BACHELOR OF COMMERCE ACCOUNTING DEGREE NAME & SURNAME : MAPARURA PORTIA R1915059C : LAWRENCE TAKAWIRA- R192320F : MATSIKA ELTON T – R212457X : WARIWA VINCENT T- R219836Z : CHANZA AMANDA S – R212128V : TARUTIRA JOAKIM – R213293M : SHONIWA EASTER – R212083A : MATAWA CYNTHIA MARIA – R211796W : MBIRIMI TARIRAI – R211913G : MASHANAWANI FLORENCE – R216921F MODULE: INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATIO TECHNOLOGY HCS 135 LECTURER: M. CHUMA LEVEL: 1.1 CLASS: HARARE WEEKEND CLASSES Question Assignment: GROUP 4: HANDBOOK & MANUAL Define and differentiate between a handbook and a Manual. Gives examples and state how they are used. Handbooks and manuals are the most common form of documentation in the business environment. They are also in electronic form. Some writers make sharp distinctions between what is a manual and what is a handbook, but in practice, there is substantial overlap. Conventionally, certain types of publications are more frequently called manuals, notably in technical documentation for software programs and for machine operation. Manual is a coordinate term of handbook. These same sorts of publications may be termed users' guides, help guides or even reference books. This paper seeks to define and differentiate the two terms, handbook and manual. Giving examples and citing how they are used. According to (Stevens, and Phillips, 2007) a handbook is a type of a reference with a collection of instructions intended to give ready reference on a certain field of knowledge, disregarding the size of it. The Oxford English Dictionary defines handbook as “any book …giving information such as facts on a particular subject, guidance in some art or occupation, instructions for operating a machine, or information for tourists.” Handbooks may deal with any topic, and are generally a collection of information in a particular field or about a particular technique. They are designed to be easily consulted and provide quick answers in a certain area. For example, the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers is a reference for how to cite works in MLA style, among other things. Examples of engineering handbooks include Perry's Chemical Engineers' Handbook, Marks Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers, and the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. General handbooks provide facts regarding the first, best of everything. They cover information to satisfy the curiosities and inquisitiveness of the people in almost all the fields of knowledge. The subjectwise arrangement of content and exhaustive index are useful to locate the information easily and quickly. For example Guineas Book of World Records, provides facts and figures on records of human achievement, space, arts, scientific world, animal and plant kingdom (Katz I982). A manual is a book that is conveniently handled. It can be said that a manual is a complete, indepth set of instructions. A manual will detail how and why everything works. It will have so much detail that the user can understand the system and may even be about to troubleshoot and fix it if something goes wrong. In essence, a manual give assistance to people using a particular system, manuals are universal documents that can be understood by ordinary people. They explain certain operations and processes of different departments. A manual is a guide book that provides step by step instruction on how to do a particular job/ operate a particular machine. Brehens (1994) describes a manual as a book that contains rules or procedures relating to a specific subject. It explains how things are done for instance, how a machine operates. It is a document that provides instruction or guidelines on how to perform an activity and serves as a reference book on the activity. In business, the Manual of Operations relay the standards and procedures of the company. A manual is intended to be a quick, at-a-glance reference for factory workers. It is a useful guide for the company to set the standards of the various operations within different departments. In whatever form the manuals may appear, they are used to instruct and guide employees on technical procedures, corporate policies, and many other kinds of information that is not intuitively obvious or easy to remember (Scale, and Edition, 1955). Some of the types of manuals are reference manual, instruction manual, policy manual, production manual, user manual, user's manual and owner’s manual. User Manual are a type of manual that focus on different kinds of users; administrators, maintenance personal, beginners and managers. An example of a user manual is the Zimbabwe Legal Information Institute User Manual, 2016. Production manual is a type another of manual that instructs users how to use the product. Audit Manual is also another type that acts as a guide on how to do or make finance reports in relations to accounting and auditing matters. An example of an Audit manual is the Internal audit manual of Zimbabwe which details the procedures of executing an audit and guidelines (Behrens1994). Manual helps avoid information gap by maintaining consistency to the company. It gives instructions and guidelines on how to do certain jobs. For example, when an employee is promoted to managerial position, manuals gives him/her the overview of the roles and responsibilities of that position (Vicente, Burns, and Pawlak 1998). It is also a valuable tool for understanding technical knowledge in fields such as law, construction, and finance. It is especially important for consumer electronics products, medical equipment, construction machinery, computer and its accessories. It is not easy to distinguish a handbook from a manual because they have common scope and identical purpose. These terms are sometimes used synonymously as they have similar features. They are also known as compendia as they contain concise and comprehensive account of given fields of knowledge. They are essential ready reference sources consisting of `facts to know' handbooks and `instructions to do' manuals. They are sometime known as 'instruction books'. They are usually single volume reference tools. All the handbooks may not be providing facts of popular interest. The information is provided in 'compact and concise form but illustrated by various diagrams, graphs, data, equations, formula, principles, symbols, tables, procedures (Behrens 1994). They have limited scope because they deal with the minute details of the specialized subjects meant for a small group of specialists. In fact, they are valuable for their depth of information in a narrow subject field. Reference list Behrens, S.J., (1994) A conceptual analysis and historical overview of information literacy. https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/article/view/14902 Accessed 15/07/2021 Katz, W. A., (I982) Introduction to Reference Work. Vol. I. Basic Information Sources. Fourth Ed. New York'. RQc Graw Hill. Scale, W.D.W.A.I. and Edition, R., (1955) Manual. New York: Psychological Corporation. Stevens, C. and Phillips, L., (2007) A Handbook. Experimental Psychology. Vicente, K.J., Burns, C.M. and Pawlak, W.S., (1998) Better handbooks, better design. Ergonomics in Design, 6(2), pp.21-27.
