Growing your career in technical content writing can be somewhat tricky. Because there isn’t a well-defined route that is accustomed to other tech positions like full-stack web developer, solution architect, or web designer.
However, you can build a technical writing portfolio worthy of being hand-picked by recruiters and hiring managers quite easily. This is possible if you have at least these three types of projects in your content portfolio.
- Hands-on tutorial
- Long-form reviews
- Guides/reference documentation
1. Hands-on Tutorial
A hands-on tutorial is a step-by-step learning material that teaches your audience about how you use a product and build something with it.
Generally, this is an 800-1200 words piece that includes a detailed explanation of all the important steps of the build process. Coupled with explanatory screenshots , code configurations , and GIFs , this type of content is the best way to explain your perspective and experience of using a particular product.
Content of this type is titled generally as:
- How to do this …
- Building this with …
- Creating your first this with …
2. Long-Form Content
Long-form content is a lengthy piece anywhere between 1000 and 3000 words. It’s aimed to provide in-depth analysis and lots of information about a given product , a concept , or some on-going tech trend.
Apart from just length, long-form content also requires you to think critically about a topic. Other than the key details, readers would want to learn about your perspective and opinion. And this matters significantly if you are a published and a featured author.
In that case, your take on the matter would affect your audience the most. You have the power to gauge several leads into conversions.
The titles of long-form content are statement-based and facts-based like:
- What Will Next.js Be Like In 10 Years?
- 15 of the Best VSCode Themes for You in 2021
- Build a Blog with Next.js: A Beginner’s Guide for 2021
- AWS vs Vercel vs Netlify: What Are the Differences and When to Use Which Platform?
3. User Guides & Reference Documentation
A user guide/reference docs are generally a detailed book-length content showcasing all the essential information and instruction about a software product. It features sections like installation , usage , configuration , customization , error handling , troubleshooting , in short, everything possible that can be built using a product.
A user guide is considered short if it is about 10 pages and long otherwise. But writing projects like these aren’t easy to get. Developers tend to write it themselves since they know the product best or hire some pro-tech writer with good experience.
In this case, a great opportunity that can be tapped on is to start contributing to free and open-source software. Jump over to GitHub and start helping developers document their open-source work.
Are these three project types enough?
To grab a good technical writer position these three types of content projects are fairly good. But you should never hold yourself from innovating and being versatile. Keep writing rich and informative content targeted at the right audience.
Moreover, I am writing an e-book about a holistic content workflow that helps you to “ Write , Publish , and Market ” your technical content. It’s called “ Content For Developers “.
Professional 30+ Tips from a featured author with 10+ years of experience.
Currently, availble for pre-order sale at 65% discount.
Grab your copy → https://Writy.io
The post 3 Projects To Have in Your Technical Writing Portfolio appeared first on Maedah Batool.
Top comments (0)