The User Manual
There are four
reasons why this assignment is included in the semester's work.
- First, a working
engineer needs to keep an audience in mind at all times. When the
specialized knowledge acquired through studies and experience can
be applied to address the specific needs of a client, an engineer
becomes an essential professional in virtually all aspects of daily
life. The User Manual assignment gives students an opportunity to
focus very directly on a specific audience.
- Second, an engineer
needs to be able to review manuals which the technical writing department
prepares to ensure that the assembly, maintenance, and user documents
will enable all of the engineering work to function as intended. The
User Manual experience is one step in learning how to evaluate the
usefulness of manuals.
- Third, engineers
have to collaborate. Leading and following, explaining and learning,
meeting deadlines, ignoring personal differences in favor of completing
a task well, and generally becoming a valued member of a corporate
community routinely occur in the course of collaborative work.
- Finally, an engineer's
daily calendar always has scheduled meetings where oral reports on
the status of work are expected. This assignment provides experiences
which prepare students for such meetings.
Some user manual
topics are posted below. The course instructor will announce the specific
topic for the semester. The assignment will cover a span of about four
weeks. Some class time will be given for collaboration, but teams will
also have to schedule out-of-class time to work together. A corporate
meeting format will be used in class for the teams' oral presentations.
Markel, Ch. 20 will be used to consider format and content issues.
User
Manuals Needed:
Teams of engineering students are needed to collaboratively develop
brief manuals that can assist other students with their learning. Three
topics are listed and briefly described. One topic will be selected
by the Writing for Engineers instructor. Class members will be assigned
to teams which will compete for funding from the RneedsU Foundation.
Students are expected to follow directions from their instructor for
the development and presentation of the manual.
- PowerPoint
for New Users Manual: This manual will enable students to create
a slide show which might be used to complete class presentations.
It is intended to assist students who have limited computer skills
and no previous experience using PowerPoint.
Example
Pages: [ 1
] [ 2
] [ 3
] [ 4
] [ 5
] [ 6
] [ 7
] [ 8
] [ 9
]
- Transportation
System Manual: After making changes in bus routes to facilitate
student movement between campuses, a convenient manual is needed to
enable students to efficiently utilize the transportation system.
Example
Pages (Set 1): [ 1
] [ 2 ] [ 3
] [ 4 ] [ 5
] [ 6 ] [ 7
] [ 8 ] [ 9
] [ 10 ]
Example Pages (Set 2): [ 1
] [ 2 ] [ 3
] [ 4 ] [ 5
]
- Rutgers
Libraries Manual: This manual is intended to help students with
electronic access to the Rutgers libraries. The manual must enable
students to understand and use IRIS, INDEXES, and RESEARCH GATEWAY.
Example
Pages: [ 1
] [ 2 ] [ 3
] [ 4 ] [ 5
] [ 6 ] [ 7
] [ 8 ]
See
Grading for
further information about the User Manual assignment.
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