Contributing Your Own TAPoR Portal Recipes and Exercises
The TAPoR community benefits from shared experience and learning how others make use of the portal. You can share your experience by adding your own recipes to the collection. This page describes the structure and intent of recipes and exercises. Recipes are intended to describe the basic steps necessary to accomplish a task in
TAPoR and indicate the tools that are used in the recipe. Try to define your recipes as simply and as generally as possible. To ensure general familiarity, concepts and jargon should be defined on the recipe page.
 | The easiest way to author your own recipe is to save an existing recipe and use it as the basis of your own recipe. |
Adding a New Recipe
- Decide whether your recipe helps someone locate or identify, analyse or construct;
- Choose to edit the TaporRecipes page;
- Add a title and description and links to the recipe and exercise to the list of recipes;
- Preview and Save your changes to the recipe page;
- Click on the link to your new recipe to create a new page;
- Paste the contents of an existing recipe as a guideline to authoring your own.
Parts of a Recipe
Title
The title of the recipe should be short, concise and follow from the statement 'This recipe will...(your title here). If possible it sould be expressed in active voice.
Description
The description of the recipe should provide others with enough information to determine if the recipe is applicable to their tasks and indicate the specific
TAPoR tools used. The names of tools should be bold and italicized.
Link to PDF
This is of course optional, but if provided, allows users to be able to print out the recipe and exercise and follow along conveniently. The typical PDF will provide a complete composite of the recipe and exercise.
List of Ingredients
The list of ingredients should indicate which TAPoR tools are used in the recipe and a link to the tool's 'TryIt' button on the main
TAPoR screen. This will allow users to quickly try the tool without having to log into TAPoR. The ingredients could also include an indication of the type of text that should be supplied for use in the recipe.
Link to an Exercise
Each recipe should have an exercise linked to it which applies the steps in the recipe to a real-world example. If possible provide provide a link so that users of the exercise can access or download the sample text that you use in your exercise. This sample text should be publicly available.
Recipe Steps
Recipe steps should provide a simple, general and logical series of steps necessary to accomplish the task which you have defined. Recipe steps should include a link to a discussion item or glossary item if additional information is necessary for full understanding. If a step uses a particlular
TAPoR tool, a link to the 'TryIt' button for that tool should be provided.
Discussion
Recipe steps should be kept as simple as possible. Often additional discussion may be necessary to clarify a step or to provide alternative available in carrying out a step. If necessary this discussion should not stated within the step, but be referenced and listed in the discussion section.
Glossary
To ensure clarity, any jargon should be defined in the glossary by creating a new page to define the term, and linked via an include to the glossary section of that recipe and included in the general
glossary page.
Next Steps/Further Information
If there are any existing pages or websites which provide information related to your recipe, they can be linked in this section.
Parts of an Exercise
Title
The title of the exercise should be identical to the recipe which it applies and as mentioned should be short, concise and follow from the statement 'This exercise will...(your title here).
Description
The description of the exercise should also be identical to the recipe.
Link to PDF
To allow users to be able to print out the recipe and exercise, a composite of the recipe and exercise should be provided as a downloaded PDF.
Exercise Steps
Unlike recipe steps, exercise steps should provide a demonstration of the results and thinking behind application of individual recipe steps to a real-world example. Exercise steps should link to
TAPoR tools used and can also graphically show the actual results returned from using those tools. A user should be able to follow through the exercise steps by carrying out the exercise themselves or simply by following the results your illustrate. If you apply the tools to a specific text, a link to that text should be provided for other users.
Next Steps/Further Information
If there are any existing pages or websites which provide information related to your exercise, they can be linked in this section.
Points to Keep in Mind
Everyone's use of the portal and associated tools is based on relevance to their own particular task. Your usage may illuminate a path for others or trigger a tangential thought that may lead to an exciting new use. There are really no hard and fast rules for contribution to these recipes, and what is provided here are not guidelines, but merely suggestions.
--
ShawnDay - 18 April 2007
