For this assignment, you will choose some software that you're familiar with and do each of these things. As you develop each of these different documents (and their corresponding oral presentations), focus on how the audience for each document is different—they have different experience, different needs, and so on, which means that how you write for each will be different, too.

For this assignment, you will examine some software system you’re familiar with from a variety of perspectives: introducing new users to the system, proposing changes to the system, and promoting the changed system to its users.

Imagine, for example, that you are in charge of UCI’s Gmail-based electronic mail system. Periodically you will have to instruct new users on how to use Gmail. You might write an introductory document, explaining the basics of electronic mail and the kinds of operations one might expect to perform (creating a message, sending it, receiving a message, printing it, saving it, and so on); later in that document, or in another document, you might give a tutorial providing the details of carrying out those operations (the specific commands to use), perhaps with a set of examples the reader would follow. You might also give an oral introduction to Gmail to groups of new users or create a video of that introduction.

In addition, you might think that Gmail could be improved in various ways (such as a fancier user interface or additional features). Probably you would have to convince someone that these changes would be worth implementing. For UCI’s Gmail, it could be the director of UCI’s Office of Information Technology or the director of the Gmail project at Google; for some other system, it might be your boss or a committee in charge of deciding what software enhancements are most important. You would make your case both in a written memo and in an oral presentation.

Any change in an existing system is likely to disrupt the system’s current users. If your change were implemented, you would want to reassure the current users that the new system will be better for them—to “sell them,” in other words, on your changes. Again you might prepare something written, such as a flyer or brochure or memo or web page, and also make a short oral presentation or announcement with the same intent.

For this assignment, you will choose some software that you’re familiar with and do each of these things. As you develop each of these different documents (and their corresponding oral presentations), focus on how the audience for each document is different—they have different experience, different needs, and so on, which means that how you write for each will be different, too.

introduction for novices: You will write an introduction to the system for novice users, of three to four pages. This document should give a high-level description of the system and its capabilities, describing what tasks the system will perform and giving the necessary background. It should not get into the tedious minor details of which keys to press or which menu items to choose; the “Writing Instructions” project covers that kind of writing, and those details would extend this assignment far beyond four pages in any case. A good draft of this is due on October 19; the final version is due October 26. (All written assignments are due at the start of class.)