Getting Started with your Instruction Report
Part 1: Choosing a topic:
Your topic should be a specific task that is related to your career field or to a hobby or yours (you have likely already chosen this task for last week’s homework).
Your task should be one that your classmates are not likely to already know how to do BUT could reasonably expect to read all of the steps of from your report within no more than an hour.
PLEASE NOTE: The task itself might take more than an hour to complete, and your readers likely won’t be able to successfully complete your task without enough practice or experience (which obviously would take much more than one hour). However, readers should be able to read and understand your steps in an hour or less.
● Please stay away from overly common tasks, such as shampooing hair (which all your classmates likely know how to do), and overly complex tasks, such as writing a computer program or learning to play an instrument (which we couldn’t learn from a short set of instructions).
● No recipes, but you could give instructions on using a specialized piece of cooking equipment, such as a wok or grill, or instructions for some specialized technique or procedure for preparing food.
● Your task should be moderately complex, but not too complex. (Choose a procedure with at least three but no more than eight major steps. You are allowed to have substeps.)
● Your task should not be unethical, offensive, illegal, or unnecessarily dangerous.
Part 2: Visuals:
Your report must incorporate at least three visuals to help your reader follow the steps of your instructions. All visuals must be relevant and have a clear purpose for being included in your report (meaning the visual must depict one of the steps of your instructions). Your visuals must be clearly labeled and must help your reader understand your instructions.
You have two options for visuals. You can create your own visuals (usually with pictures), or you can incorporate a visual from a credible, professional source. Please note: any visual that you do not make yourself must have a complete MLA Works Cited citation pointing the audience to the source for that visual (see below for instructions on citations).
Part 3: Citations and Sources:
You must have at least one professional, reliable source that gives specific details about the steps of your process. Possible examples of professional sources include:
● A textbook related to your subject matter
● Occupational publications or material (trade magazines, training materials, user manuals, etc.)
● Publications or materials created by professionals or experts in this field
You will create an MLA style Works Cited page for your report. This citation page will include complete citations for all of your sources (if you use more than one) and for any visuals you incorporate from an outside source. Guidelines for MLA citations can be found in our textbook (pages 355-365) and in our class notes.
If you create an original visual (for example, a picture you took), credit yourself as the author with a simple copyright notice, including your name and the year you created the visual.
Example:
All visuals © Steven Byrd 2020.
Any visual that is taken from an outside source must have a complete MLA citation to refer the audience to the source of the visual.
Remember, you should use the information from your source(s), but you must avoid plagiarizing. You must reword/rewrite any information you take from your sources. YOUR INSTRUCTIONS MUST CONTAIN NO DIRECT QUOTES FROM YOUR SOURCES..
Part 4: What You Should Expect from Your Audience:
● Your classmates are your primary audience. You can assume knowledge of common tools and terms but not necessarily of specialized ones. You can also (within reason) assume a common set of shared values and attitudes.
● You have to be able to keep in mind that your reader may not be as familiar with a task as you are, so you have to make conscious decisions to include/exclude certain information.
You must make your audience aware of any possible risks or dangers that could come about as a result of following through on the instructions. It is also advisable to warn your audience about any noticeable difficulties, challenges, or potential failure points that are part of accurately following these directions.