How-to

A how-to is an informal, often short, description of how to accomplish a specific task. A how-to is usually meant to help non-experts, may leave out details that are only important to experts, and may also be greatly simplified from an overall discussion of the topic.

One of the earliest how-to books was published in 1569 by Thomas Wight and entitled, A booke ohrijf the arte and maner, how to plant and graffe all sortes of trees: With divers other new practise, by one of the Abbey of Saint Vincent in Fraunce by Leonard Mascall.

Modern examples

In the modern era How-to can range from brief directions that aid in performing a task with which one is unfamiliar to full-length books, generally intended to assist or inspire life-changing methods and attitudes. They occur in the "self-help" genre, business books, and the hobby industry.

Perhaps the best known full-length book in the genre is How to Win Friends and Influence People, written by Dale Carnegie in 1936.

A similar concept can be seen in many of the [topic] For Dummies series of tutorials and also in many other introductory surveys entitled with the suffix "101" (based on academic numberings of entry-level courses).