Common Types of Documents in Technical Writing Instructions are among the most common types of documents in technical writing.
Instructions are everywhere informing readers on how to make, assemble or create something. You may have followed instructions on how to log onto a computer at work to download and use an App on your Smartphone or how to put together furniture. It is likely that you will create instructions often in your career if not as a formal document then at least in a variety of informal written and oral communications.
Keep in mind the differences among instructions, process descriptions, and procedures:
Instructions inform readers on how to assemble, make, create something or perform a specific task
Process descriptions tell how something works (e.g., how a drug works to relieve systems of seasonal allergies). While instructions are about how to use something, descriptions are about how that thing works (e.g., how to take a prescription drug vs. how that drug works in the human body).
Procedures are standardized ways of doing things in organizations.
For this assignment, you will focus on writing and designing effective instructions.
Common Types of Documents in Technical Writing Assignment Guidelines
a series of steps for assembly or various specific tasks to complete. A topic relevant to nursing may be a good idea, but topics such as “checking blood pressure” “collecting a urine sample” are too common and are not allowed for this assignment. Choose a Technical or Scientific Topic. Begin by reviewing the assigned reading for unit 4. You will then choose your own topic for this assignment. In order to give you practice in technical writing, you must choose a technical or scientific topic. Recipes are not technical or scientific and thus are not allowed. Ideally, a topic requires a series of steps for assembly or various specific tasks to complete. A topic relevant to nursing may be a good idea, but topics such as “checking blood pressure” “collecting a urine sample” are too common and are not allowed for this assignment.
Choose a topic involving ten (10) or more steps. The following are a few examples of projects from previous classes:
Setting up a small network in your home office
Building and hosting your own website
Installing a solar heating system
Assembling a skateboard
How to change an electrical outlet
How to sew an A-line skirt
Write to a specific audience. You must specify an audience for your instructions. In most instances, your audience should be novice–someone who has never performed the task before. Sample audiences for the instructions mentioned above include home computer owners, small business owners, and homeowners.
Acknowledge all sources. If you use any sources for your instructions, acknowledge your sources on an APA reference page and include this page with your instructions. If you use or adapt illustrations from another source, use APA captions and provide a reference for each illustration.
Common Types of Documents in Technical Writing Format
Regardless of your task, you must include all of the following contents (any omission of the following contents will result in grade deductions):
Introduction. Here you will give your reader the following information:
The audience in terms of its knowledge and need for the instructions
What the instructions will allow readers to do
What skill level the audience should have to perform the task successfully
An overview of the steps needed to complete the task
A sense of how long the task will take
Where they should perform the task, i.e., in a well-ventilated area, outside, on a flat surface, etc.
List of Materials, Tools, or Ingredients
Figures (Diagrams, Drawings, Photographs, Illustrations, or Tables)
Include captions for each figure
Label figures using APA guidelines
Give attribution to all figures in references
List of Steps, in chronological order, with the following characteristics:
Ten (10) or more steps
Use of the imperative mood, i.e., “Attach the red wire” rather than “The red wire is attached.” With the second, passive sentence, readers will not know whether the wire is already attached or if they need to attach the wire.
Each step must have one specific action only, e.g., “Turn the knob one complete turn.” and not an elaboration or comment, e.g., “Turning the knob will result in a better fit.”
Each step must have one or two sentences max
Use of the second person (you)
Include warnings or cautions before readers will encounter problems
Parallel form (see page 97 in the course textbook)
And, if needed, your instructions should also contain:
Common Types of Documents in Technical Writing Warnings
Glossary of terms
References
Appendices
Document Design and Figures:
Give careful thought to figures and design elements that will make your instructions effective.
Make sure all of your steps are numbered, 1-2-3, throughout
Single space the text in paragraphs
You must include two figures. You may create your own or adapt from other sources. Make sure you provide figure information for each one and document with APA standards
Use as many of the four basic design principles, CRAP, as possible
Design your document for consistency (grid patterns, margins, justification, negative space, indentation, typeface, font style, and size)
Design your document for navigation and emphasis (headings, color, shading, boldface, italic, and underlining bulleted and numbered lists)
You must use a two-column format
You should write the instructions yourself. DO NOT simply copy instructions you found elsewhere (on a how-to website or your nursing textbook) and cite the source. That is not the idea of this assignment. The idea is that you will write your own instructions telling your audience how to complete a task with which you are familiar, so familiar, in fact, that writing a set of instructions for it should be easy. That isn’t to say you aren’t allowed to consult secondary sources, but you do need to write the instructions yourself.
If you transcribe (copy) instructions you found elsewhere, you cannot get a 60 or above on this assignment, even if you cite the sources.
If more than 30% (as deemed by SafeAssign) of your paper is copied from other sources, your assignment will receive a 0, even if the sources are properly documented.
If you do not cite the sources from copied instructions someone else wrote, your assignment will be referred to the Office of Student Conduct for an academic integrity violation.
