Wednesday, October 12, 2005 – 5:40 PM – This is just a rough draft of this guide. I will continue to update this, but I just wanted to get it out before any more guides were submitted.(!empty($user->lang['QUOTE'])) ? $user->lang['QUOTE'] : ucwords(strtolower(str_replace('_', ' ', 'QUOTE'))):
What is a guide?
By Farts_McGee[ Chapter 1.0: Introduction ]I have recently been seeing a lot of crappy guides out there in the submissions. I think the problem is… people don’t know what standard is. In this little lecture, I will help you understand what makes a good guide.
[ Chapter 2.0: Basics ]What are the basic’s of a guide?First thing first, what are you writing about? When you are choosing what to write about, make sure that your topic is unique, out of the box, and different. Also, please make sure that the topic you have chosen, has not already been taken. If it has, do not bother to write it! Trust me one this, no matter how good the guide is, if someone has already made one, then no one will care about your guide! (Build guides are exceptions – except the invincible monk build!) One more thing,
DO NOT STEAL SOMEONE ELSES WORK! If you are caught taking something off the internet like another site, you may be violating copyright rules, and on top of that you are going to get made fun of, immensely, and your submission will be denied. So, if you are going to take a guide from somewhere else, please do not claim it is your own work and please include a link to where you got the guide.
[ Chapter 2.1: Attributes ]What should my guide be like?1: OrganizationYour guide should be thoroughly organized. You should easily be able to navigate your way through your guide. Take this guide for an example, you can easily look at the chapter titles and find out what each chapter is about. If your guide is a sloppy mess of compiled text where you go off subject every other sentence, then your guide becomes very un-clear and difficult to read. And if you are aiming to get your guide approved, then you want your guide to be clear.
2: Spelling and grammarYour guide should not be like this: “tuday I wil b telin u bout a nice guide about how 2 get rich real fast. U go outside and u kil stuff. Then u rinse n repeat. Give me premim kthxbye.” First of all, this “guide” is horrid. You decipher what the author is trying to say. You want to have good spelling and grammar so your guide is easy to read.
3. ContentsYour guide should be something entertaining. If your guide is all text, then it gets boring after a while. If you add some pictures into your guide, then you will easily make your guide’s overall rating improve. Pictures are easy to insert into a guide and they really add to your guide. If you claim that you found an exploit where a monster drops 10plat every time you kill it, take some screenies of it. This proves your exploit is real, and it adds a nice touch. A picture is worth a thousand words. I suggest including at least one picture in every guide. Movies are another option. I have never made a movie, but I enjoy reading guides that have movies in them. This just strongly adds to your overall rating.
[ Chapter 3: Shape ]
How should my guide be shaped?Your guide, should contain this:
1: Introductory paragraph. -Brief explanation of your guide
-Hooks your reader and makes them want to read your guide.
-Don’t use too much detail, and don’t give away the entire guide.
2: Body paragraphs. -A minimum of one.
-This is the core of your guide, it smoothly explains the guide.
-Make sure it is clear and has the attributes.
3: Conclusion -Sum up your guide
-Contains the un-detailed main points of your guide.
-Makes sure reader understood what the guide was about.
-This is not as important as the intro & body paragraphs, but it always helps!
[ Chapter 4: Crappy guides ]What is a crappy guide?Reomved because I was being mean
[ Chapter 5: Legal Information ] Copyright 2005 Elliott James
This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for
personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or
otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use
of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display
is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. All trademarks
and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective
trademark and copyright holders.