Final Instructions for Technical & Business Writing

1. Introduction Times have changed, it’s easy to see. Young America is hooked on Starbucks, Twelve year old's are walking around with the highest end of cell phones, and computers have turned into tablets. To ignore this change is nothing less than ignorance. Another thing that has changed greatly is the way people in America, especially young students, is the way people communicate. No longer to we use our landlines to talk to one another, even a few homes don’t even have home lines. The way people communicate now is all done electronically, mostly through the usage of online social networking sites.

2. With the booming success of such sites as Facebook and MySpace it safe to say that this is the new way to keep in touch, and why not? You can visually see what your friends and colleagues are talking about through the use of videos and pictures they post up, you can keep in touch with past friends and classmates without ever having to call them.

3. But little do some know that social networking sites can be used for something more than just seeing what your friend did during the weekend (and yes we ALL know what you did). I’m talking about school work, I know, incredible right?

4. If used correctly these social networking sites can be great tools in aiding a student through college. So without wasting any more time I will now walk you through on how to use a site I believe has been over looked and if utilized properly can be immensely helpful to you as a student. The website I speak of is called “Tumblr” and here are step by step instructions on how to create your own account, and use the tools that will help you throughout the school year.

5. Step 1: Ensure that your computer has an internet connection, after doing so open up your web browser (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, ect.) In the address bar on the top of the screen type in the address . From there you should see the following home page: If not then view your address bar to ensure that you spelled the web address correctly. If you do see this page then go ahead and click the “Sign up” icon on the top right hand corner of the screen. Fill in the information that it asks for, such as your name and email address, then click on the button that says “Sign Up”.

6. Step 2: Once you have clicked on the “Sign Up” button you should be taken to this screen: From here it’s pretty self-explanatory, go ahead and fill in the information requested and click on the green button that says “Start Posting!”

7. Step 3: Once you have filled in the information required and have clicked start posting you will see a screen that will resemble this: From here you can choose what you would like to post, whether it be a text, photo, audio, video, etc., or you can simply click on the small X that will appear on the pop up screen (Create your first post! screen) to close it.

8. Step 4: Once the pop up is closed another pop up screen will appear that will ask you to now customize your blog, it will look like this: From here you can edit what you want your main photo to be as well as a title to your blog page. If you click on the “show all appearance options” button you will be sent to a page that will show you a variety of themes for your blog page.

9. Step 5: The next page will be the follow and import page: Similar to twitter, from here you can choose to follow people from a variety of pre-selected people from the categories located on the left hand side or you can choose to import your contacts that you have saved from your various email accounts.

10. Once you have finished importing your friends and such now it is time to start posting. Here is where the networking part of it all comes into play. Also on the side of the page it will ask you if you wish to link your Tumblr account to facebook and twitter. If you do have either it would be good to do so this way friends in classes you may have that you do not have on your email accounts can know you now have a Tumblr. Now from your main page you will look similar to this: Step 6: From this page you can see what your friends have posted as well as post what you want as well. As you can see the posing area is large and all text and photos come in a good size for viewing. This can be used as a great tool to post photos of projects, put up text/audio/videos of questions that you may have for assignments, and it can be easily viewed by all those who are following you on Tumblr. It also can greatly help out instructors who wish to post up assignment instructions for all of their students to view.

11. Conclusion: I hope my instructions were clear and concise, allowing you to fully understand how to use this phenomenal tool. If you spend just a little bit of time each day on this site you will soon be whizzing through it like a pro in no time.

12. if you have previous knowledge on how to use social networking sites it will pretty much be second nature to you by now. So that pretty much concludes my instructions. Go now child and explore this new territory named Tumblr and use it wisely to help you with your schoolwork. Have fun and good luck!! And of course...