Curiosity drives a whole lotta learning. Most of what we learn and remember comes from us feeling curious about something, wanting to understand it, and eventually finding the answer.

A good teacher will create a sense of curiosity in their students, and then satisfy that curiosity with an answer. A strong written tutorial will take the reader through this simple process over and over again:

1. Make them curious
2. Satisfy their curiosity
3. Make them curious about something else

Doing this will keep your reader's mind engaged and active as they learn.

Good ways to make a reader curious:

• Present them with a problem or tricky situation that they don't have the knowledge to solve ("Imagine that you want to...")
• Show them some "magic" that they can't explain -- for example a piece of code that does something impressive or unexpected ("How did that work?")
• Identify some area of ignorance that they'd never noticed they had before ("Have you ever wondered why...?")

All of these will create a hunger for knowledge, that you can satisfy with information and explanation. And once you've satisfied that piece of curiosity, make them curious about something else...

And so on.