WikiHow is a step by step process that involves great detail. There is a long process in order to create an article that is unique, but it’s not as hard as it sounds. To begin, understand that wikiHow is a website that gives readers a million different ways to do something, and almost everything is on their site. If anyone needs to know how to do something, they should go there. The next step is to figure out a topic that the writer would like to do their article on. It is important to make sure that this topic hasn’t been done already and that there is enough information to make it a long enough article. Figuring out a topic that isn’t already done is the tough part but the topic of choice for this assignment was “How to Make Reese’s Peanut Butter Hearts”. Since this topic is a recipe, the article was easy to write since there were many steps to make the Reese’s hearts. Throughout the wikiHow article, there were many pictures uploaded to show the steps of how to do each separate thing. This included mixing the ingredients, how to melt the chocolate, cutting the peanut butter into hearts, freezing them and more. In order to code a wikiHow article, it makes it easier to copy an already written article and paste it into a word document. This way, the writer can just delete the information that was already typed out and fill in their own writing and their own steps. There will most likely be articles that are similar to the one being published. Despite this, as long as it is not exactly the same topic, there should have no problem uploading the article to wikiHow. Sharing information on a topic the writer knows a lot about may seem very easy for them to communicate to others. However, it isn’t as simple as it sounds. In order to clearly state each step with thorough details, they must write every single detail they do during a step. It might seem like common sense to keep the heat on low while melting chocolate so that it doesn’t burn, but some people don’t know that. Another example of thoroughly detailing the article would be making sure there are tips and warnings at the end of the article to help the reader do everything correctly. A step by step instructional is the best way to communicate the wiki. Make sure that everything is given in a step by step format so that it is easy to follow. With recipes, it is easy to make a step by step instructional. However, it might not be as easy to do so with other topics such as ‘How to Be Happier,” “How to Finish Reading a Book” or “How to Trust Someone”. These types of wikis would work better with a method instructional. This way, it gives the reader different options on how to do something rather than a strict set of rules to follow. This works well because one method won’t work for everyone since everybody is different and so are their learning capabilities. With methods, it is easy to get mixed up while writing your article because there is more of a thought process to them. Although, methods and a step by step instructional both work fantastically. In order to manage a big project like this, it will cost a lot of time on the computer. To begin, there has to be photos of the process and they have to fit into the wiki. Photoshop was used a lot during this project and just being able to navigate photoshop took time to learn. Editing photos to enhance the picture and to change the image size is essential in creating a wiki. However, when taking pictures on a cell phone, the photos are too large and a website can not upload them and make it viewable to the reader. Using photoshop will help decrease the size of the picture and edit them all. Next, there will need to be access to a blank word document in order to code the wiki. As stated earlier, copying an already coded wiki is easier to just fill in the new steps, unless the writer knows how to code a wikiHow article already. All of this together takes many hours so if someone is looking to do this, they must plan to budget a lot of time in order to do so. While writing the article, they need to make sure to keep their article objective. Don’t use forms of “me”, “my” or “I”.
Below is a link to a related wiki and two images used in an article to make Reese’s Peanut Butter Hearts at home.
Images:
No comments:
Post a Comment