WikiHow Project: The Experience

Throughout the process of writing this WikiHow there was a lot of trial and error, and there was some struggling at times. It was a lot easier to miss a step while writing them down than originally anticipated. Also, there was a lot involved in the project as a whole. This included taking pictures of each step separately and baking the egg muffins twice in order to make sure everything was there. Then the photographs had to be uploaded to Adobe Photoshop, then they had to be edited and made web ready. Also, basic coding was used throughout the project. The coding was a bit of a struggle at times. The coding had to be exact in order for the output to be correct. Editing the pictures was not that difficult; however, some of the pictures had lost quality throughout the editing process or had glares in them. That was a bit irritating. Overall, the process of creating a WikiHow article was challenging, yet fun, and it is important to experiment with this platform of social media. 

The most difficult portion of this project was not writing in the first person or making the article sound too personal or causal. It is very easy to throw in a “we” or “you” into the article, or even say “make sure” in it. Saying “make sure” makes the piece sound casual and personal. These were both very easy mistakes to make. This is exactly why this was included in the project though. It was a major challenge that was needed in order to make everyone think differently. It forced the mind to write in a different way than it usually does. As communication students, we need to be able to develop this skill. 

Another difficult aspect of the project was the pictures. The pictures had to be taken as the steps were being done, which could result in someone forgetting to photograph a step. If the photo is forgotten for one of them, the process has to be redone. Also, the pictures needed to be taken from a variety of angles to ensure that they are unified. I had another person helping throughout the process; however, this proved to be an issue when it comes to this portion of the project. Every time a step was completed he would just continue on, forgetting to let the pictures be taken. This caused the process to have to be redone a second time in order to ensure that they were all taken for each step. Although, this did help ensure that the provided directions were clear for everyone to understand. Also, some of the pictures had lost quality throughout the editing process or had glares in them. This was a bit annoying.

Although there was some difficulty with the writing process and the photographs, the coding was relatively easy. Essentially, the code was based off of the code from another person’s project which made it rather simple. Since the code was given, all that really had to be done was replace it with the steps from the writer. However, there were some issues with providing the “tips” and “warnings” sections. It is hard to come up with tips for a recipe that is second nature for you. Also, it is difficult to come up with warnings that are not just the obvious things like “wear an oven mitt when taking the muffin tin out of the oven.” Those types of things are common knowledge. However, the rest of this part of the project was pretty easy.

Finally, this project included referencing other similar WikiHows in the article. This article referenced making jalapeño egg muffins; therefore, the references were articles that discussed a similar recipe. This is not only beneficial to the reader, it is also beneficial for the writer. This article could be used to help write the code and organize the article because they are similar. The scrambled egg muffins recipe in that article was similar in nature; therefore, this helped provide a foundation on the coding of the article.

Overall, this project was highly rewarding. Even though the project was relatively involved and had a few challenging portions, it still was very fun. It was a learning experience, and it helps to diversify your writing skills. Having never previously written step-by-step instructions prior to this project, a lot was learned. In addition, learning to not use the first person while providing the information was a huge learning experience. Also, having an article published on a website feels very good and it is very rewarding. Additionally, the creativity involved with this project made it fun and freeing. The assignment was very untraditional, which made it an exciting and refreshing experience.