A Mid Winter's Wiki

  Personal experience was the main driving force behind the wikiHow I choose to do. Men can spend a long time looking for the right hair cut, but they can also spend even longer trying out ways to get the hair cut they want and trying to communicate that to whoever is cutting their hair. The side part was something I had want to get for about a year but I didn't know how to go about getting it. The people at Supercut's weren't really understanding what I wanted and I tried Regis as well but that yielded little results as well. However the stylist at Regis suggested going to a barber, and so I set out one day driving around Niagara Falls looking for a barber.
  By coincidence a barbershop opened up about a week later two blocks from where I lived, and so I decided to take a trip in and haven't gone to another barber or stylist since letting Ralph cut my hair.
  The process for going about getting your hair cut worked well with a step by step format. The order of the steps was difficult in the fact that the last few steps could almost be wiki's by themselves, but in the end they were edited to fit in a nice order. To get the best tips and be as prepared as I could be I asked my barber, Ralph, his opinion on what someone should do when they want their hair cut in a side part style. Ralph talked me through most of the steps he thought were important, and with that the frame work for the steps were all laid out.
  The process of deciding what photos to use was not easy, and took a lot of thinking before the final wikiHow post. In the end only one step didn't really require a photo, and that was the "Knowing what you want" step. Step two called "Knowing what you want" was one that I struggled finding the right photo. Step two made me realize that although I can try to be specific I couldn't get too detailed. Everyone has different hair and everyone has different taste so I wanted the reader to come up with their own take on the side part. The photos I used though where basic and conveyed the message or information that was being presented in each step. A barbershop, a side part, the products to maintain the part, and the photo of statue of a depressed person.

The last photo is to represent defeat because it can get real discouraging when you keep failing to get your haircut, and it also ads a little humor to keep the reader's attention.
  To make most of the step process come together I looked at about a dozen different wikiHow to pages to get some sort of reference to base my work off of. Some where very detailed and others where very general when going through the steps. I took what I learned from those examples and combined them with what I have learned in my public relations writing classes to get started with the steps. My first attempt at a draft left me with only around 400 hundred words. Writing for public relations requires you to be short and very concise because you have a limited amount of space.
  Although most of my writing has been based around this short and concise formula for public relations it had taught me to write only what is absolutely necessary. When we went over the draft in class there were parts I knew I could extend upon without it looking like I was dragging on unnecessarily or just putting in filler.
 Finally satisfied with the current draft I let my father look over my work first. He noticed a few mistakes but he also gave me some more advice for the steps.

He has been parting his hair since before I was born so he knew a little more about the maintenance part then what Ralph could tell me.
  The final step, Tools and Products, was the hardest to keep under control. It was either way too short or too long and didn't fit. I looked around on wikiHow to see if I could find a link that would work with the products I was talking about. There was a great article on how to use pomade which I put in my references section. When I was doing that I also added another reference that was good for my first step which was a wikiHow on choosing a good barber. Another good reference I found on wikiHow was an article on men's hairstyles. With everyones hair being different sometimes a side part is not achievable so it's important to know that other hairstyles do exist.
  In doing step 3, Know which way your hair parts, I pulled resources from four places. I asked Ralph, looked at 4 articles online, talked to my father, and I looked at my own experience with parting. When I reviewed all the information the common theme was the placement of ones own cow lick. Although that was a solid enough explanation some peoples hair doesn't follow this so I had to write that it may take some work to find out which way your parts if the cow lick method doesn't work.
  For the tips sections I strictly used Ralph and asked him what made a customer someone he liked and wants coming back to his shop. Making sure you leave a good tip and never bad mouthing the barber were the tips he gave me.
  It's hard but sometime while writing the in the step by step style I learned that you have to include things that would otherwise be seen as common sense. This doesn't mean that readers are uneducated but rather it means the writer is being through which is key to making a successful step by step piece.