Writing Good Tutorials - An introduction

Before posting a tutorial, please make sure that it meets a few basic requirements:

• The spelling is as accurate as possible.
• The language used is as understandible as possible.
• As few slang acronyms as possible are used - eg. avoid things like 'IMO', 'LOL', 'FYI', 'BTW', etc.
• Absolutely NO 'short-hand' is used - eg. 'u'='you', 'r'='are', '2'='to'/'too', 'c'='see', etc.
• It is in English. It's not everyone's first language, but I would assume that most people here can speak it - and it's the only audible human language that I know.
• It isn't copied from somewhere else. This means copying and editing to make it look like yours, or just directly copy-and-pasting it from another site (or anywhere else) - no forms of plagiarism will be tolerated at Astahost, for ethical, legal, and quality reasons.
• It was originally written by you. Make sure all quotes/other excerpts are rightfully referenced to the original author/piece of work.
• It is too something real and relevent. We don't want a step-by-step guide to collecting rocks from the surface of Mars.
• It is of relative quality, that someone might actually find useful.

Stick to these basic guidelines - plus any reasonable additions you can come up with - and you should be on the way to writing a great tutorial.

 

 

 

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Another word of advice:
If you can't come up with a tutorial by yourself, read a tutorial on the internet and try to interpret it in your own words from what you understand. That way your writing won't be considered "copied". Stay 'clean' . No need to plagiarise, the webhosting is worth the posts.

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I once wrote a tutorial like this.

Except mine was:

Writing a tutorial: by SoLo

1. Include as many pictures as possible so that the reader doesn't get confused.

2. Make sure what you are saying makes ssence. Not only to you but to the readers. It is a good idea to let someone check your tutorial before posting it.

3. Be original.

4. Your final product should only show what you have told them how to do in the tutorial.

5. Order your steps, like what im doing in this.



Hope you all follow this, it will make your tutorials a lot better and easier to follow.


Yours is better.

Mind if I use some of your stuff in mine? <--- asking permission.

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Using FYI and BTW, slang like that works pretty good in alot of books, I meen look at All the dummies books, they ALL have slang LOTS of slang like that.

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It is imperitive that all tutorials be in English. Even though it may not be their first language, everyone here should no English. The Terms of Service and the Introduction require that all posts on this forum be in English.

~Viz

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Well, what you just mentioned was a list of common sense factors. I do them automatically without thinking.

But here's my piece.

• Make sure that every step is outlined in detail and explain the relevance. Connecting to your reader helps them to get more involved and feel as though they are making it, not just doing what you did.
• If you come to a point that involves using a skill acquired previously in your tutorial, direct them to re-use it instead of repeating yourself. They can only gain true experience if they have to do things without being 100% spoon fed.
• When using screenshots, make sure that it relates to the previous paragraph or the next one. It is no good having a screenshot of your favourite actress ona tutorial about connecting to a wireless network.
• Also, screenshots shouldn't be HUGE, they should be able to fit into the window. In my first couple of tutorials, I used full-sized screenshots to show what was happening. It ate away at my BandWidth and was a stupid thing to do anyway. I tend to take a screenshot, edit out the taskbar, then re-scale the picture so that it is 510x368 pixels, then save it as a JPG.
• I also like to put down why we do things the way we do it. Especially on web-design/development tutorials. It helps the reader understand things on different levels, therefore helping them in future projects.

--mik

 

 

 

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Hi, this post is very informative; however I would like some specific information. If someone can help me then please send me a private message. Best Regards,

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