WHY SHOULD I CARE ABOUT THE IFIXIT PROJECT?

• You are making the world a better place.
• You are getting real-world experience that can go on your résumé. Students often tell us that having the project on their résumé helped them land a great job.
• Your guides will be used by real people all throughout the world. Past student guides have received well over 100,000 views.
• You are contributing to an open-source repair manual that people can use for free.
• E-waste is not a joke; it's a real problem.
• You get to take stuff apart.
• You get to build your photography skills.
• It beats writing a huge paper that will eventually end up in a recycle bin.
• If you do well, we'll send you a recommendation letter, and your guide will serve as a role model for future students by being placed on the Featured Student Guides page.

We want this project to be a fun, meaningful learning experience. We want you to get a taste of industry and have a good time getting your feet wet in technical writing. If you feel that this project isn't your cup of tea, send us an email or talk to your instructor—we're always interested in feedback so we can make the program better!

WHAT DOES A "GOOD" PROJECT LOOK LIKE?

We can explain all of the ins and outs of this project a hundred times, but nothing will benefit you and your group as much as seeing firsthand what makes a great student project. Here are a few of our staff favorites from past terms:

• Protocol Galileo Stealth Motor Replacement
• Google Home Sound Driver Replacement
• HTC Vive Controller Motherboard Replacement

All of the projects above received "A" grades because they are clear, thorough, and comprehensive. If you are interested in looking at more projects, check out our Featured Student Guides page. Who knows—if your group has got the right stuff, maybe your project will make its way onto this list!

Want to learn more about what makes a good student project? Head on over to the Putting It Together: Building A Successful Project infographic, as it's chock-full of helpful tips on how to create a great project.

WHY ARE THERE TWO WEBSITES FOR THIS PROJECT?

All of the work you do on your project is hosted on our main website, www.ifixit.com. This website, edu.ifixit.com, is a separate place for us to keep all of the documentation pertaining to the iFixit Technical Writing Project.

IS MY DEVICE SAFE TO WORK ON?

We've compiled a list of safety tips for some of the most common devices. Almost any device can become dangerous if mishandled, but some devices pose more hazards than others. Some devices, like CRT televisions, are so inherently hazardous that we ask you not to work on them at all in connection with your student project. Others, like cell phones, only become dangerous if you do something specific, like rupture the battery. Ultimately, it's up to you and your team members to select a device that you feel comfortable working with.

WHAT IF MY DEVICE REQUIRES SOLDERING?

For most student guides, soldering (or desoldering) is not necessary. However, there are some devices that do require soldering, and this can be quite a hassle for folks who have never soldered before or are uncertain of their soldering skills.

If the opportunity presents itself, we encourage you to practice your soldering skills during this project. The device that you are working on is often already broken, so this is a great opportunity to practice real-world soldering with little inherent risk. For tips on soldering, check out our How to Solder and Desolder Connections guide.

However, if you choose not to do any soldering work, there is still an opportunity to complete your guides. Often, soldered parts are "top of the food chain" components, meaning that they are one of the last parts to be removed, and their removal isn't a prerequisite for other components. In this case, we suggest that you do the guide as you normally would and simply leave the last step with instructions on where to solder or desolder. Here is an example of a student guide that requires soldering, but the students decided to not desolder the connections.

In this case, you may shoot your photos as "mock-soldering," rather than actually soldering in your photos. If you don't feel comfortable soldering, feel free to clip the wires after shooting your "mock-soldering" photos.

Sometimes there is a substantial amount of soldering required for the repair guide. In that case, we encourage you to do the soldering. After all, these guides are meant to be used, so leaving out large parts of the repair guides would be very frustrating for someone trying to do the repair! Here is an example of a device that requires a fair amount of soldering.

I CHOSE AN OLDER DEVICE FOR MY PROJECT. WILL MY GUIDES STILL BE USEFUL?

