Discussion on "The Technical Writers Guide to Contributing to Open Source Projects"

Edidiong Asikpo (Didi) · 2020-10-28T06:28:53.570Z

The documentation of an open source project provides an avenue for users to understand the project and contribute to it. Surveys have even shown that good documentation serves as a sign of an open source project's healthiness. Yet, few open-source ...

What a great post, Edidiong. I am a senior tech writer based in Auckland, New Zealand just about to start contributing to my first open source project! Thank you for building my confidence even more!

Hey Jody Winter. I am glad you found this article useful. Have you been able to make an open source contribution yet?

Hi Edidiong Asikpo. I am reading up on their software and their REST API (which is what they need documented). They are not quite ready to begin the project.

Jody Winter Oh I see. You've definitely taken the first step towards making your first open source contribution 😀.

Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions about this in the future. I's be happy to assist.

Thanks for writing this, love it!

Glad you found it useful Bolaji.

Wow! Searching for this kind of article. Much needed.

For real? That's really good to know. I am glad you found the article useful.

Thank you for this, really interesting.

Yay. This is really good to know.

I do have some questions:

What skills should someone possess to become a technical writer, efficiently contribute to Open Source or even land a job as a tech writer?
Is it possible to contribute to the developer docs of a project when you can't code in the languages the software was written. (Most times dev docs have quite an amount of coding explanations and examples)

#1. To become a technical writer, you need to have the following skills: Technical skill, Audience perception, writing skill, ability to carry out research, and a unique voice. I explained all these points in the article below.

edidiongasikpo.com/technical-writing-what-and-how

#2. Yes, it is absolutely possible. You can start from rearranging the structure of the developer documentation to make it more user friendly or correcting typos to eventually understanding more about the language used to build the product. Also, you can reach out to the engineers in the team to help you explain some important concepts as well.

Thanks so much Edidiong Asikpo

Wow! Thanks so much for sharing this.

I am glad you found it useful.

Thanks Edidiong Asikpo, I needed to this info. Much appreciate.

I am really glad you found it useful Tapas Adhikary.

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The Technical Writers Guide to Contributing to Open Source Projects

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