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Templates · Writing & publishing

Tutorial (Diátaxis) template

For a getting-started guide or a "build your first X" post. Origin: Daniele Procida's Diátaxis framework, adopted by Django, Canonical, Cloudflare and NumPy: a tutorial is a lesson that takes a beginner by the hand to a working result.

Start from this templateFree, no account needed. The blank is written with guidance in each section, ready to fill in.

Structure

  1. What you will build and what you need
  2. Numbered steps, each with the action, the expected result and a checkpoint
  3. A working result to admire
  4. Where to go next

How a tough reader scores it

When you score a draft against this format, the Critic evaluates this tutorial. The weights add up to 100; the fixes for the weakest criteria arrive as cards in the editor.

CriterionWeight
The reader is told what they will build and what they need before step one15
Every step gives the exact action and the expected result30
Each step is small enough to succeed and shows progress15
No forks, options or theory that a beginner did not ask for15
The end result is real and the reader is told what they learned10
Would work on a clean machine as written15

How it works in SecondPen.ai

Open the template and the editor writes the blank once, with a line of guidance under each heading that you delete as you fill it in. Write your abstract and the editor names the format it reads like. Ask for a document with a slash command and it offers to start from the matching format. When the draft is ready, the Critic scores it against the criteria above, the way this format's toughest reader would, and the three highest-leverage fixes become Editor cards.

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