Absolutely! While it might seem like most people trade in their smartphones every time the latest model is released, that simply isn't the reality. Many people can’t—or prefer not to—spend money on a brand-new device. Not only is repair typically cheaper, sometimes it’s the only option.

Often, people in lower-income communities—and even in areas outside of the United States—repair older or budget-friendly devices as an affordable way to keep technology in their community.

When a device reaches the end of its life, electronics recyclers use iFixit guides to disassemble devices into their constituent parts before recycling. For example, many devices with batteries pose safety hazards if recycled improperly.

By creating guides for all devices, old and new, you’re helping people save money—and save their stuff.

I'M HAVING TROUBLE WITH MY PROJECT. HOW CAN I GET HELP AND ANSWERS TO MY QUESTIONS QUICKLY?

Click through the Student Resources. This FAQ, and other resources, may have the answer you need. No luck? Send us an email at techwriting[at]ifixit[dot]com. To answer your question quickly, without a lot of back and forth, you’ll want to do the following:

Be specific. Let us know exactly what you need. If you have an issue, be as descriptive as possible. What symptoms are you experiencing? How have you attempted to solve the problem? The more detailed the question, the easier it will be for us to help you!

Provide context. What part of the project are you working on? What were you doing when the issue arose? What specific pages are you on? What specific guide or part are you working with? Any relevant context will help us troubleshoot the issue quickly.

Provide visuals. Photos and screenshots of the issues are helpful.

Keep in mind that iFixit staff may take up to two business days to respond to your email, so it’s best if you ask us specific questions from the get-go to meet your project deadlines.

HOW DO I CREATE A GUIDE ON IFIXIT?

Luckily for you, we created an easy-to-follow guide creation walkthrough video.

WHEN SHOULD I CHECK IN WITH IFIXIT?

In short, often. We have full-time staff dedicated to working with students in the iFixit Technical Writing Project, and we’re here to help. You should email us whenever you’re ready for our input on a portion of your project. At a minimum, you should email when you’ve written your proposal, after you've completed each unit, and when you've finished your project.

WHAT IF I JOINED THE WRONG TEAM?

No worries—leaving a team is easy. Go to iFixit.com/student, click “Leave my team” at the bottom of the page, and try again. Make sure to use the information from your correct team tag when selecting from the drop-down menus.

WHAT IF I HAVE A QUESTION ABOUT MY PROJECT?

We've set up an email alias just for you. Please send an email to techwriting[at]ifixit[dot]com, and one of us will respond (we have multiple people manning the email alias). Keep in mind that we have weekends off, and it can take up to two business days for us to respond.

The iFixit Technical Writing Project does not offer phone support, so we ask that you avoid calling iFixit’s Customer Support line.

ARE YOU JUST A SLIMEBUCKET COMPANY TRYING TO PROFIT OFF THE FREE LABORS OF STUDENTS?

We welcome and admire your skepticism! Here at iFixit, we have a big goal: to teach everyone to fix every thing. Repairing the world requires lots of know-how, repair documentation, and advocacy on why repair is so important. Our mission is to use repair to save resources and end the e-waste crisis, not to be a slimebucket company going for the bottom line. Teaching people how to fix all the things they own is a monumental task to accomplish—which is why we are a community‚ not just a tech company.

We don’t host third party ads, so we don't make money by hosting your guides. We do sell parts and tools to help users complete their repairs, and these resources are linked through the guides—but they're a recommendation, not a requirement. People don't have to buy anything to use the guides. The guides you create as part of this project are protected by this Creative Commons license forever, and people all around the world will also be able to edit them, like Wikipedia. Your guides become part of a growing database of repair knowledge.

Our education staff and programs function outside of our operations and were created for the benefit of students and our repair community. Not only will you have the opportunity to take apart a device and learn some repair skills, but you’ll also gain professional and technical communication skills as well as project management experience with a real company. Many of our former students have told us this project helped them to get hired by some awesome companies. In fact, we’ll be more than happy to write you a letter of recommendation if your content is featured on the site.

