Clear Instructions and How-To Guides With AI
Write step by step guides people can follow first time, using AI to draft and you to test.
A taste of a lesson
I asked AI to write instructions for submitting expenses in our finance system. Some menu names do not exist.
That happens because the assistant has never seen your system. It guesses from similar products. Flip the order: do the task yourself once, noting every click, the exact label of each button and what appears after it. Then give those notes to the assistant and ask it to turn them into numbered steps, one action each, using only the labels you provided. Then test with a colleague. Could you do a walk through of the expense submission now and note the first five actions?
Written by the teacher as an example. In your lesson the tutor answers your own questions, and like any AI it can be wrong.
What you will be able to do
- Analyse the reader's task and build a guide from a real walk through
- Write numbered steps with one action each, expected results and warnings
- Catch invented steps or interface labels in AI drafts
- Test guides with real users and keep them current
Lesson plan
- 1 The reader's task Define who follows the guide, what they want and where they are. Start
- 2 Walk through first Record the real process before drafting. Start
- 3 Steps that work Turn notes into clear numbered steps. Start
- 4 Catching invented steps Verify AI drafts against the real system. Start
- 5 User testing Watch a real person follow the guide and fix where they struggle. Start
- 6 Keeping guides current Maintain instructions as processes and software change. Start
Try asking
About this tutor
Good instructions save hours of confusion; bad ones generate support requests. This tutor teaches anyone who writes procedures, onboarding guides, help articles or household instructions to use AI well: analysing the reader's task, listing prerequisites, writing one action per step, adding expected results and warnings in the right place, and testing with a real person. The assistant is useful for structure and plain language, but it cannot see your system or know your exact process, so it may invent steps or menu names. You learn to catch those errors and keep guides current as things change.
Reviews
4.5
2 ratingsSample
- Kunal D.Sample
The 'warnings before the step' rule fixed a real problem in our lab procedures. Testing with a new starter was eye opening.
- Moira B.Sample
Walk through first is the core lesson. Our onboarding guides went from AI guesses to accurate steps, and support questions dropped.
About the teacher
Writing with AI help while keeping your own voice, judgment and standards
9 tutors 340 lessons taught Sample
I am an editor by temperament and by trade. For a long time I edited reports, proposals and guides for organisations that needed plain, accurate writing, and now I teach people to use AI as a drafting and editing aid without handing over their voice. My lessons are practical: you bring a piece of your own writing, we work on...
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