Building a Technical Writing Career

In this talk, you will learn everything you need to build/grow your technical writing career.

Transcript

1. Building a Technical Writing career
2. - Tech explorer, currently exploring Python and Finance - I’m also human (dabble as a demigod) - I’d prefer writing about code to writing actual code - Trying to figure out Crypto, NFT, and Web3 Meet Uticodes 👋 Utibe Etim Technical Writer @ Tutorialseu @Uticodes
3. What is Technical Writing?
4. Technical writing is the creation and management of written content about technology and technology-related topics
5. Forms of Technical Writing
6. • API & end-user documentation • How-to guides and tutorials • Product requirements documents (PRD) • Technical marketing and promotional pieces • Research papers • Professional reports and reviews • Whitepapers and case studies • Instruction manuals
7. Why You Should Start Writing
8. #1 - Writing is a lucrative and highly paid skill from which you can build a successful career
9. #2 - The more you write, the more you learn and become an expert on various technical subjects #3 - You develop a better sense of user empathy and pay closer attention to how the readers or product customers think rather than what you believe
10. #4 - You get to teach your fellow developers what you know and help them resolve their problems #5 - You get an increase in your brand's recognition and grow your network
11. Technical Writing Prerequisites
12. #1 - You should know how to write; this includes tenses, spelling, and basic grammar. You don't want to publish content filled with poorly constructed sentences and typos
13. #2 - You should possess good communication skills to pass your knowledge clearly and efficiently; knowing how to use a product doesn't mean you can teach others #3 - You should adequately develop your technical skills and have the ability to research intensively about a topic
14. Technical Writing Tools
15. Researching Tools
16. Note Taking Tools
17. Authoring Tools
18. Editing Tools
19. Documenting Tools
20. Technical Writing Resources
21. • Google Technical Writing Courses • The Pocket Technical Writing List • Getting Started with Markdown • Awesome Technical Writing • Technical Writing A to Z • Learn API Documentation • Writing Engaging Tutorials • Paid Community Writer Programs
22. Technical Writing Best Practices
23. #1 - Create an outline for your content before starting the main writing
24. #2 - Maintain consistency in your writing; this includes heading styles, grammatical persons, lingo #3 - Write your sentences clearly and don't repeat yourself. If you write something in a part of the content, there's no need to write it again #4 - Avoid writing long paragraphs; learn to break them into short and precise forms
25. #5 - Write your sentences in active voice rather than passive voice
26. #6 - Use white spaces and bullet points wherever you can #7 - A picture is worth a thousand words; include them in your content and attribute the images correctly #8 - Don’t screenshot code examples; embed them with MarkDown or use GitHub Gists
27. #9 - Explain abbreviations the first time you use them in your content #10 - If you’re building a code demo in your content, always rebuild the demo using only your content as a reader to discover errors (if any) #11 - Check your grammar with tools like Grammarly and Hemingway App
28. #12 - Don’t fill your content with vocabulary you wouldn’t use when conversing in person #13 - Take your time to properly understand your content’s intended audience #14 - Re-read your content carefully to improve each sentence
29. #15 - Periodically carry out usability tests on your documentation #16 - Make your content title as clear and straightforward as possible #17 - Use useful, descriptive, and relevant anchor texts for hyperlinks and avoid generic terms such as “click here” or “more”
30. 30 Thank You! Twitter - @Uticodes GitHub - @Uticodes LinkedIn - Utibe Etim