Ultimately, we hope you find that, by participating in this project, you’ll not only be gaining valuable skills but also impacting the world by helping real people repair their devices. If you still don’t think this project is for you, reach out to your instructor as soon as possible to discuss an alternative project. If you have any further questions or concerns, feel free to email our program director at education[at]ifixit[dot]com. We look forward to working with you!

WHICH GUIDES SHOULD I CREATE?

We have an entire page dedicated to this question in the Unit 1 section of the Guide Builder Roadmap. Check out the Pick Your Guides page for more information.

HOW DO I CREATE A GUIDE?

Read through Unit 2 first. It will save you a lot of time and effort in the long run. Trust us.

SHOULD MY GUIDES BE REPLACEMENT, TECHNIQUE, DISASSEMBLY, OR TEARDOWN?

Every guide you create should be a replacement guide. We often get this question, so here is a quick breakdown of what each type of guide is:

• Replacement: Shows the steps required to remove a (usually broken) component, so that a replacement one can be installed.
• Technique: Shows a specific process used to repair an item or type of item. Technique guides can be thought of as the traditional “how to” guides.
• Disassembly: This type of guide is rarely used, and is intended to show how to take something apart to its bare bones, usually for scrapping.
• Teardown: Intended to show the highlights of the internal hardware of a device. These guides are usually made when a new device comes out, and people are curious about the internal hardware. Even though teardowns are fun, we ask that you do not create one for the project.

Remember, all guides created for this project should be replacement guides. If you think one of your guides might be an exception, email us to ask!

WHAT ARE PREREQUISITES, HOW DO I USE THEM, AND WHY ARE THEY IMPORTANT?

Prerequisites are a very useful tool which you are required to implement into your guides. The Map Prerequisites page in Unit 2 explains how prerequisites save you time and make the guide easier to navigate.

HOW DO I PUBLISH A GUIDE?

You shouldn't publish your guides! Make sure all your guides have the Private and In Progress flags—otherwise, any iFixit user will be able to edit your guides. This will cause a lot of problems for your project, so leave the flags in place. iFixit will publish your guides once they have been reviewed by our staff.

HOW DO I DELETE A GUIDE?

In most cases, the guide's original author may go to the Edit page and click the Delete Guide button at the bottom.* Guides can't be deleted if they are being used as prerequisites for any other guide, so remove the target guide from all other guides' prerequisite chains before attempting to delete it. Be warned that deleting a guide cannot be undone. Make sure you save everything you need from the guide before deleting it.

If possible, consider repurposing the guide instead of having it deleted. If you still need to create another guide for your project, you can just rename the to-be-deleted guide and to reuse it for the new guide.

*If no Delete Guide button exists, simply delete all steps from the guide, type "Please Delete" in the summary or introduction area, and email iFixit staff at techwriting[at]ifixit[dot]com with a link to the guide and a request to delete it. We'll take care of it!

WHERE DO I FIND MY GUIDES?

Your guides will be linked from both your personal profile, your team page, and your device page.

Check out the Unit 1 section of the Guide Builder Roadmap for instructions on how to create an account, join your team, and access your guides.

WHAT IF OUR DEVICE IS BROKEN?

That shouldn't matter in most cases. This project is about writing guides to demonstrate how to replace the components of a device. If you're given a laptop, for example, a possible repair guide would be to show how to replace the LCD. Whether or not the LCD screen works wouldn't change the steps necessary for removing the part. Remember, fixing your device is not part of the project.

WHAT IF MY DEVICE IS MISSING A COMPONENT?

Many of our devices are acquired secondhand from electronics recyclers (we do our best to stick to the mission) who need to remove certain components for security and safety purposes. In some instances, a component or two may be missing from your device—most likely batteries, hard drives, or memory units. While this isn’t ideal, you have a few options for working around this. If the missing component significantly affects the repair process of a specific guide, you might want to just create a guide for a different component. If you choose to go this route, please email techwriting[at]ifixit[dot]com to let us know what component you are switching out, the new guide you’ll be creating, and why. If the repair process isn’t affected by the missing component, you can simply add a note bullet in the instructions to inform your readers that a particular component is missing from your device.

