In a "learn to do X" book, should a section review come before the quiz / exercises or after?
I am writing a book on how to program in C#.NET.
Each of the sections follows this format:
- Section Aims
- Content
- Section Review
- Quiz
- Exercises
The section review is there to summarise all of the things that have been taught, including the key programming syntax.
It dawned on me that it may be silly to write all that out in the section review, and then immediately ask the reader to answer questions on it.
Should I move the section review to the end of the section, or leave it where it is? My only concern about moving it is that if the reader gets confused or stuck on the quiz/exercises, they may give up!
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How big is a Section? What's in it? I ask because if you can break it into sub-sections, you might have a review at the end of each sub-section, and then the quiz at the end of the whole section.
If not, I would order it:
- Review of section
- Exercises with answers at the end of the section (to give the student a chance to practice)
- Quiz (with answers at the back of the book)
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The review will have different purposes - and should be written differently - for each of these places. If it is just after you have read the chapter, then it should be summing up all of the major issues in the chapter, a way of setting in your mind the critical parts, as a starter to the quiz, which should then help them to use this.
If it is after the chapter, then it should be a briefer summary - the reader has done the exercises, and probably knows the core of the chapter. This should be key concepts or ideas that they need to have before moving on.
So which do you want to do? Put the material appropriately.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/5786. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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