Should I use contractions in a technical tutorial?

Question

In a technical tutorial which fits better:

In this tutorial you'll learn

or

In this tutorial you will learn

or in general does it make no difference?

Answer 1

It depends on how formal the context is. If you're writing a short blog post about getting started with a new game, "you'll" probably won't be out of place. If you're writing a tutorial as part of the documentation set for expensive enterprise software, it's more common in my experience to avoid contractions.

If your company or publisher has a style guide, follow it. If they don't or you're self-publishing, decide how formal you want to be: "you'll" is more folksy and "you will" is more formal (but not stuffy).

One tangential note: I try to avoid making promises about what the reader will learn; who knows if my reader will actually get it? I talk about what we will show, not what you will learn.

Answer 2

It makes no difference to the reader. Or if it does, they will probably prefer the less formal. It makes a difference to some companies, but most are discovering that a more informal style makes them seem less stuffy and more approachable.

The idea that a "formal" style was more appropriate for technical communication has two roots. One is in the entirely appropriate desire that technical communication should be precise. The other is in the use of language as a form of class distinction, in which certain forms are used to distinguish the speech of the educated from that of the uneducated.

The latter is largely moribund among the general population, but still popular with a class of editor and grammar fiends, for more or less the old reasons: as a mark of distinction, to set themselves apart from the hoipoloi.

The concern with precision is as relevant as ever, but there is an increasing recognition that a formal precision that is not actually expressed in the language of the reader does nothing to lead the common reader to correct action. In any case, contractions do nothing to reduce precision.

Answer 3

If you want to seem a professional, don't use personal style and short forms. In this case I propose use sentence like this:

Tutorial "title of this tutorial" shows how to doing sth...<

Tutorial "title of this tutorial" introduces the reader to the...<

Tutorial "title of this tutorial" is an introduction to the topic...<

Tutorial "title of this tutorial" presents information about...<

Google helps you to find good examples, such as listed below:

• https://docs.python.org/2/tutorial/

  This tutorial introduces the reader informally to the basic concepts and features of the Python language and system.

• https://developers.google.com/apps-script/articles

  These tutorials are designed to help you start using Google Apps Scripts more quickly.

• https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/using-branches

  This tutorial is a comprehensive introduction to Git branches.