Here are two definitions of guide documents:
- A guide is a document, publication, or digital resource that provides step-by-step instructions, tips, and information on how to perform specific tasks, use products, or understand complex concepts. A guide can also contain troubleshooting information, links to related communities, and links to related research.
- Elsewhere, in the governmental world, guide documents, or guidance documents, are intended to provide helpful information to the public, such as clarifying obligations under an existing law or regulation, or providing information on agency procedures. In other words, they translate the complex legal language of administrative rules to enable the public to abide by those rules.
Guide Documents
A guide document, at its core, is a set of instructions but with other resources to make it more widely useful.
Reviewing the chapter on instructions, you see that instructions are xxed by a section detailing equipment and supplies needed and by a section detailing procedural steps often in numbered vertical list format. Include a section like this in your guide document—but that's not all!
Guide Foundations: Instructions
The first six items in the following list of headings look like any common set of instructions—but not the rest!
Pick the Right Location
Choose the Size of Garden
Choose Vegetables
Determine Where and When to Plant
Determine When to Plant What
Design the Garden Plan
Acquire Gardening Tools
U.S. Vegetable Gardening Zones
Average U.S. Seasonal Temperatures
Common Vegetable Gardening Pest and Control
Online Vegetble Gardening Resources
Vegetable Gardening Forums and Communities
Adapted with permission from Vegetable Gardening for Beginners: The Complete Guide
Even the length and detail of the first six items is greater than you'd expect in a common two-page set of instructions, not to mention the pretty decorative images.
Here is another list of headings which portend a much longer document than a one- or two-page set of instructions:
Garden Site Selection
Crop Selection
Garden Plan: Location, Rotation
Soil Preparation
Fertilization
Planting
Watering
Weed Control
Mulching
Pest Control
Harvesting
Gardening Do's and Don'ts
Adapted with permission from Texas Home Vegetable Gardening Guide Joseph Masabn, Texas A&M AgriLife.
Guide Supplements
What makes a set of instructions a guide are the supplements discussed in the section.
Theory, Conceptual Information
Image creation and manipulation software have a serious responsibility to explain color curves, layer masks, channels. The wonderful free image software GIMP has some good explanation of concepts at Basic Color Curves:
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Pixel Colors — by Pat David Remember, each pixel is represented by a combination of 3 colors: Red, Green, and Blue. In GIMP (currently at 8-bit), that means that each RGB color can have a value from 0–255, and combining these three colors with varying levels in each channel will result in all the colors you can see in your image. If all three channels have a value of 255, then the resulting color will be pure white. If all three channels have a value of 0 –then the resulting color will be pure black. If all three channels have the same value, then you will get a shade of gray (128,128,128 would be a middle gray color for instance). Here are some color settings in GIMP: 
As you can see, there is more blue than anything else (it is a blue-ish pixel after all), followed by green, then a dash of red. If we were to change the values of each channel, but kept ratio the same between Red, Green, and Blue, then we would keep the same color and just lighten or darken the pixel by some amount. |
Troubleshooting Information
Troubleshooting information is often formatted as a try-this, try-that framework.
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Problem: Power button will not start computer ▢ Solution 1: If your computer does not start, begin by checking the power cord to confirm that it is plugged securely into the back of the computer case and the power outlet. ▢ Solution 1: If your computer does not start, begin by checking the power cord to confirm that it is plugged securely into the back of the computer case and the power outlet. ▢ Solution 2: If it is plugged into an outlet, make sure it is a working outlet. To check your outlet, you can plug in another electrical device, such as a lamp. ▢ Solution 3: If the computer is plugged in to a surge protector, verify that it is turned on. You may have to reset the surge protector by turning it off and then back on. You can also plug a lamp or other device into the surge protector to verify that it's working correctly. ▢ Solution 4: If you are using a laptop, the battery may not be charged. Plug the AC adapter into the wall, then try to turn on the laptop. If it still doesn't start up, you may need to wait a few minutes and try again. |
Source: Adapted by permission from Computer Basics - Basic Troubleshooting Techniques
Communities and Forums
Related Resources
Guidance Documents
As presented here, guidance documents translate administrative rules into information readable by ordinary non-legal people.
- An administrative rule is marked by heavily legalistic language and often engineering language. Here's an example excerpt: SUBCHAPTER B: OUTDOOR BURNING§§111.201, 111.203, 111.205, 111.207, 111.209, 111.211, 111.213,111.215, 111.217, 111.219, 111.221. Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Effective 2017.
- A guidance document, on the other hand, attempts to explain in accessible language the key points in the administrative rule to enable the ordinary citizen to comply with the rule. Here's an example excerpt: Outdoor Burning. Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, 2015.
If you are a brave enough soul to write a guidance document, try to find an administrative rule that is mercifully brief—under 10 pages. Here are some possibilities:
Consider selecting and writing about one of these:
- Chapter 361. Solid Waste Disposal Act. This one addresses Texas' used-tire or asbestos rules.
- Used Oil Recycling. Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
- Management of Used or Scrap Tires
- Chapter 2201, Boxing. This one is not about cardboard!
- Chapter 2100, Licensing, Registration, and Operation (of barbershops)
- Chapter 5300, Marriage and Family Therapy
Some suggestions for writing a guidance document:
- Remember to copy in the actual rule as an appendix. Some rules documents can be quite long. You can just copy the sections of the rules addressed in your guidance.
- Include as many of the appendixes as is practical—in particular, the ones that are "boilerplate."
- Dress out your guidance document with a graphic, headings and subheadings, and other features that will make it look like a genuine guidance document.
I would appreciate your thoughts, reactions, criticism regarding this chapter: your response—David McMurrey.
