How to Write Good Tutorials
If you are still with us after reading this Absolute Guide To Losing Readers, it means that you are either interested in what we write, or you are too lazy to delete the feed from your RSS reader. Or maybe we don’t follow all the guides we write 
Anyway, if you offer tutorials to your readers, and you really want to help them, these are a few points you need to check before publishing:
A Good Tutorial Should Be Detailed
Do you remember how was it the first time you started using a software? Nothing was familiar to you on that screen, and there is nothing more frustrating than a tutorial which assumes that you know some things from before. When you write a tutorial, make sure you don’t skip steps. It is better to assume that your readers are complete newbies to that info you are giving them, than to imagine that some things are so simple that you could skip them. Don’t skip anything.
A Good Tutorial Should Be Specific
There’s no point in you telling me that good content can be obtained by “writing good content”. This is a fake tutorial, as it doesn’t teach me anything. Unfortunately, I’ve encountered so many examples in which we are told to do something by actually doing that thing, and to be honest, after reading such tutorials I have a strong feeling of losing my time.
A Good Tutorial Should Speak The Reader’s Language
If you use specific terms (and many times you’ll have to), make sure you have a glossary included with your tutorial. It’s pointless to tell me that I should be ranking better in SERPs, if I’m a complete newbie to internet marketing. If your tutorial is addressed to me, make sure it is fully readable by me.
A Good Tutorial Should Leave Room For Feedback
Sometimes readers would need further clarifications on an issue which you thought you covered well, but they still don’t get to the point. A good tutorials website should have comments enabled, allowing readers to express their wish to go deeper into some of the presented topics. If you write tutorials, get ready to answer all kind of questions pretty quickly (if you want to be a really good tutor).
Now I’m leaving you room for improvement: what else do you think could be characteristic to a good tutorial?
inspirationbit says...
‘good content can be obtained by “writing good content”’
It’s so true - I’ve read it so many times on so many blogs, written by so many prominent bloggers who are so good at writing a “good content” and giving “good” (read: useless) advice to fellow bloggers.
More tutorial tips? Here we go:
- use lots of visual aid with your tutorial: screenshots, flow-charts, comparison charts, pictures - anything that will help people to digest your tutorial quicker
- make your tutorial easily readable - with all the bullets, headings, not very long paragraphs, highlight important terms
- link out to other articles and tutorials for more info, or for the other versions of explaining the same things you did.
- when writing a tutorial, try digging deep into you memory, remembering how did you learn this stuff you’re teaching now others about yourself, and give some personal examples
- if applicable try giving some practical examples, so readers could try things out themselves and get back to you with questions.
- be crystal clear what the tutorial is about, what are its goals, and give some directions as to what to do next, after reading your tutorial - perhaps more reading, or more practice….
Simonne says...
Thank you, Vivien, for finishing my article
All points you added are valid and necessary for readers to be happy and have the lesson learned after they read a tutorial. I’m more and more bored every day, to see how many people go in circles, claiming they teach you stuff, when in reality following their instructions (which are too general to mean something) does not solve my problems.
inspirationbit says...
You’re welcome, Simonne!
I’ve done my share of teaching in the offline world, and learned a lot myself from all the feebdack I was getting from students on how to put tutorials together.
perhaps another tip I could give is to add some personality to your instructions, perhaps even some humour, add some “colour” to it, make it more interesting to read, not boring and dry.
Ronald Huereca says...
Ever since I got a screencasting tool, I’ve been fond of video tutorials. Sometimes it’s a little too difficult to put a concept into writing.
For example, Andrew Rickmann and I were discussing a bug with one of his tools. I couldn’t quite explain the situation in writing, so I made a screencast of it and sent it to him. In that situation, a video explanation was far more useful than what I could have ever written down.
Simonne says...
Yes, Ronald, those video things are great. Some days I google so much to get some issues solved, that I’d be very happy to find such video tutorials to help me.
Commercial Colorado insurance says...
I agree - using videos is the best way people learn for movement on screen more than from characters.
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