ENG 204-002

Set 2:
How to make homemade pancakes.

Purpose: As a college student I either have the options of eating at a restaurant or making a meal for myself. A lot of time I feel better about making the meal myself, because I know what ingredients are going into what I am making, and what how clean the environment is that I am making the meal in. Having a pancake breakfast on a Saturday morning, reminds me of home. I want to provide other college students with a recipe for pancakes that are delicious and more nutritious than the pancakes that come out of a box mix.

Audience: Ages 18 and up. Most college kids are living on a tight budget, but the good thing about pancakes is that several batches of batter can made from one group of ingredients. Even better, if not all the batter is used, it can be put in the refrigerator and used the next morning, or even at night for a quick and simple meal. Cost effectiveness is crucial for college students. The college students are going to access to a kitchen with a stove because on-campus dorms and apartments all come with a kitchen area. The kitchen tools needed to make the pancakes can be borrowed from other college students. Or the tools can even be bought as an investment, because at some point a college student is going to need a pan, or measuring cup. Most college kids know how to cook something, so the idea of following a recipe and identifying kitchen tools will not be as difficult as it would be for a six year old.

Context: I imagine that the instruction set is going to be followed in either a kitchen in a dorm hallway or a kitchen in an apartment. The college student is in charge of his/her own finances, so I am going include the average cost of each ingredient. Because the college students are going to be cooking in a kitchen environment that they are not necessarily use to, I am going to add warning labels. For example to prevent injury that could occur near a hot stove, or to turn on a fan on high in case the burners are old and might cause a type of smoke that could set off sensitive fire alarms and evacuate a whole dorm.

Strategies: College age students are visual, but not in as much need of the video that I am doing for the audience of children. So I am going to use a set of photographs with each step. The fonts I use will not Times New Roman, but will still be easy to read. I decided this because most papers written in college have to be in Times New Roman, the text part of my instruction set might not be appealing to and associated with fun if they are in Times New Roman. Bold colored font for command words like “mix,” will be used to point out important steps, just like the bolded terms in textbooks signify the term’s importance.

Medium: For the college student’s set of instructions I am going to use step by step instructions that are to the point, with a photograph for each step, to provide clarity for the audience. I chose a written set of instruction because college students are use to reading power points, pages of a textbook and even Facebook wall posts. So the college age audience has more experience interpreting text and pictures than a six year old child does.

Arrangement: I am going to start off the instructions with the approximate time it takes to make the pancakes, then a list of ingredients, average price for each, and a tally of the total cost. Followed by a photograph of kitchen tools; each tool will have a number that corresponds with a kitchen tool reference table. For example (1) on the photograph will identify a measuring cup. I might take this part out, because I am not sure if it will offend the audience or not. I realize that most people know that a measuring cup looks like, so I am unsure if I need to label the photo, or just have a list of kitchen tools. As far as the set of text of instructions, I will move through each step with precise instructions, including some feedback with each step, and warning labels. I plan on have the same amount of steps and on each page, along with one choice of font for the instructions, so that there is a level on continuity to the design. With the combination of photos, bold text, and simple instructions the arrangement should be easy to move through.

Testing: Before I complete the instruction set I am going to tell my roommates and friends about my purpose for choosing how to make homemade pancakes, and my ideas about my choice of medium, and arrangement. After running my purpose and basic instructions by them I will follow up by asking them what they felt worked and didn’t work. This way I can use the feedback to shape my statement of purpose. I want to make sure I am aware of any mistakes before my project is complete to save me time in the long run.