Instructions Project

Project Summary:

The Instructions Project asks students to produce two sets of clear, concise instructions documenting one legitimate, non-trivial item or process for two distinct audience groups. Professional writers are often tasked with producing such instructions, and despite common assumptions, helpful, audience-focused instructions are quite challenging to produce.

Topic choice for instruction sets is wide open, and past subjects include creating histograms with Microsoft Excel, constructing a tournament-grade horseshoe court, using successful online play strategies in Call of Duty: World at War, cooking jambalaya, connecting smartphones to the campus wireless network, etc. The main stipulation is that the item or process selected must be non-trivial and of genuine utility to the student's defined audiences.

Instruction sets may be in any appropriate format (printed, online, audio, etc.), and all final instruction sets should be delivered in their actual format. Like all issues of design, format choice should be guided by the work's audience, context, and purpose. All instruction sets must contain some multimedia elements that are not written text, such as images, figures, video, audio, etc. Perhaps the most important aspect of this project is that a student's two instruction sets should be qualitatively different to address the needs, values, and expectations of the two distinct corresponding audiences. Although some overlap is expected, instruction sets should be markedly different, and one set should not be a cut-down version of the other.

Instructor's Note: It is likely that some of the items or processes students select will have existing instructions. Students should not replicate existing work, nor borrow extensively from existing materials (although students can of course drawn strategies from them). If instructions already exist for a topic, a good idea is to shift the audience, context, and/or purpose. Such changes lead to different choices of medium, strategies, and arrangement. These shifts make a student's instruction sets distinct documents.

Project Sequence and Grading:

1. Relevant Instruction Set Analysis (10% of project grade—due Monday 8/31)
   Students will locate existing relevant instruction sets and analyze them using the rhetorical elements established in Compose, Design, Advocate (audience, context, purpose, medium, strategies, arrangement). Excellent analyses will provide thorough, insightful, well-supported information about the instruction sets in each category.
   
   
   
   
2. Design Plans (10% of project grade—draft due Friday 9/4, final due Monday 9/14)
   Students will construct two design plans (one for each instruction set) based on the rhetorical elements identified in CDA that articulate the goals of the corresponding instruction set and how it will accomplish them. Design plans help guide the design process, but they are not static recipes. They are evolving documents that shift to accommodate changes encountered during project development. Because of this, students will turn in final, revised design plans with their completed instruction sets. Excellent design plans will account thoroughly for all of the rhetorical elements established in CDA and present a coherent narrative rather than a collection of disconnected parts. Excellent design plans also will reflect the corresponding finished instruction set, and be in a finished, polished format suitable for an professional reader, including appropriate grammar and mechanics.
   
   
   
   
3. Rough Drafts and Usability Tests (10% of project grade—due Wednesday 9/9)
   Students will provide their classmates and the instructor with drafts of their instruction sets and usability tests to perform on them. Because of this, instruction set drafts should be as complete as possible so that the information drawn from usability testing will be maximally beneficial. Excellent usability tests will be thorough, complete, professional, and in keeping with the information on usability testing found in Technical Communication Today and the "Usability" Instructor Blog.
   
   
   
   
4. Final Instruction Sets (60% of project grade—due Monday 9/14)
   (The class-produced Final Instruction Set Rubric is here.)
   Students will complete two separate instruction sets documenting the same item or process for two distinct audiences. Instruction sets should take into account information drawn from readings as well as that discovered through analysis, drafting, and usability testing. Excellent instruction sets will be qualitatively different to appeal to the needs, values, and expectations of the two separate audience groups, but both sets will be clear, concise, helpful, and user-centered. Excellent instruction sets will incorporate non-written elements and be of sufficient length to cover all necessary information for a non-trivial subject. Excellent instruction sets will be delivered in their intended format and of professional quality appropriate for an authentic production context.
   
   
   
   
5. Postmortem (10% of project grade—due Monday 9/14)
   (The postmortem form is available here.)
   Students will produce a reflective postmortem that provides insight into their process of creation. Works that document how a person's time and energy have been allocated during a project are ubiquitous in professional settings. Excellent postmortems will account thoroughly for all sections of the postmortem form, thereby providing valuable insight into project development, successes, challenges, and lessons learned. Excellent postmortems will be in a finished, polished format, including appropriate grammar and mechanics, such that the postmortem could be given as-is to a professional superior.

