During my undergraduate degree at UMD, I took two professional writing courses. One of these courses was ENGL390: Science Writing where we completed a series of writing portfolios each following a specific area of science writing. One of these portfolios was on communicating information where we were tasked with writing an instructional manual along with two technical definition papers. For specifically the instructional manual, we were to write instructions for a specific task with a specific audience in a format specific to the instructions. For my instructional manual, I chose to write a proposed phytochemistry lab guide on salve preparation that would appear in an undergraduate lab course manual. Since I had completed an instructional guide in my technical writing class before, I was familiar with instructional writing and wanted to challenge myself. Knowing that I will be continuing my graduate studies in medicinal plant chemistry, I understood the importance of fine-tuning this project towards a topic in my field so that I could complete applicable research while writing.
Chemistry lab manuals include not just step-by-step instructions for the labs themselves, but also extensive background on the reactions and material being taught. Having taken multiple chemistry lab classes, I was able to think back to my time as a student in those labs and the questions I would have while reading the manual. This was especially beneficial in producing a quality instructional manual for my specific audience. Lab students should be given a guide that allows them to truly understand the material, not just follow step-by-step to complete a lab. I was sure to include chemical mechanisms involved in the lab while defining vocabulary words and giving easy-to-understand biological significance. This project was surely challenging but rewarding in the end as I am truly proud of this guide and would love to see it being used in a lab course one day.