Oh wikiHow. Why Do We Keep Meeting LIke This?
Before choosing any wikiHow topic it would be advantageous of the writer to have some sort of expertise in the given field they choose to write about. If one is going to choose the topic of creating a wikiHow on How To Create Holographic Heart Nail Art, having an extensive background in nail art and nail polish is already a great start.
Doing the groundwork is key for your wiki to succeed! Sure this sounds super cheesy, but it does not make it any less of a true statement. Creating a wikiHow article surrounding the creation of a particular style of nail art is second nature if one already has been writing about nail art on the Internet at length for a number of years. Generating a step by step set of instructions is one of the easy parts of the wikiHow groundwork. Once one decides on a style of nail art, writing the outline and fleshing out the step by step instructions for a tutorial comes next.
After generating the step by step tutorial with detailed instructions, one actually has to test the exact same instructions to make sure that (1) no steps were forgotten, (2) no unnecessary steps were added, and (3) to ensure every part of the wikiHow article can be replicated exactly how it was written. One’s experience in the realm of creating a wikiHow article for a style of nail art, or almost any subject may require multiple rounds of repetition. This repetition is not only relegated to the need to get the tutorial as accurate but to make sure each step is properly photographed.
The first step, seemingly the simplest and possibly the most innocuous of all the steps that were photographed, actually did require more than more photos to be taken. Why? In the first photo—after being enlarged to edit—had pieces of lint on the nail beds that were not visible to the naked eye. However, they were very visible to the camera lens. In the second photo, it was revealed that the nails were not filed to an exact even length. Again, this would’ve been more than acceptable to the naked eye. That camera, oh that darned camera can be an unforgiving little technological beast. The subsequent posts that involve the actual nail art may have required repetition to make sure the art was up to the standard required for online posting.
Another thing that helped with creating this wikiHow article is already having the tools on hand—get it? On hand. Nail art. No? Oh, you did get it? You just thought the pun was weak? Okay.—Anyway, the tools required were a camera, a light box, a surplus of holographic nail polish to choose from, and access to Adobe Photoshop. All were elementary and straightforward in use, especially if one has prior experience.
By now I am sure you may be wondering how this wikiHow experience can be chaotic or obnoxious. Well, don’t fret, it gets there. Oh, boy does it get there. As far as personal experience with the frustration that is wikiHow goes, linking internal wikiHow articles can be tricky. This wikiHow article that provides both an easy and an advanced method can give one so much trouble that additional parties (i.e. a COM 336 professor) have to get involved. Other wikiHow difficulties experienced by multiple pupils in this semester of COM 336 is wikiHow publishing purgatory. Once “Publish” is hit, the article still remains in a strange of finished but not final. It’s rather difficult to explain, but trust it is a purgatory nonetheless. The best and only interesting/relevant way to describe it, you wonder? Seen the movie The Lovely Bones? Well, the character Susie “like the fish” Salmon’s soul is in a state of unrest, caught between heaven and hell, is described as “the in-between.” If you’ve seen the movie you more likely than not read “the in-between” in the exact same exaggerated manner that Susie “like the fish” Salmon did. Also, if you’ve seen The Lovely Bones, that reference made perfect sense. And you know what? You’re welcome for that.
As referenced in a previous blog entry for BrianaChantel v. COM 336, the key to keeping oneself interested in one’s coursework is to tie it into any outside hobbies. Do this as frequently as possible. Yes, even for creating a wikiHow. It can be tons of work. It can be chaotic. It may be obnoxious. The coding process may be confusing if one has never really done any coding prior to. The constant repetition of the same steps in the tutorial will be monotonous. Heck, the overall process may be to the bane of some Internet growing pains. But if one executes a wikiHow article (aka a wiki) on a subject one enjoys, it can be a fun experience. Oh, some sleep might be lost in the process. After all, this is college. Most college students do not have great sleeping habits anyway. Author of this post included.
Comments
Post a Comment