Wikibooks:How-to textbook guidelines
 | This page contains a draft proposal for a Wikibooks policy or guideline. Discuss changes to this draft at the discussion page. Through consensus, this draft could become an official Wikibooks policy or guideline. |
 |
This book is an undeveloped draft or outline. You can help to develop the work, or you can ask for assistance in the project room. |
These are some recommended policies on the standards for How-to textbooks on Wikibooks. Many of the Wikibooks on the How-tos bookshelf were originally created on Wikipedia, and have a very non-book orientation as a result. They were often poorly written and are more of a stub about how to do a certain task. Originally these were permitted on Wikipedia, but it was felt that they were more book-like than necessarily an encyclopedia article, and as a result were moved to Wikibooks.
These guidelines are being written with an attempt to establish standards that this material can remain on Wikibooks, and are focused on these How-to books alone.
How-to textbooks should follow existing policies
[edit source]All of the current guidelines that apply to all Wikibooks, as stated on Wikibooks:What is Wikibooks, including NPOV guidelines and duplicating content on other Wikimedia projects, also apply to How-to guides. These should be educational resources worthy of being called a Wikibook.
How to guides should be textbooks
[edit source]Like all Wikibooks, a How-to guide should go into depth about the topic being covered. It should be something much more than a recipe. A good how-to should include not only the steps needed to complete the task, but also information about preparation, background information about the task at hand, and tips or suggestions for improving the task.
Combining How-to Guides
[edit source]Sometimes there are many individual guides that are related together, or which are all about the same general subject (fixing cars, baking, fishing, etc). These guides should probably then be combined into a single book, so that the information will be easier to find. Keep in mind that a book is not a "collection of articles", but instead should have a central narrative to tie all the pages together.