Session: Creating Your Portfolio
Speaker: Anindita Basu
Important Points to Remember
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It is very important for a technical writer to have a portfolio. A portfolio is like your visiting card. It is an excerpt of your creative work in technical writing.
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It is also very important that you create your portfolio from scratch. You should not use any resources from your office for creating your portfolio. Moreover, you should not use any content from your official projects, as it is copyrighted.
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Your blog is not your writing sample.
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It is best to work on your own project and create a portfolio.
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You can send your portfolio for a peer review. A review by the target audience (for whom the document is generated) is also very important.
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You should get yourself a writer's toolkit.
Some Examples of Tools
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Content Authoring Tools: OpenOffice Writer, GoogleDocs
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Image Manipulation Tool: IrfanView
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Publishing Tools: Microsoft HTML Help Workshop, HelpMaker Help Authoring Tools
Working on Projects (Some Useful URLs)
Note: You can also have a look at the YouTube Help Center.
Some Documents that Your Portfolio Can Have
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A How-to Document (Explaining a Procedure)
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A Quick Start Guide
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An Installation Guide
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A User Guide
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A Reference Guide, for example, an API Guide or a Glossary
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A Specification Document that explains how something should work
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Your Volunteer Project
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A Tutorial
Showcasing Your Portfolio
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Introduce each sample from your portfolio.
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Give some context to the interviewer.
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Mention the principles that you used for creating your sample.
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Mention the challenges that you faced while creating your portfolio.
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Create a softcopy of your samples and keep it up-to-date.
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Carry your laptop, if possible.
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Take printouts wherever applicable.
Thanks & Regards,
Onkar Telkikar
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