I'm glad we're actually starting to do something that isn't so abstract to me. Learning about rhetoric was somewhat interesting, but I feel like learning how to write instructions in an appropriate and effective way is something that I can really use later in life. I didn't want to do instructions about anything technical, because to be honest I'm not all that great at that kind of thing, so I probably wouldn't write the best of instructions. Instead I decided to write instructions about food, aka a recipe. I got the idea to do homemade chicken noodle soup because its really not that hard to make, and to me it tastes a lot better when you make it yourself rather than out of the can. Also, with sickness hitting a lot of students around campus (including me), one of my favorite things to eat is soup. I think there may even be evidence that chicken noodle soup actually helps colds.
Anyway, we talked a lot about introductions in class. Introductions are definitely an important part of instructions, as they let the reader know what will follow. I think some of the introductions we read in class were a bit on the long side, even though the information they contained was necessary. As a reader, I know that sometimes when I just glance at something that has a dense amount of text, I get a little distracted and don't want to read the entire thing. Therefore, I think for an introduction to be effective it can't be discouraging, but just contain the necessities-- to put the reader in the correct frame of mind for the following instructions.
I agree; instructions are more concrete than rhetoric. Also, we have seen clear examples of them on a daily basis for most of our lives.
ReplyDeleteI considered writing instructions for a recipe but didn't know if that would fit the criteria but I'm curious to see how your instructions go!
The introductions to the instructions in class were definitely too long in my opinion. I don't know anyone that would read instructions that long, especially if they were not required to do so. I think you made a good point by saying that the instructions can be "discouraging" if they are unnecessarily long, too.
I am pretty excited to be moving on from rhetoric as well. I can only talk about the same word for so long, and 2 weeks is pretty much the limit!
ReplyDeleteI also agree the introductions were way too long in class. Especially for the instructions on tape dubbing, that introduction was 2 pages long and was still not done. I know I never would have been able to make it to the actual instructions if I was using that set.
Also I still vote you bring in soup for everyone so we can all get a good idea of what we can accomplish if we follow your instructions correctly!