Corporate Communication Project

Project Summary:

The Corporate Communication Project asks students working in groups to identify, analyze, and respond to a real-world corporate crisis. Groups will do research to locate a recent corporate crisis and produce three separate but related texts from the company's perspective for three specific audiences: a press release for news media outlets; an internal memo for employees; a recorded (audio or video) message for customers. These documents should address the crisis in a professional, ethical, rhetorically-effective manner. This project allows students to get practical experience with corporate communications in textual and multimedia formats both online and offline.

It is possible to identify recent corporate crises by searching outlets such as Google News. For learning purposes, the class will examine the grounding of several JetBlue airplanes due to ice storms in February 2007 as a case study.

Instructor's Note: It is likely that some of the corporate crises groups select already have corresponding responses online (such as press releases). This may present the temptation to borrow heavily from these documents while writing. However, this project requires groups to produce original documents as a learning experience, so I will check for similarities between any official and student versions of these texts. (This of course does not mean that groups are forbidden to draw rhetorical strategies from official materials or other professional models.)

Groups:

Amanda M. Mat B. Nick A. Claire L.

Lisa G. Jeremy M. Karrah M. Keenan D.

Brendan C. Matthew E. Emily W. Keri H.

Amanda F. Christina K. Noah B. Josh P.

Luke M. Amanda T. Laura C. Sophia K.

Project Sequence and Grading:

1. Effect Analysis (10% of project grade—draft due Friday 9/25, final due Wednesday 10/21)
   Each group will produce a two to three page report for the corporation summarizing the crisis and then capturing its effect by researching the reactions of customers, investors, competitors, etc. The report should reference specific texts that react to the crisis, such as newspaper and periodical articles, television reports, YouTube videos, blogs, etc. The report should strive to capture accurately the overall characterization of the crisis by assessing the significance and prevalence of various perspectives. Excellent effect analyses will succinctly portray this depiction in an effective way, and will be in a finished, polished format suitable for a corporate readership, including appropriate grammar and mechanics.
   
   
   
   
2. Gantt Chart (10% of project grade—due Wednesday 10/21)
   Each group will produce a Gantt Chart—a visual project management document depicting the division of labor. Gantt charts should clearly delineate project tasks and deadlines, as well as who is responsible for their completion (a specific individual or the group). Excellent Gantt Charts will be through, professional, and in keeping with the parameters covered in readings and class discussion.
   
   
   
   
3. Proposal Report (10% of project grade—draft due Wednesday 9/30, final due Wednesday 10/21)
   Each group will produce a proposal report that explicates how their texts address the crisis appropriately. The report should incorporate rhetorical elements by discussing the texts' audiences, contexts, purposes, media, strategies, and arrangements. Essentially, this report uses rhetorical elements to establish why the group's approach will be effective. This is a form of design plan, and as such it will guide the creation of the three texts, but it will also evolve to reflect changes in them. Each group will produce a draft version of the report early in the project and a final version when the other final texts are due. Excellent proposal reports will account thoroughly for all of the rhetorical elements established in CDA and present a coherent narrative rather than a collection of disconnected parts. Excellent proposal reports also will reflect the corresponding finished texts, and be in a finished, polished format suitable for a corporate reader, including appropriate grammar and mechanics.
   
   
   
   
4. Press Release (20% of project grade—draft due Wednesday 10/7, final due Wednesday 10/21)
   (The class-produced rubric is here.)
   Using the reading materials and following the models provided, student groups will craft a press release for news media outlets. Student groups must make decisions about the tone, content, vocabularly and rhetorical strategies that will be both commercially and ethically effective. Excellent press releases should be between 250-500 words and follow the standards of clarity, conciseness, correctness, audience awareness, and professionalism discussed in the course.
   
   
   
   
5. Recorded Message for Customers (20% of project grade—draft due Monday 10/12, final due Wednesday 10/21)
   (The class-produced rubric is here.)
   Student groups will recored one audio or video message for customers that could be deployed on a corporate website. Group members may stand-in as representatives for the company, customers, shareholders, etc. Groups will make decisions about how to construct an appropriate tone for the message. Excellent messages will be in keeping with the precepts and examples discussed in the course, and should be concise and effective.
   
