Guide on how to write guides.

by **Epps** 28/6/2010, 16:47

The guide on how to write a guide

Because some people lack serious skills; they only do charged bodyshots, use the Faggot-a-Nature, w + m1 all the time and whine every time someone kills them. Since these people are just that stupid or afraid to do it wrong here is a guide on how to write guides.

Basic layout
Every guide in the world starts off with a nice big ass text with the title of the guide. This was people are even more aware on what the guide is about. Following the title comes your name and a short introduction. For those who have been to school at least once this shouldn’t be that hard at all. Just make sure the introduction tells people what the guide is about and motivates them to read it. Remember, this is the first thing they will read so if you make this something boring they will most likely skip to some other site.

After the introduction comes the first chapter. Depending on what your guide is about the subject of this can be different. If a guide is about a wider range of subjects (anti virus software, bands etc) you can explain all of these shortly to make the reader understand the text. When the guide is on how to solve a specific problem you want to put the necessary items here.
Whatever your guide is about, always make sure you know what you are gonna put here. If you don’t know in what order you need to tells things then feel free to come up a writing plan first (intro, install malwarebytes, run check, reboot, ending).

Content
Unless you are some youngster who just found the internet you do not like reading many words in broken English, 13375P3@k or un-understandable English. Make sure your guide is written in decent English and flows well. If you are having trouble with writing proper English you can use one of the many many tools around; Word, Google Translate and even Wikipedia are perfect tools to find that one word you are looking for.
Now for the last language related nagging, try to make the guide understandable for everyone. This however is optional if you are making a guide on some advanced subject but things like ‘Picking the right OS’ should me accessible to anyone.

Images/video’s can be very useful so if they are necessary to explain certain things feel free to add them. Just make sure you keep them small because not everyone has high speed internet connections without a download cap. I know this sounds weird but it is actually true. Just ask around in the states and prepare to be shocked when they tell you their speeds…

Lastly every forum uses some sort of coding. The most common used code is named BB-code, a stripped version of HTML. Feel free to use it for it makes guides (and posts) easier to follow. For example you can make the chapter titles bigger and bold so people won’t miss them while scrolling. Important stuff can be highlighted my making them italic, bold or underlined. A short joke can be made with the strike function. Basically the sky is the limit with this.

And finally…
-Always check your facts! The last thing you want is making people believe the wrong things.
-Provide sources and/or urls when referring to software and news. This way people will actually follow your guide. Telling them to Google is NOT enough. Why? Well let me Google that for you…
-Keep your guide up to date and make sure to let people know you updated it.
-I have a small kitten on my lap right now, he likes me more than anyone else in this house. He is radiating a lot of heat making my legs feel all warm and fuzzy. But back on topic…
-DO NOT GO OFF-TOPIC!

by **Nick** 28/6/2010, 16:59

Thank you sir

by **Nicobbq** 28/6/2010, 17:08

That's retarded...yet very useful.

by **Epps** 28/6/2010, 17:10

@Chuck: Welcome, was nothing more then a short recap of my Dutch lessons in my first year of high school (lol same applies to English lessons in English countries).

@Nico: of course it's useless, everyone should be able to write a guide already. If they can't I wonder what they are doing on a text based forum to begin with...