After reading the chapter from TCT I can definitely attest to the fact that I have turned in "finished" rough drafts, which is obviously due to not allowing for enough time to properly edit my document. After a few bad grades due to simple spelling mistakes, I realized how much I could benefit from allowing for time to edit.
I agree with the levels of editing. However I feel that I usually go through them in reverse. I usually proofread (level 4) as I write, changing spelling mistakes, punctuation, etc. When I am finished writing something I go back and re-read it to check for both the clarity of sentences/paragraphs (level 3) as well as the organization of my thoughts (level 2). I’ve never really taken the time to “look at the document as a whole” “paying attention to the purpose and context of use”. I never really thought about that before taking this class. However after completing previous readings and assignments for this class I see that taking those things into consideration is crucial to effective writing and that I need to work on considering those things in future writings.
I really liked the “Easily Confused Word List”. This will be a great help both in future assignments for this class as well as my writing in general. While making sure you use the proper their/there/they’re is pretty easy to do, some of these I hadn’t heard of before.
I was disappointed that there were only 4 pages out of 24 on usability testing. Going into more detail would have been a little more helpful. After reading IB #6 I will be using a survey for my usability testing. I feel that for my instruction set the document markup and the read and locate tests would unable to provide me with sufficient enough feedback on my instructions. However I’m not entirely sure how to ask questions to get the feedback I want or need? I will probably write questions to answer the 4 main questions as best I can.
Surveys
I think a good approach to creating a survey is to see the four main questions as categories of questions. You can then develop three or four specific questions (i.e. questions that ask for specific answers) within each larger category. One could imagine a series of questions that addressed the larger question of "can they do it?"
Hybrid Test
Although the survey questions will help you to figure out the important points the user remembers from the instructions, you may lose some other information that would be noted using a document mark-up. With regard to your project (installing iTunes and transferring songs), the user may get confused at some point or not understand your instructions completely. If they figure the step out for themselves and move on, they may forget exactly what slowed them up by the end of the process. Then that information won't get relayed back to you if the reader forgets to include it in their survey feedback. As many other students are doing, maybe a combination of a document mark-up and survey questions would be better-suited for this application. I just wanted to throw it out there as something to consider.
Take it to the Coaches
I would have to agree that usability tests were not the emphasis in this chapter; that is, according to TCT and the amount of information provided. Ironically, it was the focus for us. Either way, it appears the majority of us, you and I included, were able to extract sufficient information we will proceed to use throughout this project. In regard to your closing argument, I can only repeat what Nathaniel has offered before me, that is, “a good approach to creating a survey is to see the four main questions as categories of questions.” They are not to be taken literally, but instead, represent the 4 general areas to cover and derive more situation-specific questions per category. Perhaps you could collect an extensive list of potential questions and have the coaches review the list for which information is most pertinent and should be included, and filter out those that are considered unnecessary.