Thank you for taking the time to review my technical writing samples.
My writing samples include a user guide, an interactive API explorer, a quick reference guide, release notes, a tutorial, and a lesson plan.
I wrote a user guide as a project for a technical writing course. I hadn't intentionally written technical documents before this one, so even getting all the formatting right challenged me. I haven't revisited the guide since, but if I had to do it over again I might use less screenshots. I imagine they'd be hard to maintain. I'd also make the PDF navigable.
I wrote an OpenAPI specification for a simple API that I mocked up (my mock API can be viewed here). I've included the JSON file below, which can be copied and pasted to Swagger Editor. Some of the features I documented are purely hypothetical. Learning the API jargon in general proved a challenge, since I was new. I'd say I had the most trouble with the components object. But I got used to the terms in due time.
I wrote a quick reference guide for an imagined version of my mock API with more endpoints. I thought about making a flowchart, but ultimately I decided to just write a Markdown document. I wanted to get my first taste of Github Flavored Markdown, as I've seen that docs-as-code methods are gaining popularity in the field.
I wrote a set of release notes for an imagined version of my mock API with more endpoints. I've never actually had to use a table in Markdown before, not only in Github Flavored Markdown but also in general Markdown. So learning how to do so was fun. I can see myself making a product wiki that includes both these release notes and the previous quick reference sample.
I wrote a tutorial while learning how to use GitHub. Official documentation already existed, but I felt some steps could have been phrased better. For example, I combined two of the offical steps into one because one of the steps wasn't an action step.
I wrote a lesson plan when I was teaching via distance learning during the pandemic. I had to make sure that the content and instructions were clear and concise since I didn't have the same ability to interface with the students as I normally would. In a way, being economical and deliberate with my language while writing these plans was my first taste of technical writing.