Microsoft Word Tutorial electricteacher/tutorials.htm

1. Microsoft Word Tutorialhttp://www.electricteacher.com/tutorials.htm Olga Kuznetsova Jamie Lee Vivian Nguyen Khushbu Shah English 393: 301

2. Audience • Educated adults (college students) • Appropriate for audience • Vocabulary: “de facto”, “manipulating”, “existing”, “modifying”, “miscellaneous • A lot of reading: explanations in paragraph form • Format: minimal colors and pictures • Beginner Level of Word Users • The tutorial has very elementary processes (I.E. Create a Word Document) • The tutorial has processes that do not require many steps (I.E. Inserting Clip Art)

3. Formatting • The tutorial is in paragraph format and it uses screen captures that are wrapped around the paragraphs. • The paragraph first defines the topic and then goes into the explanation of the process of the task. • The way the paragraphs wrap around the screenshots makes the content confusing. • The content of the tutorial could be organized in a better way. • The steps could be numbered or bulleted. • There could be more screenshots per tutorial explaining the step by step process.

4. Tone • Fairly formal • The speaker communicates through a business-like manner. • Does not try to be humorous; more to the point.

5. Interestingness • The tutorial holds readers’ interests about topics they are trying to learn. • There are visuals such as screenshots. • If the reader is looking at a section they do not want to learn about, it will not be interesting.

6. Directions • The directions themselves are very easy to follow, and all of the steps are included. • However, there is a lot of explanation of why the process is used, and so finding the directions is not as easy.

7. Directions • There is an ad on the page that interferes with the directions.

8. Changing the Page Orientation • It is very easy to follow the steps to change the page orientation in Microsoft Word. • There is an image that helped show what to click.

9. Tutorials Do’s and Do Not’s • Do use bullets/numbered format. • Do use more screen shots to better explain steps. • Do write towards a more casual audience to keep the reader’s interest, but not talk down to them (humor). • Do make sure that topics are defined before the process is explained. • Do use numbered steps versus paragraphs wrapped around screenshots.

10. Tutorials Do’s and Do Not’s (Cont’d) • Do include images that help guide through the process. • Do give a small explanation of why the process is used. • Do not cloud directions with excessive explanations. • Do not include unnecessary images. • Do not make processes too wordy.