Instructional Designing: Basics

Instructional designing is an upcoming field in India. There is a wide gap btween what is taught in classes and what is actually learnt. Instructional designing aims to fill the gap by designing user friendly training programs. Instructional designing designs training from learner’s point of view by effective presentation of content and by fostering interaction.

Instructional designing basically relates with the systematic development of learning objectives using instructional concepts and theories. In simple language, instructional designing is concerned with making learning as interesting as possible.

Instructional designers work with ID Team comprising of graphic designers, programmers, project managers, etc. to provide:
- Self-paced learning
- High level of interactivity
- Vivid simulations and animations
- Effective learning

My next post will talk about the difference between technical writing and instructional designing.

Writing Masterpieces

As writers, we are expected to be creative and full of "Quick Ideas" and "Document Fix It" Glue. But how much is it possible while following a pressing deadline or meeting other work items scheduled for the day/quarter. As writers we all face the issue of great creative expectations bounded by time crunch factor. What is the output - Document Errors/Missing Creativity/Lack of Motivation.

The real question is how to maintain a balance at workplace and create great masterpieces? Well, there are no defined rules. My post will talk about some fundamentals that can be practiced.

Focus - Focus on each paragraph, sentence, words, spellings, punctuation and style
Letting Go - Letting go your ego. Work with the end target audience and end goal in mind
Realizing your strengths (n weaknesses) - Use your strengths while writing. Create writing strengths by building your knowledge in related fields/models like Bloom's Taxonomy, Instructional Designing strategies, etc.
Bigger picture - Relating your priority with the organization's goal
Giving your best shot - Do your part with honesty and dedication. Whatever be the results, you know that you played your part well.
Worklife balance - Your family, friends’ n work off course :)

It is also very important to do self review and peer review to get rid of errors as much as possible. Above all the end results and customer feedback matters. So make sure if you are writing a sales kit, you have taken interviewed several sales personnel before writing for them, have thorough discussion with SMEs to understand the sales product/service and above all take feedback on v 1.0 from them all (target audience, SME) along with your Seniors (Bosses).

Style Guide in Technical Writing

As technical writers, you are often asked to create or refer to style guides? Why? Style guides can help in improving document quality and in standardizing document presentation. For example what is correct - 5 or five? Style guides can help you decide this. Let’s understand the basics of style guides.

What?

Style Guide is a set of standards that highlights the preferred writing style, punctuation, spelling, and formatting used for various publications by an organization. You can refer to industry-accepted style guides or create your own in-house guide.

Why?

• Consistency – Ensures consistent and uniform look of all publications, thus enabling readers to seek information with better ease and speed. For example, if you are using American English, you will make sure you write “analyze” and not “analyse” throughout your document though both are grammatically correct spellings.
  

• Easy Writing and Editing – It is easy to create or review a document if the writing rules are already clarified. You can refer them any point in time to make sure you are using the correct format.
  

• Effective and Fair Writing – Adherence to style guide helps to create neutral and effective publications regardless of each author’s personal writing style. For example, you will follow the capitalization rules as specified in the style guide instead of your own way.

Examples:

• Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications (MSTP)
• Sun Style Guide
• Chicago Manual of Style
• Elements of Style
• Apple Style Guide