Almost every piece of writing advice I will give you in this course relates to one of two ideas:

• academic writing can be thought of as a conversation
• the writer’s job is to make their reader’s job as effortless as possible

This assignment relates to the latter idea and will give you practice thinking about your writing from a reader’s perspective. You will write an explanation of how to do something. Your imagined reader is a classmate who has no familiarity with in your topic. You will have to explain how to do this thing in 300 words or less, with no pictures or diagrams.

Pick something that you know how to do but that most people in this class won’t know how to do. It should be something that you took lessons for, or had to be explicitly taught, or had to teach yourself using a tutorial or instruction manual. Due to the word limit, pick something small within your larger area of expertise. For example, “how to dance” is too broad, but “how to do the dance move called ‘flossing’” might work.

Please pick something based on your own knowledge and skills and of an :appropriately narrow scope.

Make sure that you think of your reader while writing your explanation. After reading your explanation, your reader should be able to do the thing you explain (even if at a beginner level). It’s not enough if they just know about the task you explain.

What would an average NUSC first-year student know about your topic already? What terms or concepts would they need explained?

Orient your reader by providing context for your explanation. Why would they want to learn how to do this thing?

Do not include a typical essay introduction or conclusion for this exercise. Set the context, explain how to do the thing, and end briefly with any useful final information.

Please make sure that you follow :course guidelines.

Before submitting, you may want to review this submission essentials :checklist:

:x checklist

• Pick a task you know well but that most classmates won’t
• Limit the explanation to 300 words or less
• Do not include pictures or diagrams
• Provide context for why someone would want to learn the task
• Avoid a traditional essay introduction and conclusion
• Follow all formatting and GenAI guidelines
• Update your workload report

:x guidelines

The key guidelines to review are:

• grading criteria for exercises
• formatting
• GenAI policy
• due dates and (if needed) extensions
• workload report

:x scope

Some examples:

• how to teach a dog to roll over
• how to make a stir fry with bok choy and mushrooms
• how to calibrate a home 3D printer
• how to tune up brakes on a bicycle
• how to mix colors when painting with watercolor

Example submission

Throughout this course, note that examples provided are not intended as ideal models you should emulate. They are intended to give you a general sense of what I’m looking for to prevent you from going completely off track. All examples will have both strengths and weaknesses.

Here is an :example submission to give you some idea what is expected. If you have time and interest, I’ve also decided to share with you how I :used GenAI to create this example.

:x example

How to Format Webpage Text Using Markdown

Markdown is a computer language widely used for formatting text on the web. Users can write documents in Markdown and software will convert (or “render”) them into the universal web language, HTML, that all webpages use. Markdown is much easier to learn than HTML, and it has the advantage that its files are easy for people to read and understand. Markdown files are also are small and can be read on any computer system.

Markdown’s advantage over plain text alone is that it provides a way to format text and add web functions to the rendered webpages by adding specific characters before and after words. For example, to create bold text in Markdown, use double asterisks or double underscores around the text you want to emphasize. Typing **bold text** or __bold text__ in a Markdown document will render the webpage text as bold text. Italicizing text is similarly straightforward. By enclosing the text in single asterisks or underscores, you can make it italic. For example, writing *italic text* or _italic text_ will display as italic text. Strikethrough text, which indicates deletion or irrelevance, can be achieved by enclosing the text in double tildes. For example, ~~strikethrough text~~ will render as strikethrough text.

You can create and edit a Markdown document using any text editor, but to convert the document into an HTML webpage, you will need a Markdown editor. Popular free editors include Obsidian, VS Code, and Zettlr.

:x genai

Reading this section is totally optional; I just thought some of you might be interested. I wanted to create an example submission for this assignment to help students understand what I’m looking for. I’ll explain the process I went through for two reasons: 1) seeing the changes I made will help you understand even better what I’m looking for, and 2) my process may help you use GenAI more effectively.