   
   
   
6. Internal Memo (20% of project grade—draft due Wednesday 10/14, final due Wednesday 10/21)
   (The class-produced rubric is here.)
   Using the reading materials provided, student groups will craft an internal memo for employees that addresses the current crisis. Because they are targeted to a different audience, memos should be markedly different from press releases. Excellent memos should follow the standards of clarity, conciseness, correctness, audience awareness, and professionalism discussed in the course.
   
   
   
   
7. Postmortem (10% of project grade, individual to each group member—due Wednesday 10/21)
   (The postmortem form is available here.)
   Each student will produce a reflective postmortem that provides insight into the contributions of group members and the global performance of the group. Postmortems will be used to assign group members individual grades for this project component. Excellent postmortems will account thoroughly for all sections of the postmortem form, thereby providing valuable insight into project development, successes, challenges, and lessons learned. Excellent postmortems will be in a finished, polished format, including appropriate grammar and mechanics.

Service Learning Project

Project Summary:

For this assignment, student groups will be working with a representative from UNCW's Professional Writing program to produce two promotional materials for the program's upcoming student showcase. Materials selected by the Professional Writing program will be circulated on the UNCW campus and used to promote the event.

During the Service Learning Project, students will practice working collaboratively to produce real professional materials for an authentic client. In so doing, students will demonstrate their understanding of audience awareness, research, documentation, ethos, professionalism, and document design. Groups will be graded in part on their overall contribution to the PR campaign, so groups are encouraged to produce materials that have a real impact rather than materials that are easy to create.

Groups:

Matt E. Brendan C. Karrah M. Jeremy M.

Lisa G. Luke M. Sophia K. Keenan D.

Amanda T. Laura C. Christina K. Noah B.

Josh P. Amanda F. Mat B. Amanda M.

Claire L. Nick A. Emily W.

The materials groups are responsible for are listed here.

The logos are available as .pdf files here and here.

Project Sequence and Grading:

1. Gantt Chart (10% of project grade) Each group will produce a Gantt Chart—a visual project management document depicting the division of labor. Groups will produce Gantt Charts using the Google Spreadsheets component of Google Docs. Gantt Charts should clearly delineate project tasks and deadlines, as well as who is responsible for their completion (a specific individual or the group). Excellent Gantt Charts will be through, professional, and in keeping with the parameters covered in readings and class discussion.
   
   
2. Proposal (10% of project grade) Each group will produce a Proposal based on the rhetorical elements established in CDA that articulates the client's goals and how the group's documents will accomplish them. The client will use these proposals to understand how each group has contributed to the overall campaign. Proposals will be produced collaboratively by groups using the Google Documents component of Google Docs. This is a form of design plan, and as such it will guide the creation of the documents, but it will also evolve to reflect changes in them. Excellent Proposals will account thoroughly for all of the rhetorical elements established in CDA and present a coherent narrative rather than a collection of disconnected parts. Excellent Proposals also will reflect the corresponding finished documents, and be in a finished, polished format suitable for a client readership, including appropriate grammar and mechanics.
   
   
3. Client Documents (50% of project grade)
   (The class-produced rubric is here.)
   Each group will produce two promotional documents in keeping with the needs, values, and expectations of the client. Excellent client documents should respond to the client's guidance, and should be in a finished, polished format suitable for an authentic professional situation.
   
   
4. Client Assessment (10% of project grade) Each group's materials will be directly assessed by the client. That assessment will constitute this component of the project grade. Because of this, it is crucial for groups to respond to client guidance.
   
   
5. Client Presentation (10% of project grade) Each group's final documents will be presented to the client. (Presentations will be videotaped for clients who are unable to attend in person.) Presentations should discuss how the group's documents suit the client's needs, values, and expectations appropriately. Presentations need not feature all group members; one or more group members may handle the presentation. Presentations will last between 5 and 10 minutes. Please do not go over time. Excellent client presentations will be convincing, rehearsed, and on time.
   
   
6. Postmortem (10% of project grade, individual to each group member)
   (The postmortem form is available here.)
   Each student will produce a reflective postmortem that provides insight into the contributions of group members and the global performance of the group. Postmortems will be used to assign group members individual grades for this project component. Excellent postmortems will account thoroughly for all sections of the postmortem form, thereby providing valuable insight into project development, successes, challenges, and lessons learned. Excellent postmortems will be in a finished, polished format, including appropriate grammar and mechanics.