English 421Y: Technical Writing Online

Novice Instructions = For people that are unfamiliar with basic techniques and equipment. Several graphics illustrate these.

Advanced Instruction = For people who have done some cooking before and are comfortable with some of the techniques listed-but not explained. This format is more on the lines of an entry in a cookbook with margin asides.

For the test: I've attached a pdf of the questions here. You can send a message to me via this websites messaging system or email me at smstella@purdue.edu

My instructions are pretty similar. The novice instructions are more detailed and explain the tools used and terminology for the user. The expert instructions really assume you know you way around the OS and cut to the point with less explanation of why your doing each step and are more cut to the chase type of thing. They provide the same commands and accomplish the same thing though.

I have prepared 4 thorough tutorials for configuring Purdue University's iPhone capable services on the iPhone. The novice instructions contain considerably more detail than those for the expert. Also, each step is accompanied by a screenshot, taken with a native iPhone utility, with the appropriate action outlined in red, so as to prevent confusion. The expert instructions are more straight forward and have fewer screenshots. The primary difference between the novice and expert users is which aspects of the services are being configured, as well as the degree of detail provided.

Audience
For these sets of instructions there are some key differences between the expert and novice audience. The main difference is the technical experience of the user. The expert audience should have prior experience configuring networking equipment using a terminal application such as HyperTerminal. Ideally they would have previously set up a commercial grade wireless access point in the past but this is not a requirement. The Novice audience is the group of people who do not fit into the expert audience but do kaznow how to perform basic actions on a computer.

The layout of the novice ebay instructions is a typical 8.5 X 11 inch paper. I chose this layout because it is my hope that the user will be able to print out the instructions on a home printer which normally doesn't have any larger print option. I placed pictures where I thought they would be most effective in relation to the instruction steps. The novice instructions contain a more step by step approach that can be followed consecutively from beginning to end.

My two instructions sets are very different. My novice instructions are catered to an audience that knows virtually nothing about InDesign or how the program works, but has basic computer skills. The advanced instructions are catered to an audience that knows the basics of InDesign, but may not know how to use this particular feature (Master Pages). The novice instructions, thus, are much longer as they contain detailed explanations about features and are ordered sequentially.

The main difference between the novice set and the expert set is the novice set contains additional information on side bar, and the expert set is less detailed and skips a few intermediate steps. For some reason, when I save my file as a PDF, the text in the side-bar does not show up. I'll have to figure out why this is and fix it for the final draft. The instructions are also incomplete as of now, as I'm missing one of my Windows install discs and won't be able to complete the installation until I get a replacement disc over break.

Edit: I attached the "completed" novice rough draft.