The Not-Boring Tech Writer

Skilll #31: Choosing the Right Knowledge Base Software for Your Organization

Kate Mueller—Support Sorceress and Cheese Monger at KnowledgeOwl reflects on her career to share the criterion you should consider as you choose the right knowledge base for your organization, including how to get started in your research, how to get company buy-in, and which essential features you should look for in a knowledge base. 

Skill #30: Landing a Tech Writing Internship

German tech writer Joachim reflects on his past six weeks in his tech writing internship to share skills and lessons learned to help prospective tech writers land a tech writing internship.

Skill #29: Understanding Your Reader (as a Whole)

Alexander Yant shares how you can understand your readers as a whole, including why empathy is one of the most important aspects of audience analysis, how tech writers can boost their audience analysis skills, and how effective audience analysis can demonstrate your value as a tech writer.

Skill #28: Researching as a Tech Writer

Margaret Eker—technical writer at Magento, an Adobe company—shares how you can boost your researching skills as a tech writer, including how tech writers traditionally research new features, why tech writers should research the domain in which they work, and which steps you can take today to boost your research skills. 

Skill #27: Contributing to GitHub

Tad Dieken—tech writer at Accuray—shares how to get started contributing to GitHub, including how to find projects that interest you, how to overcome imposter syndrome in GitHub, and which new skills you may learn in the process. 

Skill #26: Getting Started in API Documentation

Tom Johnson—technical writer at Amazon—shares how to get started in API documentation, including where the tech writer fits in the API documentation process, what skills tech writers need to excel at API documentation, and where to find the best resources to ramp up those skills.

Skill #25: Nudging Users to Action Through Contextual Help

Kacy Ewing—soon-to-be-Brooklyn-based tech writer—shares the skills you need to excel in creating contextual help, including how to position yourself in the user experience process, how to practice your contextual help writing, and where to find the best examples of contextual help.

Finding Your Content DNA

John Espirian—technical copywriter and author of the soon-to-be-released book Content DNA—shares how you can find your content DNA, including how to find your niche as a writer, how to market that niche to prospective clients, and how to use your niche to win big clients.

Skill #23: Transitioning into Tech Writing from Very-Much-Not Tech Writing

Chad Sterling—Product Technical Communications Specialist at KUKA—shares how you can transition into technical writing, including where to find a tribe of technical writers, how to use your existing skills to transition into technical writing, and how to ramp up your skills to find your first gig.

Skill #22: Using Your Detective Skills as a Technical Writer

Jamie Roddy—Manager of Technical Communicators who leads a team of global technical communicators—shares how you can use your detective skills as a technical writer, including which detective skills are most useful for technical writers, how to ramp up those skills, and how detective skills can help you transition into other fields within a software company.