To: Dr. Art FrickeFrom: Amanda Nunez, English 2311-003Re: Instructions Analysis Memo/ Date Due: March 24/ Date Submitted: March 24

This memo describes how a simple how to bake a cake from scratch for beginners, may not necessarily be written for complete beginners. Many instruction manuals say that they are written for beginners. Many times, the “beginners” cannot understand every step.

I interviewed two people to test this theory out. I chose two male friends to interview. One friend has only baked cakes from prepackaged mixes before. The other friend has never baked anything in his life. I asked them simple questions to see if they truly understood everything from the Chocolate Cake for Beginners recipe written by Kathy Maister on startcooking.com. I asked simple questions such as “do you understand the entire wording, how much do you think the ingredients will be, and how much time do you think it will take to bake this cake?”

The rest of the memo describes how I tried to find out who exactly is the audience that these instructions were written for.

The InstructionsI chose to analyze “Chocolate Cake for Beginners” written by Kathy Maister.

These instructions were about how to bake a cake from scratch. They are step-by-step directions on how and when to mix, pour, and bake all of the ingredients together to create a cake.

The explicit goal that the author is trying to achieve is to accurately show a complete beginner how to bake a cake from scratch. The implicit goal of the document is to allow the reader to be able to follow the directions precisely. Using simple wording in the recipe accomplishes this goal. Some restraints the author had to deal with are not using a lot of fancy wording that only bakers would understand.

The audience for this document is anyone that does not know how to bake a cake from scratch. This is shown in the document by most of the wording consisting of basic words, the document layout, and pictures to go along with every step. Despite this, there are some words that only people who know how to bake would understand. Some words in this recipe that are difficult to understand for beginners are whisk, beat, and springform pan.

This is the same for the document goal analysis. The document goal appears to be efficiency. The intent was clear by the use of pictures, but some of the pan types and ingredients did not use everyday language. To a baker, these items would seem like common sense. To a person that has never baked before in their life, the wording appears to be complex and they would more than likely become lost with these words.

I believe that the document does not effectively accomplish the document and implicit goals. Its intended audience is someone who has never baked a cake from scratch before. This could mean someone who has baked before, just not a cake from scratch. It could also apply to someone who has never in his or her life baked before. Because of this, the document does not effectively explain what every item is in detail. Someone who has never baked would not know what many of these

items are. The instructions should use simpler grammar that that a beginner audience could understand.

Usability TestingI interviewed two of my friends. One of my friends has never baked anything

before in his life. He is a complete beginner. His name is Gabe. The other person I interviewed was Mark. He has baked many things before. He never baked a cake from scratch. He is a cake-baking beginner.

I chose these two people because they are both beginners to this recipe. The recipe states that it is made for beginners. I wanted to see who exactly this recipe was written for.

To save time and effort, I did not have my friends bake the cake. Instead, I tested the instructions to determine who the audience really is.

To test the usability of the instructions, I gave each of my testers five minutes to look over the recipe before I began to interview them. I created my own usability worksheet. This worksheet consisted of several questions for me to ask my friends that were being tested. There were six questions on the worksheet.

The AnswersI asked if each person understood most of the instructions. Both said that

they did understand the majority of the instructions. Both of the people I tested agreed that the pictures helped them understand the instructions better.

I asked was if there were any words in the instructions document that they did not understand. They had different answers. Mark, who has baked before said that he understood everything. Gabe, on the other hand did not understand many words. Some of the words Gabe did not understand were “granulated sugar,” “confectioners’ sugar,” “springform pan,” “parchment paper,” “whisk,” “beat,” and “damp cake.” Though these were just a few words out of the entire recipe, they are important to make sure that the cake is prepared properly.

When asked how much all of the items would be, both of them were clueless. Assuming the reader has the pans and dishes, the ingredients would cost them between twenty and twenty-five dollars. This would be if they bought the small amounts needed for this recipe.

There was one question that both of the testers had complete opposite answers. I asked each of them whom they thought the instructions were written for. Gabe answered that the recipe was created for people who had prior knowledge of baking. Mark, on the other hand, felt that the instructions were very simple therefore created for cake-baking beginners.

Both the testers had similar answers for baking time. Gabe guessed that it would take about 50 minutes to complete the cake. This includes mixing, baking, and frosting. Mark guessed it would be about an hour. They both based their opinions on the amount of time that the recipe required to bake the cake.

I asked what each tester liked and disliked about the instructions. They both agreed that the pictures helped them understand the recipe better. They felt as if it would help them bake a better cake. Gabe disliked the fancy wording. He believed

that the recipe was not for beginners because it did not explain what each term meant.

ConclusionFor the Instructions Analysis Memo, I chose to analyze the “Chocolate Cake

for Beginners” recipe written by Kathy Maister. I interviewed two friends on the efficiency of the recipe.

As stated in the title, the recipe is intended for beginners. Though it does not specify that it is for beginners to baking, it does not say otherwise. The pictures in the recipe also help verify that the recipe was created for someone who does not know what they are doing.

After analyzing the instructions document and completing the usability testing, I realized that the author’s intended audience is not the actual document audience. It is clear that complete beginners would not follow the fancy wording. To most people who have baked a couple of times the wording may be simple. The authors actual document audience should be a beginner who is familiar with some of the baking terminology or that has baked a couple of times prior.