Should I use contractions in a technical tutorial?

Follow the guidelines laid down in the company's or publisher's style manual. Choose between the more folksy "you'll" and the more official (but not stuffy) "you will" if they don't, or if you're self-publishing.

posted about 1 year ago

CC BY-SA 4.0

6mo ago by Canina‭

heldsos‭

-3 reputation 0 1 -2 0

It makes no difference to the reader. Or if it does, they will probably prefer the less formal. It makes a difference to some companies, but most are discovering that a more informal style makes them seem less stuffy and more approachable.

The idea that a "formal" style was more appropriate for technical communication has two roots. One is in the entirely appropriate desire that technical communication should be precise. The other is in the use of language as a form of class distinction, in which certain forms are used to distinguish the speech of the educated from that of the uneducated.

The latter is largely moribund among the general population, but still popular with a class of editor and grammar fiends, for more or less the old reasons: as a mark of distinction, to set themselves apart from the hoipoloi.

The concern with precision is as relevant as ever, but there is an increasing recognition that a formal precision that is not actually expressed in the language of the reader does nothing to lead the common reader to correct action. In any case, contractions do nothing to reduce precision.

posted almost 8 years ago

CC BY-SA 4.0

Mark Baker‭

4371 reputation 12 1104 744 58

It depends on how formal the context is. If you're writing a short blog post about getting started with a new game, "you'll" probably won't be out of place. If you're writing a tutorial as part of the documentation set for expensive enterprise software, it's more common in my experience to avoid contractions.

If your company or publisher has a style guide, follow it. If they don't or you're self-publishing, decide how formal you want to be: "you'll" is more folksy and "you will" is more formal (but not stuffy).

One tangential note: I try to avoid making promises about what the reader will learn; who knows if my reader will actually get it? I talk about what we will show, not what you will learn.

posted over 8 years ago

CC BY-SA 4.0

Monica Cellio‭ staff

2514 reputation 51 268 361 110

If you want to seem a professional, don't use personal style and short forms. In this case I propose use sentence like this:

Tutorial "title of this tutorial" shows how to doing sth...<

Tutorial "title of this tutorial" introduces the reader to the...<

Tutorial "title of this tutorial" is an introduction to the topic...<

Tutorial "title of this tutorial" presents information about...<

Google helps you to find good examples, such as listed below:

• https://docs.python.org/2/tutorial/

  This tutorial introduces the reader informally to the basic concepts and features of the Python language and system.

• https://developers.google.com/apps-script/articles

  These tutorials are designed to help you start using Google Apps Scripts more quickly.

• https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/using-branches

  This tutorial is a comprehensive introduction to Git branches.

posted over 7 years ago

CC BY-SA 3.0

Katarzyna Pawlak‭

5 reputation 0 1 1 0