Document Development Exposition: Instructions and Usability Memo

ENGL 2116

Explain in detail your document’s development from planning to finish, describing your
challenges, how you overcame them, and what you learned.

Planning
To plan for this document, our group created questionnaire to gauge the usability of the “How do I
access current conditions water-quality data?” instructions. We then had other members of the
class go through these instructions, giving feedback along the way, and answer our questions
afterward.

First Draft (for your packet)

Each member of the group did a couple of different sections. This evenly distributed the work and
helped us get the document done quickly. However, this also mixed several writing styles, which can
lead to repetition and a lack of consistency. Our group also misunderstood the purpose of the
appendices. Our first draft left a lot to be desired.

Final Draft (for your portfolio)

For the final draft, I reworded much of the documents body to be more constructive and less
insulting. I fixed many spacing and formatting issues and removed several sentences that did not
serve much of a purpose. Finally, I completely redid both Appendices, since both had lots of text and
Appendix B was a set of separate pictures instead of one mock-up of revised instructions.