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How to Effectively Use a Tutorial

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How to use a tutorial

I realize the irony of writing a tutorial that teaches you how to use a tutorial, but I felt it was important. This is designed to help people get the most out of any tutorial. I wrote this because of the many times I've seen people follow a tutorial, and show their results off to people, when the result looks exactly like the tutorial, as well as everyone else's who has used that tutorial. Sometimes they don't even credit the tutorial writer. None of this would be a problem, however (except the giving credit part), if they "made it their own," and did new things with it, truly showing off what they've learned.

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There's nothing wrong with following tutorials, but don't follow them blindly. To quote Captain Barbossa, tutorials are "more what you'd call 'guidelines' than actual rules." Of course, he was talking about the Pirates Code, but the point is still valid. Learn the logic behind what the tutorial is asking you to do and why. I know not all tutorials are good at describing these things, but that's where you come in.

Experiment. Play around with things. Try different settings. Take the basics from the tutorial and make something completely new and different. Just as you can't passively learn to speak fluent Japanese by watching anime, you can't passively learn real skills/knowledge by following tutorials. Be proactive!

For the other side of the coin, see HOW TO EFFECTIVELY WRITE A TUTORIAL

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goldleader23

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