How to write a really
useful How-to Guide
What topic to write about
Choosing the right topic is crucial for ensuring
your how-to guide is a success. The best topic for your guide will be
determined by your task and:
- Primary goal for the guide
- Target audience
The topic should help achieve your content goals as
outlined on your task and is of interest to your target audience.
When you have developed your subject ideas, look to
see if they have been supported by your two sources of information as well as
your discussion. While it’s okay to do a guide on the same information, try to
offer something new, whether this is a new angle or a more in-depth look at
part of the topic.
How to write your how-to guide
Once you’ve decided on the direction, it’s time to
start researching, creating a plan (mind-map, spider-gram, bullet points, etc.)
and writing your first draft.
Before you start writing
·
Plan what information you want to include in your
guide. The more you plan out your content and structure, the faster progress
you will make when you actually start writing your guide.
·
Prepare your research — in order to write a
convincing guide you will want to back up your points with cited statistics,
expert opinion and case studies; take this information from your sources as
well as the discussion.
·
Decide on your structure. Try to structure your
guide so that it flows well and put the information in a logical order.
·
Make a rough plan for how long your guide will be
including word counts. Your guide should contain enough detail to be useful but
can still be easily read in one sitting.
How to write your guide
Now you’ve done your research and planning, it’s
time to start writing your guide. Keep in mind when writing:
·
Use language of your readers (target audience). Try
not to use jargon if possible. Instead use plain English so that your guide
will be easily understood – no one wants to wade through technical language.
·
Break up the content as much as possible. Use
headings, sub-headings and box-outs to chunk up your guide into easy-to-digest
snippets. It’s helpful to include a contents list so that people can skip to
the section they’re interested in if needed (but not necessary).
·
Remember that your guide will most likely be read
on a computer screen. But also check that your guide prints correctly for those
who may want to read a paper copy (your will be printing your guide for the
task)
After you have written your
guide
·
Proof read carefully. This is for the task. It’s
important to carefully check your work and ensure there’s no spelling or
grammar mistakes.
·
Illustrate your points. Add interest throughout
your guide with pictures and diagrams.
·
As part of your corrections to your draft, edit and
illustrate your guide.
·
When your final copy of your guide is ready to be printed,
you need to make sure you have a word
count. This is part of your task;
and the minimum word count will be outlined in your task.
·
In Microsoft Word, the word count is on the bottom
left-hand of your screen.
·
Make sure you note down or include the word count
on the guide itself (bottom of last page).
·
Don’t make the word count obvious – it is not part
of your guide, it is necessary information for the assessment of your guide.
5 common mistakes to avoid
Make sure you don’t make any of these common
mistakes.
·
Too much text – break up and illustrate your
content to make it more enjoyable to read.
·
Too short — a guide needs to go into more depth
than, for example, headings and subheadings or bullet points.
·
Too “salesy” — your guide should not sound like a
thinly disguised sales document. It needs to provide genuine value to your
audience hit the main points outlined in the task.
Conclusion: Solve their problems
·
Focus on providing really useful information to
your target audience.
No comments:
Post a Comment