I delivered a talk at the Google Developers Experts Summit in Berlin this week, covering some tips for writing technical content. I gathered a collection of resources to share, and whether you are interested in technical writing as a career, or just want to be able document your code, or communicate better, this list might have something for you.
Write the Docs
Write the Docs is a global community of people who care about documentation. The site includes a documentation guide among other resources, and there is also a Slack Community. There you can chat to other people who care about docs, discover resources, and ask for help.
Video: Technically Speaking
A recording of a talk given by my colleague, Alexandra White. It’s a great introduction to documentation for developers, with plenty of practical tips to make it seem less overwhelming.
I’d Rather Be Writing
This blog is from a fellow Google technical writer, Tom Johnson. The site also hosts Tom’s excellent API documentation course.
Book: Docs for Developers
Written for engineers, this book aims to be a field guide for creating great technical documentation.
Everything Technical Writing
A blog about technical writing with posts covering everything from self-editing to handling managers who don’t understand the value of documentation.
The Good Docs Project
This project provides templates and help for people documenting open source projects.
Google Season of Docs
This is kicking off again for 2023. Google Season of Docs provides support for open source projects to hire writers to improve their documentation. Applications start from 15 February, 2023.
Google Technical Writing
Courses and information about technical writing from Google. You might spot a familiar face, when meeting some technical writers.
Google Developer Documentation Style Guide
This is the style guide we use at Google, and it’s one of the best I’ve worked with, and is full of practical examples. When we write content at Google we try to make it accessible to as many people as possible, all around the world, and that should be the aim for all technical writing.
ffeathers
Another blog from a Google technical writer. This is the technical writing and fiction blog of Sarah Maddox.
Technical Writing Fundamentals
Aimed at people contributing content to GitLab, this builds on the Google technical writing courses linked above.
What it’s like being a technical writer at GDS
If you are interested in the sort of work technical writers do, this post described the work of writers at the Government Digital Service (GDS) in the UK. You can also read a technical writer job description from GDS.
If you have any favourite writing resources drop a link in the comments.
One Comment
Thank you so much for posting this concise and helpful resource! I’m a software architect trying to help my team improve our internal documentation and I plan to work my way through all this! Great stuff.