WHAT SHOULD I DO IF I CAN'T GET MY DEVICE APART?

All devices come apart, eventually. The hard part is figuring out the best way to do so! If a device is acting stubborn, check for the following:

• Is there adhesive holding a part in place? This is often the case with screens. If so, try to cut it with an iFixit opening tool, or loosen it with a heat gun or hairdryer.
• Is there a hidden screw somewhere? Often times, a part seems like it should pry off, but is being held down by a hidden screw. Common hiding places are behind components or under stickers.
• Are there clips holding a component down? Use an iFixit opening tool or the tip of a spudger to release clips while prying gently but firmly on the component.

HOW DO I REMOVE A STRIPPED SCREW?

There are a few different methods we like to use for stripped screw extraction. Check out this page for a detailed walkthrough, as well as information on other useful repair techniques.

How do I add step titles?

In short, you don't! Why not? A concise, clearly-written step usually does not require a step title—the titles quickly become redundant, making the document longer and therefore more of an effort to read. In fact, step titles are not enabled for the Technical Writing Project—we'd like for you to focus your efforts on writing awesome text so that titles aren't needed. If you use prerequisites, you will notice that a step title is automatically added to denote the first step in the prerequisite sequence, but you don't need to manually input them.

WHY DOES THE QUALITY OF MY PICTURES MATTER SO MUCH? ISN'T THIS A WRITING CLASS?

Well, technically speaking, it is a "Technical Communication" course. Pictures, charts, and graphs are all important means of good communication, and are often relied on by users more than actual text. High quality photographs are just one of the many things that sets iFixit apart from other repair and how-to sites.

DO MY PICTURES NEED TO BE A PARTICULAR SIZE?

All pictures uploaded to iFixit need to be in a landscape 4:3 aspect ratio. If your camera captures images in a different aspect ratio (like many DSLR cameras), make sure to zoom out just a bit, so you'll have room to crop away the edges without losing any important parts of the image. You can crop your photos with an external image editor, or with our built-in image uploader.

All of the pictures for your guides should be at least 800x600 pixels. The larger the image, though, the better.

MY PHOTOS ARE BLURRY, WHAT'S WRONG?

Blurry images can be caused by a number of issues, but it usually boils down to too much movement (either of the camera or the subject) and/or not enough light. To reduce blurriness:

• Set your camera to a larger aperture (lower f-stop). This lets in more light and allows for a faster exposure. (Going too low will also cause some blurriness due to a smaller depth of field, so the best compromise is usually somewhere in the middle of the range.)
• Make sure to use a tripod.
• Set a 3 or 5 second timer so you can remove your hands from the camera after pressing the shutter button. Instructions for how to do so for the camera we provide are right here.
• Make sure you focus the camera on the subject (and not on your hands or the background).
• Don't try to move the camera super close to to the subject, or it may not be able to focus. Every lens has a minimum distance at which it can't focus. Keep some distance from the device and zoom in if needed. For very close shots, be sure to use your camera's macro setting.

MY PHOTOS ARE GRAINY, WHAT'S WRONG?

Grainy photos are usually due to needlessly high ISO settings. Read the ISO settings section of our Camera Operating Instructions page for more information. A general rule for taking pictures under ample lighting is to set the ISO as low as possible.

MY PHOTOS ARE DARK, WHAT'S WRONG?

Before attempting any manipulation with your camera's settings, check your lighting setup. You should be using our lighting kit unless told otherwise. If you're using the lighting setup as best as you can, but your pictures still come out a little dark, make sure you're not blocking the lights with your body or hands.

If you're using lights to the best of your ability, and your pictures are still a little dark, you can alter the exposure settings on your camera. Read our Camera Operating Instructions page for more information. Be warned! If you have to set the EV very high, you are probably doing something wrong with the lighting, and your pictures will not come out well.