My first prompt:

I’m designing a short assignment for 1st-year college students to help them understand that they must take the readers’ point of view when explaining something. Write an example submission for this assignment about how to style text using markdown. Write in the style of a short college essay, using only full sentences and paragraphs, and limit to 300 words.

GenAI Output:

Markdown is a lightweight markup language widely used for formatting text on the web. It is favored for its simplicity and readability, even in its raw form. This essay will explain the basic techniques for styling text using Markdown, focusing on bold, italic, and strikethrough formatting. To create bold text in Markdown, you use double asterisks or double underscores around the text you want to emphasize. For instance, typing **bold text** or __bold text__ will render the text as bold text. This feature is particularly useful for highlighting important information or making headings stand out …(several paragraphs omitted) Understanding how to style text in Markdown is essential for creating clear and visually appealing documents, especially for web content. By mastering these basic formatting techniques, students can enhance the readability and effectiveness of their writing, ensuring that their key points stand out to readers. Markdown’s simplicity and efficiency make it a valuable tool for anyone involved in digital writing and publishing.

This example assumes too much reader knowledge (here, my students are the “reader”). I think my reader needs more general context to understand the explanation. Also, the example seemed to include a sort-of conclusion, but I don’t want students to include a conclusion paragraph in their submissions. I realized the phrase “college essay” in my prompt may have implied that a conclusion is expected, so I make a mental note to clarify that in the assignment.

My next prompt:

revise with these changes: explain ‘lightweight markup language’, explain why someone would want to use markdown compared to other options, explain that you need software to turn the md text into formatted text, explain the concept of ‘render’

GenAI output:

Markdown is a lightweight markup language widely used for formatting text on the web. A markup language is a system for annotating a document in a way that is syntactically distinguishable from the text. Being lightweight means Markdown is less complex compared to other markup languages like HTML, making it easier to learn and use. This essay will explain the basic techniques for styling text using Markdown, the advantages of using Markdown, and the concept of rendering. One of the primary reasons to use Markdown is its simplicity and readability. Even in its raw form, Markdown text is easy to understand, making it accessible for beginners. Unlike HTML, which requires more complex syntax, Markdown allows users to format text with minimal effort. Additionally, Markdown is platform-independent and supported by various applications, including version control systems like Git, which are crucial for collaborative projects. To transform Markdown text into formatted text, you need software to render it. Rendering is the process of converting Markdown syntax into HTML or another format that can be displayed correctly in a browser or other text display environment. Many text editors and content management systems have built-in Markdown renderers, making it seamless to write and publish Markdown content. To create bold text in Markdown, you use double asterisks or double underscores around the text you want to emphasize. For instance, typing **bold text** or __bold text__ will render the text as bold text. This feature is particularly useful for highlighting important information or making headings stand out. Italicizing text is similarly straightforward. By enclosing the text in single asterisks or underscores, you can make it italic. For example, writing *italic text* or _italic text_ will display as italic text. Italics are typically used to emphasize a word or phrase subtly or to denote titles of books and other works. Markdown also allows for combining bold and italic formatting by using three asterisks or underscores. For instance, ***bold and italic*** or ___bold and italic___ will produce bold and italic text. This combined styling is useful when you need to give extra emphasis to a particular piece of information. Strikethrough text, which is often used to indicate that something has been deleted or is no longer relevant, can be achieved by enclosing the text in double tildes. For example, ~~strikethrough text~~ will render as strikethrough text. This feature helps to visually denote changes or corrections in documents. Understanding how to style text in Markdown is essential for creating clear and visually appealing documents, especially for web content. By mastering these basic formatting techniques, students can enhance the readability and effectiveness of their writing, ensuring that their key points stand out to readers. Markdown’s simplicity and efficiency make it a valuable tool for anyone involved in digital writing and publishing.

This output is an improvement, but it gives too many contextual details, which might confuse my reader. It also seemed long, so I asked for a word count, and it was 467 words! The GAI forgot about the word limit after just a few prompts. At this point, I decided it would be easier to revise the text myself, rather than trying to get the GAI to revise it further, so I heavily revised the above text manually to produce the example I provided above.