Technical Writing Workshop

$149

Technical Writing Workshop

Learn Technical Writing and Build Your Portfolio

The best way to learn something is to do it. If you want to learn technical writing, you need to write technical documents.

This self-paced, portfolio-focused technical writing workshop will help you:

Learn techniques to learn new technology on the job
Learn techniques to draft and edit technical documents
Learn how to use industry-standard style guides
Create four technical writing samples for your portfolio

Who is this workshop for?

This workshop is for you if:

You are curious about technical writing as a career option (as a new grad or transitioning from another field)
You are proficient in English and consider yourself a strong writer
You want to practice writing technical documents and build your technical writing portfolio

Please note that this is not a course; it's a workshop. It's intentionally designed to not rely on passive, video-based learning. Instead, it focuses on readings, assignments, and projects to promote active, immersive learning. If that's not your preferred learning style, this might not be the right workshop for you.

How does it work?

The workshop is modeled on the Rapid Skills Acquisition method described in the book, The First 20 Hours by Josh Kaufman. Kaufman says, "Start with twenty hours of rapid skill acquisition. By knowing what you're getting into, learning the fundamentals, practicing intelligently, and developing a practice routine, you'll make progress more quickly and consistently, and you'll achieve expert status in record time."

This workshop deconstructs technical writing into two subskills — learning new tech on the job and writing technical documents:

You will select one technology (out of four options) and write a tutorial, a how-to guide, a reference document, and an explainer document for that technology.
For each document, you will practice drafting and editing techniques and use industry-standard style guides.
By the end of the workshop, you will have written four technical documents and make an informed decision about technical writing as a viable career option for you.

FAQs

How much time do I need to invest?

The suggested timeline assumes you can spend 2-3 hours/day for 21 days.

Will I get a certificate of completion?

No. A technical writing certificate from an unaccredited institution has little to no value when applying for jobs. A portfolio of writing samples matters more, so that's what we focus on in this workshop.

Are there any prerequisites?

Yes! Please watch the following videos to familiarize yourself with technical writing before investing in the workshop:

Getting Started

[Day 1] Welcome!

[Day 1] Four Technical Documents Every Technical Writer Writes

[Day 1] Select Your Portfolio Project Idea

Learning How to Learn New Tech

[Day 2] Why Learn to Learn Tech?

[Day 2] The First 20 Hours

[Day 2] Note-taking Techniques

[Day 2] The Pomodoro Technique

[Day 3] Learning By Doing

[Day 4] The Feynman technique

Learning the Writing Process

[Day 5] Let's write!

[Day 5] Your First Project: Writing a Tutorial

[Day 5] Write The Ugly First Draft

[Day 6] Know Thy Audience

[Day 7] Edit in Three Passes

[Day 8] Use a Style Guide

[Day 9] Re-vision

Building Your Portfolio

[Day 10-13] Writing a How-to Guide

[Day 14-17] Writing a Reference document

[Day 18-21] Writing an Explainer document

Bonus

My Technical Writing Portfolio

[Optional] Give and Get Feedback