Writing a course workbook in Markdown

A workbook is not a book with questions in it. The reader is holding a pen, working through it at the pace of the course, and probably printing it. That changes the structure, the spacing and the production, and most disappointing workbooks are books that did not account for any of it.

One exercise, one page

The strongest structural rule available. Each exercise should be complete on a single page, or on a two-page spread if it genuinely needs the room.

The reason is physical. Someone working through an exercise should not be turning pages to see the instruction while writing the answer. An exercise split across a page boundary gets half-completed more often than one that is not — not because it is harder, but because the interruption is enough to break the thread.

This is what makes explicit page breaks appropriate here in a way they usually are not. In most documents a hand-placed break is a liability, because it is only correct for the document as it stands. In a workbook the break is semantic — the exercise starts on a new page because exercises do — and it stays correct as the material changes around it.

## Exercise 3 — Map your week

List everything you did on Tuesday, in blocks of thirty minutes.

(space to write)

---

## Exercise 4 — Find the pattern

Space to write is a measurement

The most common workbook failure: three centimetres of space for an answer that needs fifteen. The person writes small, runs out, and continues in the margin — and the document has communicated that their answer was not really expected.

Estimate honestly. Handwriting takes roughly twice the space typing does. A three-sentence answer needs about six lines, and at normal line spacing six lines is around three centimetres. A reflective answer to an open question can easily need half a page.

Some patterns that work:

• Ruled lines for short factual answers — they guide handwriting and set an expectation of length.
• An open box for anything creative. Lines constrain diagrams and mind maps, which is the wrong signal for a question inviting either.
• A whole blank page, labelled, for the big reflective questions. Generous space is itself an instruction: this one deserves thought.
• A table with empty rows where the answer is structured — one row per item, columns for the dimensions you want considered.

Structure that survives a course changing

Courses change. A module gets reordered, an exercise is dropped, a new one is added after the third cohort finds a gap. If your workbook lives in a layout application, every change is a re-layout, and the workbook falls behind the course until it is quietly abandoned.

Keeping the source in plain text is what prevents that. Some habits that make it hold up:

1. Do not hard-code exercise numbers into the text you reference elsewhere. "As in the previous exercise" survives a reordering; "as in Exercise 7" does not.
2. One file per module, if your tool allows it, so a module can be moved without touching the others.
3. Keep the design separate from the content. If the look is a saved set of decisions rather than formatting embedded in the document, regenerating after an edit is an export rather than a project.
4. Version the workbook with the course. A cohort should be able to tell which edition they have.

Print, then screen

Most workbooks are printed, often on a home or office printer, which imposes some constraints worth designing for from the start:

• Assume black and white. Do not let colour carry meaning — if a colour distinguishes two things, they are identical on most printers. Use shape, weight or a label as well.
• Avoid heavy backgrounds. A full-page dark panel is a page that comes out grey, streaked, and expensive in toner. It also cannot be written on.
• Keep contrast high. Light grey instruction text is legible on a screen and gone on paper.
• Respect the unprintable margin. Most desktop printers cannot print to the edge; anything within about 5mm may be clipped.
• Consider double-sided. If it will be printed that way, an exercise should not start on the back of a page whose front it depends on.

PDF is the format here, without much debate. A workbook has a fixed layout by definition — the space to write is part of the design, and it does not survive reflowing. EPUB is the wrong choice for anything with blanks in it.

A structure that works

For a workbook accompanying a multi-module course:

1. Cover — course name, cohort or edition, space for the participant's name.
2. How to use this workbook — one page. Whether to work ahead, whether answers are shared, what to bring to sessions.
3. One section per module, each opening on a fresh page with a short statement of what the module covers.
4. Exercises within each module, one per page, numbered within the module rather than across the whole book so inserting one does not renumber everything.
5. A notes page at the end of each module — used more than you would expect.
6. A closing page: what to do next, how to get help, where the course continues.

Producing it

The pipeline is the same as any other book — write in plain text, design once, export — with the difference that you will do it repeatedly as the course evolves. The full pipeline covers the general case.

In bukpress a workbook is a project like any other: --- on its own line puts each exercise on its own page, and exports carry no watermark on any plan — which matters when the file goes to paying participants. The free plan's twenty exports a month is enough to regenerate a workbook after every cohort, at up to forty pages a book; longer workbooks and reusable Brand Kits are on the paid plans (pricing). Pages are A4.