Drafting

Don’t Build on Quicksand

Much like a house, your How-To guide needs a structural foundation to work from. A simple way to create this foundation for your How-To guide, called an “outline”, is to write down each major step as a preliminary section. Arrange them in the order you would follow the steps.

Much like papier mâché or decoupage, you can begin your draft by cutting and pasting snippets of information onto your outline. At this point, things like flow, grammar and spelling are not important. Just worry about fully documenting the information that needs to be included in your How-To guide. Graphics can be helpful in conveying data visually, or linking an idea to an image^[5], consider experimenting with them to see if they fit with your content here.

Before moving on to the next steps, take some time to adjust your draft. Make sure the information within says what you think it does. Adjust your flow and check your tone. A basic check for grammar and spelling at this stage is in order. Next you will hand off your How-To to a peer or colleague.