ENG 333 Communication for Science and Research

Jamie Larsen, Instructor

Assignment 4 - Collaborative Instructions

The Communication Situation: You have a chance to improve the world - or at least one small part of it. This assignment involves making an unsolicited recommendation for improving a set of existing, published instructions for a currently marketed product. Your job is to justify the changes, and to provide information about how to perform the new procedure.

These instructions should be written for real users, who are defined in the required audience analysis. The instructions should also provide a real benefit to the manufacturer of the product (i.e., increased customer satisfaction, user assembly time saved, etc.).

Since I like to make assignments in this class have some "real world" value, I will mail these out to the address you provide on the cover letter. In past semesters, I have had students receive free stuff including t-shirts, mugs, and even a vacuum cleaner. In one class, where a group improved a set of game instructions for one of those virtual pets, MGM Entertainment sent three more games for them to look at, and paid them money for their work. Even if you only receive a congratulatory, thank you letter, that is something that is really useful in the interview process to show your successful team working skills.

The Assignment: I have deliberately designed this assignment to be modular in format so you can divide up the tasks fairly easily. This assignment consists of five parts: 1) a cover letter addressed to an actual person who has the authority to make the change you recommend, 2) a short report discussing the changes that you recommend, 3) a set of revised instructions, 4) an audience analysis memo , and 5) a test report memo.

1. In the cover letter, you will have to make the change from the status quo seem to be the best alternative from the reader's point of view. This requires taking a persuasive strategy. Your position will be strengthened by your understanding of why the organization does things in the current way. The person(s) you address may not even believe (or want to believe) that a change is needed. Be positive and reader centered. Focus on what your proposed change will do for them in a general way. Your cover letter should introduce your team, assignment, and forecast the enclosed short report, that details your proposed changes, as well as the copy of the revisions themselves. Be sure to ask for feedback in the last paragraph, and reference me as a contact.

2. The short report should include headings. This is where you describe and justify the changes that you made to the existing instructions. Point out what you deleted, or enhanced, and reference your test results to support the validity of your claim that these are indeed improvements to the original instructions.

3. The revised instructions should be able to stand alone . The user should be able to complete a task, or subtask of a larger task, completely. Be sure to identify how long it will take, what is needed, and what should result from the user following the instructions. A list of prior student projects for revising instructions may help you to get started.

4. The audience analysis should be written as an informal memo to me. Follow the directions for Profiling your user - Creating your Audience Analysis.

5. A test report should be written as an informal memo to me. Refer to the Guidelines for an Empirical Test Report for the required content. Testing adds credibility to your instructions, and the test results can be referenced in the cover letter and/or your short report. However, you are not sending the test report to the company.

Formatting Details: Use a formal business letter format for the cover letter . The short report should include a title, headings, and page numbers. You may be creative with the instructions . For example, a brochure might be the best presentation of the procedure for your users. Both the short report and the revised instructions should be identified as enclosures on the letter.

I also want a copy of the original instructions, or a URL where I can view them. However you distribute this to your team, you can use that method with me.

Be sure to look at the online examples for the correct format. I want your own style on the documents, and I am most interested in seeing a cohesive, professional package that does not look like 4 or 5 different people put it together.