.

• Organization 2: Librarians at a genealogical institute. These librarians use technology on a daily basis and are extremely comfortable with the technology they use. However, they need guidance for using online book sites to acquire new genealogy-related books and sell rare books they currently own. They want to use sites like BookFinder.com, eBay, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble, and any others that are available, and need guidance for account and credit card safety issues, searching, previewing, pricing, getting and leaving feedback, using the terminology for describing book quality, setting up agents, and other aspects of online book selling.

• Organization 3: A charity organization. This organization includes mostly older adult members. Although most members of the organization can perform simple computer tasks such as sending an e-mail, they are, overall, unfamiliar with most technology and it takes them a long time to learn new applications. Members want to be able to raise money by selling homemade crafts and other goods online to support local artisans while also raising money for charity. They want to use various selling sites such as eBay and Etsy, and need to know how to list items to sell and how to safeguard site accounts and PayPal accounts.

Your document should inform your audience about what they need and want to know, and provide instructions as well as advisory information and strategic direction. Your research should extend beyond your own personal user experiences to address your audience’s anticipated needs. The resources you will use for this task could potentially include online help and instructions available from the websites you are recommending, user boards, information you request via e-mail, YouTube instructional videos, or any other reliable source that provides information that helps you achieve your objective. You are to translate your research findings into one useful end product for your audience.

Task:

A. Develop an outline of the instructional guide that includes the following:

• Overview of relevant websites

• Guidelines for evaluating websites

• User security

B. Create sample sections of the instructional guide (suggested length of 5–7 pages).