How to Create a Technical Writer's Portfolio

Make your technical writer's portfolio more than just a haphazard collection of past writing samples. Challenge yourself to design a portfolio to showcase your ample and diversified writing experience. Since confidentiality clauses prohibit you from showing potential employers your actual work product, use the tips below to design a unique portfolio comprised of unpublished writing samples.

Instructions

1. Get package inserts attached to medicines in your home. Rewrite the directions, indications, warnings, side effects and contraindications for the products using a fraction of the words in the original. Attach the insert to your re-write and use this as your first technical writing sample.

2. Review the instruction manual attached to any appliance you possess. Draft your own manual using simpler language. Include extras, such as writing recipes for a food processor. Put both the original manual and your rewritten version in your portfolio.

3. Focus on an object or appliance manufacturers sell unassembled. Write assembly instructions for it. Assume that you're instructing buyers who normally don't assemble things.

4. Write a training procedure for a common activity, such as teaching a child to ride a bike or a dog to sit. Use less than ten steps to accomplish the task with brevity.

5. Choose a computer program most people regard as complicated. Write a short technical training manual introducing beginners to the program. Use simple language explaining how to perform basic operations.

6. Conclude your portfolio by explaining how you created it. Imagine you are advising novice technical writers how to create their own portfolios. Guide them through the steps you followed in making yours.