Process Assignment

English 119 Process Assignment (Spring 2013)

Important: bring this document to your workshop this week (the week beginning May 20)

You are encouraged to work on this assignment with one other classmate (each will receive the same grade).

The Scenario: a company called Galaxease, Inc. has been involved in a number of lawsuits over the past few years. The company prides itself on innovative “futuristic” technologies designed to create a life of luxury for customers. However, the company’s products can be extremely dangerous if used incorrectly: some people have been badly injured, have vanished into thin air, or have died.

The lawsuits have mostly involved the instructional manuals provided with the products: claimants have been seeking damages in the millions for lost limbs, blindness, the partial or complete disintegration or death of loved ones and pets, and a host of other things—all as a result of unclear, difficult-to-use instructions.

As technical writing consultants, you have been following these cases carefully, and you would now like to offer your services to Galaxease: you are certain that your expertise in the area of “product support literature” (instructional manuals) can help the company to avoid such litigation in the future.

The Assignment: your task is to write a detailed letter to the company offering

• your services as instructional manual writers

• your overall assessment of the usability and persuasiveness of the existing manual (pages 3-6 of this document) for the company’s “model HG-1” Holographic Projector

• a critique of the content, organization, page design, and clarity of expression of the manual, with examples and suggestions for how to improve the document

Along with your letter, provide three sample pages as a demonstration of how you would redesign the manual.

Your letter should be at least 750-1,000 words in order to be reasonably detailed (although you are not expected to point...