"Continue West and Ascend the Stairs": Game Walkthroughs in Professional and Technical Communication

Authors

  • Stephanie Vie University of Central Florida

Keywords:

walkthroughs, video games, computer games, instructions

Abstract

Professional and technical communication courses often feature instructional documents as a genre. Instructions are one of the more frequently composed documents by practicing professional writers and as such, writing effective instructions can be a key learning objective for the professional and technical communication classroom. However, to better engage today’s students, many of whom are seasoned video game players, the typical instructional document in professional/technical communication can be modified to include written walkthroughs of video games. This paper offers a sample assignment that asks undergraduate students to compose written walkthroughs of a video game, conduct usability studies of those walkthroughs, and then revise the walkthroughs based on the results of the usability studies.

Author Biography

Stephanie Vie, University of Central Florida

Associate Professor of Writing and Rhetoric

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Published

2015-01-29

Issue

Section

Tool Box