This article is meant for technical content creation. For a more general outlook, see How to contribute to Commonlounge?
A good article is clear (easy to understand) and crisp (verbose enough to explain clearly, but no fluff or fillers)
- Focus on the core concept. In particular, don't get carried away in the details.
- Use diagrams if they improve the explanation (in the interest of time, we prefer finding images using google vs creating our own)
- Give extra attention to points that are confusing (especially for beginners).
- For algorithms, provide pseudocode.
- It should take a the average person not more than 10 minutes to read the tutorial.
Samples
- Tutorial: Perceptron algorithm (submitted voluntarily)
- Good: helpful accompanying diagram, pseudocode provides the details but doesn't get lost in the code
- Bad: should be slightly lengthier and explain things clearly
- Merge Sort Trees [Tutorial] (submitted voluntarily)
- Good: clear and crisp explanation
- Bad: diagram would be helpful in following the tutorial
- Section "KNN" of A Non-Technical Introduction to Machine Learning (submitted voluntarily)
- Good: clear explanation, plus section for common mistakes. helpful diagrams.
- Bad: this article is meant for a non-technical audience, and our audience is slightly more technically inclined
Guidelines regarding math
- LaTeX equations must fit within the boundaries of the editor.
- Math equations should be explained step by step, without fail. Reader should not be expected to follow multiple lines of equations without explanation in plain english.
- It is preferred to use English characters for variables, such as x, y, z, w instead of θ