Guides
A guide is a short reference piece. Unlike a lesson it has no stages, no drill link, and nothing records whether a candidate read it.
The fields
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Slug | Unique across all guides |
| Title | Sentence case |
| Summary | One line, shown in the list |
| Category | Strategies, reading, writing, vocabulary, grammar, exam day, listening, speaking |
| Level | Beginner, intermediate or advanced |
| Minutes | Reading time |
| Module | Optional — see below |
| Question kind | Optional |
| Body | Paragraphs |
Module is deliberately optional
Guides in the listening and speaking categories should have no module set.
Neither module is built in the product, so attaching a guide to one would file it under a locked module where nobody can reach it. Left unset, a listening guide sits in the guides list and is readable — which is right, because advice about predicting before the audio starts is useful whether or not this product can play you audio.
Do not imply the module works
A listening or speaking guide is reading, not practice. Write it as advice, and do not tell the candidate to "practise this in the Listening module" — there is no Listening module to practise in, and the guide would be sending them at a locked screen.
Listed but not drafted
A guide with a title and no body shows in the list without being readable, the same way an unwritten lesson does. It is a legitimate placeholder for something planned.
Choosing between a guide and a lesson
Write a lesson when there is a technique to be shown, tried and then drilled. Write a guide when there is something worth knowing that does not need practice — a reference list, a checklist, an explanation of what separates two bands.