Re: ANON: Writing a Tutorial

[Cam Whetstone <camw -at- HOME -dot- COM>]

ANON wrote:

I am writing a tutorial for a software product. I have written other
manuals and online documentation for the product, but this is the
first time I'm writing a tutorial.

My problem is that no one has given me any direction as to what the
tutorial should do. My initial impulse is to just to make up my own
sample project and walk users through creating that project using the
software.  Of course, I won't be able to walk users through all the
features, so I'll probably just do those that are most commonly used.

Does anyone have any opinions or suggestions? If anyone knows of or
has written up a guide or plan for writing a tutorial, I will be very
grateful to find out.

Thanks.

---------

Your first task is to simply determine what you want to teach to who.
Once you have determined your overall objectives, try to break those
down into manageable chunks.  Once you have chunks, you prepare a lesson
plan to teach the objectives.  The breakdown into manageable chunks is
your course outline.  Your next level are your lesson plans.  You may
have some trouble determining the length of each lesson since you have
so little experience with training, but don't let it stop you.  Tell
your supervisor that since it is your first shot, the timing may go over
or under until you have practice -taught the course once or twice.

Good luck.

Cam


----------------------------------------------------
Cam Whetstone
cam -at- camw -dot- com
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