Organizational Design

Before Project 1, I did not have much experience with organizing an instructional video. At the beginning, I did not even know what I wanted my video to be about. In my brainstorming, I was deciding between making a cooking video or making a video about how to braid hair. I chose cooking because I thought a hair-braiding video would be too short and it would be hard to reach the five-minute requirement. This was one of the first decisions I made for my project.

One strategy I used was watching other instructional videos. Most of the videos I watched were cooking videos because I had decided that was what I wanted to make. Watching these videos helped me see how people organized their instructions and explained each step. I also started paying attention to camera angles and how the person showed what they were doing. Even though I was not thinking about rhetorical choices at first, I started to notice them as I worked on my own video.

One challenge was making sure I included enough information while keeping the video organized. I also had to figure out how to record and explain the steps on my own. Another piece of evidence from my project was the peer response I received. My peer said that I did not specify the temperature and baking time. I had actually included this information, but the comment made me realize that important information needs to be very clear.

I adjusted my strategy by thinking more about my audience and what they would need to know. In the future, I would review my instructions as if I had never made the recipe before. I would also continue watching other instructional videos because that helped me organize my own ideas. I would make sure important information is easy to find and understand.