Episode 7 of Standard Deviation Podcast brings you an interesting conversation about technical writing. How do you get started in this field? What are some important resources and tips for improving how you write technical documentation as a marketer or digital analyst? Our guest for this episode was Tina Luedtke, Technical Writer @ Google. Tina works in the talented team behind Google Tag Manager's documentation. About Tina: Tina’s passion for technology led her to study Technical Writing and Communication in Munich, Germany. She graduated during the pandemic, and her plan was to move to the United States together with her husband - but we all know how the pandemic messed with our lives. Because she was all packed up and ready to leave, but the US border was closed, she embarked on a digital nomad journey through Europe. Eventually, Tina and her husband settled in London, where she started her technical writing career as a freelancer in Open Source. She was able to move to California in 2021 and now works at Google as a technical writer.
1. New CSS Selectors course is now available on TeamSimmer.com - use coupon code "DEVIATE" for 10% off on individual course purchases - https://www.teamsimmer.com/checkout/css-selectors/css-details/
2. Sign-up for the Simmer newsletter to keep up to date with everything happening in technical marketing (more content coming soon) - https://www.teamsimmer.com/
3. New gtag.js article on Juliana's Technical Marketing Blog - https://juliana-jackson.com/gtagjs-ga4-implementation-guide/
4. Connect with Tina on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tina-luedtke
5. Templates for tech docs: https://gitlab.com/tgdp/templates -- Hands-on templates to support you with writing docs. Occasionally new templates get added after they have been through a peer-review process.
6. The Good Docs project: https://thegooddocsproject.dev/community/ -- The Good Docs Project community. They also welcome people who just gotten started in the documentation and want to embark on the journey to becoming a tech writer. There's a good mix of novices and experienced writers, so you usually find good mentors.
7. Technical writing courses from Google: https://developers.google.com/tech-writing/overview -- These are great for people who need to write docs but don't want to become fully-fledged tech writers.
8. Season of Docs: https://developers.google.com/season-of-docs
9. Tina's blogpost for Season of docs: https://opensource.googleblog.com/2023/02/kickstarting-your-tech-writing-career-with-open-source.html -- This should also have some wisdom nuggets in it for people who usually don't write docs.