How to Choose Samples for Your Technical Writing Portfolio

如何为你的技术写作选辑选择良好的样例

2020-08-12 20:30 clickhelp

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Can you land a job in technical writing providing no writing samples at all? I believe so, yes. But this will likely be an entry-level role. Hiring you for something more serious, your potential employers would like to see some of your work. And, today, we are going to be talking about the best practices in developing samples for a technical writer interview. Make Sure You Can Share It If this is not just a generic technical writing sample you created but actually part of a real project you’d been working on in the past, you need to contact the client you did the job for before disclosing this piece to anyone. If this is done for a public user manual, there should not be any issues - they will let you use it for your portfolio, most likely, but you should ask first anyway. Explicitly Mention What Part of the Sample You Did The employer is going to evaluate many aspects of your sample like: structure, language, design, visual elements. Being honest about the scope of work you did is the best choice here - if you had nothing to do with structuring the material, it is better to mention this because there will be questions you might not be able to answer. People do different things to land a role, but starting off with some kind of deceit is a really bad choice. And, don’t be shy either, if you created a page layout, do mention this. Technical writers are involved in design to some extent, so such skills are always appreciated. Be Ready To Answer Questions Revise the samples before going to the interview. You will be asked questions about your samples. Some of the popular ones: Why did you decide to choose these samples? What skills do they showcase? Were you the only author? What tools did you use? What would you improve? Only Provide Samples That Really Showcase Your Value Your main aim is to pick up short but informative pieces of text. Here are some tips on how to choose the best samples to demonstrate your strongest skills: Focus on quality, not quantity. Sometimes people just throw in piles of samples thinking that it proves their help authoring experience. But what it does really is it confuses your potential employers. They won’t read all the files. Most likely, they will skip through some of them. That won’t leave any strong impression if any. Here’s something to help you figure out what to actually include in a portfolio: try to think about the exact skill you want to showcase using each particular sample. You like how you structured a section? Add it! Proud of the clear instructions accompanied by screenshots? Add it! Add diverse samples. As you know, there are tons of technical documentation types. So, to prove you are a valuable asset, you can add all kinds of samples: software documentation, presentations, whitepapers, process documentation, technical reports, etc. Things to Pay Attention to Regarding Content To make sure your samples are good enough to showcase your value, pay attention to the following aspects: Structure. From the highest level of the entire user manual and to the level of an individual paragraph, the content structure should be thought-through. This is what stands out immediately. Grammar and punctuation. Do we really need to talk about this? :) Design. This can be something out of your scope, but, nevertheless, make sure the samples are readable and look professional. If you do not want to waste your time playing with fonts and colors, you can simply use a help authoring tool, like ClickHelp, that has a number of pre-made templates developed by designers. Complexity. Well-written documents on a difficult topic can impress your employers. They will see you as a real techcomm pro. If you have complex projects you are proud of, consider adding them first. Conclusion Having a good portfolio of samples is very important for a tech writer. And, it is hard to develop it over night with projects scattered across years of work. Try being proactive and keep the works you are proud of in one place. When the time comes to go job hunting, you’ll be able to transform them into an impressive collection of samples. Good luck with your technical writing! ClickHelp Team Author, host and deliver documentation across platforms and devices
在不提供任何写作样例的情况下,你能找到一份技术写作方向的工作吗?我认为是可以的。但这份工作可能是入门级的。如果雇用你从事较为严肃的工作,那么你的潜在雇主会希望看到你的一些作品。今天,我们来谈谈技术写作工程师创建面式样例的最佳范例。 确保你的样例能够共享 如果你创建的不仅仅是一份普通的技术写作样例,实际上是你过去从事的真实项目的一部分,那么在向任何人透露该样例之前,你需要联系过去为之工作的客户。如果这是为一份公共用户手册而做的样例,那应该不会有什么问题。你的客户很可能会允许你在自己的选辑中引用该样例,但无论如何,你应该事先问清楚。 明确指出你完成了样例的哪一部分工作 雇主会从多个视角评估你的样例,比如:结构,语言,设计,视觉元素。如实地说明你的工作范围是最佳的选择。 如果你没做过任何构建样例材料的工作,最好提及这一点,因为有些问题你可能无法回答。为了获得一个职位,应聘者会做各种各样的事情,但是一开始就进行某种欺骗是个非常糟糕的选择。另外,不要胆怯,如果你创建了页面布局,一定要提到这一点。技术写作工程师在某种程度上参与了设计,因此这样的技能总是值得赞赏的。 做好回答问题的准备 参加面试之前修改样例。你会被问到关于样例的问题。其中一些热门的问题包括: 你为什么决定选择这些样例? 它们展示了什么技能? 你是唯一的作者吗? 你运用了哪些工具? 你会做出什么改进? 只提供能真正显示自身价值的样例 你的主要目的在于选取简短而信息丰富的文本片段。以下是一些关于如何选择最佳样例以展示你的最强技能的窍门: 注重质量,而非数量。有时应聘者只会使用大量的样例,以为这样就能证明自身的帮助文档创作经验。但实际上这种做法会让你的潜在雇主感到困惑。他们不会阅读你的所有文档。他们很可能会跳过其中一些文档。即便他们会阅读某些文档,这些文档也不会给他们留下深刻的印象。 以下内容可以帮助你弄清楚一份选辑实际包含的内容:试着想想你要用每个特定样例所展示的确切技能。你喜欢自己的版块结构吗?添加到选辑中!对屏幕截图附带的清晰说明感到自豪吗?添加到选辑中! 添加多样化的样例。大家都知道,技术文档的类型有很多。因此,为了证明自己是有价值的资源,你可以添加各种样例:软件文档,演示文稿,白皮书,工艺文档,技术报告等。 内容上应注意的事项 为了确保你的样例足以展示自己的价值,请注意以下几个方面: 结构。从整个用户手册的最高层次到单个段落的层次,都应该对内容结构进行深思熟虑。这是最立竿见影的。 语法和标点符号。我们真的需要谈谈这个吗?:) 设计。这可能超出了你的范围,但无论如何,要确保样例的可读性和专业性。如果不想在字体和颜色上浪费时间,你可以简单地使用帮助文档创作工具,如ClickHelp,该工具拥有许多由设计人员开发的预制模板。 复杂性。一份主题颇具难度且写作良好的文档能给你的雇主留下深刻的印象。他们会把你看作是一个真正的科技通专家。如果你拥有自己引以为豪的复杂项目,可以考虑先添加它们。 结论 拥有一份良好的样例选辑对于一个技术写作工程师来说是非常重要的。此外,多年工作内分散的项目很难在一夜之间整理起来。所以,试着积极主动地把自己引以为傲的作品放到一起。到了找工作的时候,你就能把它们变成一个令人印象深刻的样例集。 祝你在技术写作上一切顺利! ClickHelp 团队 跨平台、跨设备编写、管理和交付文档

以上中文文本为机器翻译,存在不同程度偏差和错误,请理解并参考英文原文阅读。

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