Revision paper

Dear xxx,

You have a good start for your reference document. However, it requires more description and detail in key areas of the procedure. You have covered the simpler parts of pitching a tent, which includes opening the fabric, assembling the poles and such. I would suggest that you go in further detail in the areas where your average person would struggle the most. By this I mean where certain hooks attach, what hooks go where, how are the ends of the poles secured? You have given a high level description for most things but adding zoomed in pictures of what should happen and further explaining the procedure would be extremely helpful. Another thing that I would suggest you could improve are your headings. The headings should be short and concise and shouldn’t contain the actual description of what should be done in that step. This goes in the body of the document. Last, a table of contents is very useful in a reference document. The majority of reference documents aren’t used by first time users rather they are used to quickly reference a section when a user needs to attain a certain portion of the information. Overall, this is a great base for your final draft but you can definitely add more details in certain areas and improve the overall structure of the document.

Warmest wishes,

xxx

Cover Letter

Mr. Steven Varni,

President of Northeastern University Hus-skiers and Outing Club Comment by Milan Vidovic: I would shorten this title to something like president of hus-skiers club

360 Huntington Ave

Boston, MA 02115

Dear Mr. Varni:

I am a senior student in Northeastern University majoring Business Administration. As a camping lover, I have attended several camping sites and witnessed the challenges that new campers and not so frequent campers face when it came to setting up a tent. It will be of great help to many NUHOC campers to have a clear guide on how to easily pitch their tents. This document uses my experience on the techniques of pitching a tent quickly and effortlessly and the simple official steps of setting up a tent. The reference document will enable new campers and not so frequent campers of NUHOC to pitch their tents in the shortest time possible after reading this document. The pitching challenge for your members might discourage them from attending the camp. NUHOC needs a well-articulated reference document to ease the process of pitching a tent. Comment by Milan Vidovic: This is a great introduction to your document

I have been around several camping for several years now, and my experience in camping sites inspired me to pitch tents for new campers and not so frequent campers at different camping clubs across the world. The reference document will give a step-by-step explanation on how to pitch a tent to all NUHOC campers. Comment by Milan Vidovic: Do you mean campers” also I wouldn’t use “several” twice in one sentence Comment by Milan Vidovic: Previously used phrase, variety is key, try something like “for first time and occasional campers: Comment by Milan Vidovic: Step by step how? Visually? Checklist?

After reviewing this document by you, I hope it will be processed into a brochure and reproduced at the camp. Every camper will be provided with a brochure that explains the entire pitching process at NUHOC.

Enclosed please find a step-by-step tent-pitching guide. Please be free to contact me at [email protected] with any suggestion. Looking forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience. Thank you. Comment by Milan Vidovic: I would add what type of tent this is for because tents come in very different forms

Sincerely yours,

Lisha Zhang

Student at Northeastern University

Enc. [Reference Document of Pitching a Tent]

Pitching Guide

17 July 2016

Part I

Necessary Equipment Preparation

Equipment Need Comment by Milan Vidovic: I would insert a table of contents before you get started so the user who wants to glance at something quickly can find the info they’re looking for

1. A tent

2. A ground cloth

3. Rods

4. A hammer

5. Stakes

6. A rain trap

Part II

Set Up Instruction

Step 1. Unfold the tent

To pitch a tent, first, locate a better area where you can pitch the tent and softly separate the pieces. Then unfold your tent as seen below.

Make sure the tent is away from the campfire. Comment by Milan Vidovic: You might want to add that it should be on level ground and any dangerous areas, flood areas for example

Step 2: Lay down the ground cloth Comment by Milan Vidovic: Should this go before opening up the tent since the tent sits on this?

Spread your ground cloth to make the surface comfortable. Make sure that the ground cloth is big enough to cover most of your tent space. Lay the ground cloth as shown below.

Step 3: Assemble the rods

After laying the ground cloth, assemble the small and big poles that came with the tent set. Connect the poles together as shown above. On the larger poles, you will connect eight spots. On the medium size poles, you will connect 6 points. On the smaller poles, you will connect two points together. Lay down the connected poles to look like the picture below: Comment by Milan Vidovic: I would add more description here. i.e. press one rod into the collar of the other rod end

Step 4: Insert the connected tent poles through the tent frame.

Put out all the parts of the tent. Send the support rods through the frame of the tent. Put the tent frames out. Ensure that the poles are sliding through the right slots.

Position the largest tent poles across in the X pattern at the top of the lying tent on the tent holes as below.

Step 5: Insert all side poles

Now that an X is created with your largest poles use the medium one and slide them through the side pockets as seen below. Fastener all pole ends at the small poles located in every bottom corner. Do that for medium and large size poles. Comment by Milan Vidovic: Might want to describe this in more depth, im not sure what these poles in the bottom corners are

Step 6: Hammer stakes on the ground around the tent

Hammer your stakes at every corner of your tent. Ensure that your tent is tight enough to avoid flying away. Comment by Milan Vidovic: Don’t forget to add “put them thru the tent loop holes first”!

Step 7: Position the end of longer poles over the small rods near those stakes Comment by Milan Vidovic: This is more of the description than the step heading, I would make this “step 7: securing longest pole” and then describe the procedure below

The tent will rise as shown:

Step 8: Hook all black hooks to the poles to secure your tent

Get the attached black hooks and hook to the longer rods to increase the strength of the tent. Also, hook them to other yellow loops as shown below.

Step 9: Rain Tarp

Place the rain tarp on top of the strong tent. Use some attachments to hold the tarp. Slide the smaller poles into the sleeves of the tarp and put the poles end into the brass holes under that rain tarp as shown below: Comment by Milan Vidovic: More detailed required, what are these attachments

Step 10: Enjoy!!

The tent is pitched. Move your things in and enjoy the adventure.

Reflection

Being a camping lover, I have witnessed the challenges that new campers and not so frequent campers face when it came to setting up a tent. So I think writing a guide of pitching a tent is really helpful for the new campers and not so frequent campers. I also believe that the process of preparing and writing this reference document which includes brainstorming, researching, refining sentences and building format, is very useful for me to write a professional reference document in my discipline business and economics.

Although the topic of pitching a tent is outside my discipline, I regard this reference document as the entry level of preparing my professional reference document in my discipline. Since the processes of them are quite similar (obviously for the topics of business and economics, the process of writing a reference document is more complex, it needs to do more research), it really helps me to do a good practice on writing a reference document. For writing a professional reference document in economics, I need to pick a topic which many people in this discipline confuse about, such as the steps of using deductive and inductive methods in theoretical economics. I can use the skills I have developed from writing reference document of pitching a tent to write a clear and concise step-by-step guide on it.