hacktoberfest for technical writers

The goal of Hacktoberfest, the annual month-long event, is to celebrate open-source and encourage open-source contributors throughout October.

Technical writers are an important part of the open-source community. Without documentation, open-source projects are bound to be underutilised, misunderstood, and inaccessible to many potential contributors and users.

Hacktoberfest is sponsored by DigitalOcean and open to everyone—developers, designers, and even technical writers. Not just coders. So, if you’re a technical writer who would love to contribute to open-source starting October, here’s all you need to know.

Why Technical Writers should contribute to Open-Source

There are a number of reasons why you might want to contribute to open-source. Some of which include:

  • To gain experience: If you’re a beginner in technical writing, you might be looking for live projects to work on. Hacktoberfest is a great way to go about that. You can contribute to existing documentation, and help some projects resolve issues, while gaining the experience you need.
  • Expand your portfolio: You might not be a beginner, but you could be looking for ways to contribute to high-visibility open-source projects that can enhance your professional profile. If the shoe fits, Hacktoberfest might be for you. This is a great way to showcase your skills in writing and organising documentation. If you contribute to four open-source projects, at the end of October, you have four more projects on your portfolio.
  • Learn new technologies: If you’d like to learn new things while being hands-on, open-source creates opportunities for that. By working on open-source projects, you can gain hands-on experience with new tools, documentation platforms, and even programming languages.
  • Collaboration with developers: Hacktoberfest fosters collaboration. As a technical writer, you might get to work with developers, gaining insights into how they think and develop software, which improves your writing for technical audiences.
  • Support the open-source community: The internet thrives on open-source contributions from people across the globe. As a technical writer, you can make a significant impact by making projects easier to use and understand.
  • Get badges of honour: There might not be free T-shirts this year, but you get a digital badge for every contribution that’s accepted. This way you can show the whole world that your contributions matter!

What you can contribute as a Technical Writer

At this point, you might be thinking “What contributions can I make.” Well, here are some ways you can contribute to open-source as a technical writer.

  1. Improving documentation: Poor documentation can reduce a project’s usability. As a technical writer, you can provide clarity and completeness in user guides, API documentation, installation instructions, and tutorials.
  2. Creating new content: You can also develop new how-to guides, FAQs, contributing guides, and troubleshooting sections to make projects more accessible to beginners.
  3. Editing and proofreading: Many open-source projects have documentation that needs editing for grammar, structure, or tone. You can provide those much-needed edits, with reasons to support your changes.
  4. Localisation and accessibility: You can help localise content, so that non-English speakers can easily navigate the documentation. Making content more accessible to users with disabilities by following best practices is another way you can improve documentation.

How to start contributing as a Technical Writer

Now that the questions “how” and “what” have been answered, let’s move long to the how.

  1. Create a Github and Gitlab account if you don’t have one yet.
  2. Register to participate on the Hacktoberfest website. Registration is open.
  3. Find projects that need documentation help. Look for repositories with labels like hacktoberfest, documentation, help wanted, or good first issue.You can also explore websites or forums like Hashnode, Dev.to or Reddit, where developers might highlight documentation needs or projects seeking technical writing support.
  4. If you’re new to open source, start with smaller tasks like fixing typos, improving formatting, or clarifying instructions. You can build up to creating entire tutorials or reorganising larger documentation sets.
  5. Always engage with the project maintainers before making changes. Good communication ensures your contributions align with the project’s tone and style.
  6. Learn Git and Markdown. While you don’t need to code, understanding the basics of Git (for version control) and Markdown (for formatting) is essential. There are plenty of beginner resources available online.

Open-source projects for Technical Writers to contribute to

There are lots open-source projects that actively welcome contributions from technical writers. Here are some really cool projects where you can make a meaningful impact:

ps: this list would be updated as I come across more.

Also, if you find projects you’d love to contribute to without any open issues, feel free to open new issues, or PRs to make your contribution!

Challenges you might face and how to overcome them

  1. Finding the right projects: Use GitHub’s advanced search tools and the Hacktoberfest repository recommendations to locate documentation issues.
  2. Learning Git: If you’re not familiar with Git, GitHub provides free tutorials for you, and there are many free courses to help you understand version control.
  3. Staying motivated: Writing for open source can sometimes feel unrewarding, but remember that your work improves accessibility and usability for potentially thousands of users.

After Contributing: What’s Next?

Contributing to open-source should not end when Hacktoberfest is over. Once you’ve made your first contribution to a project, you can start thinking of the next steps to continue your growth, and your involvement with the community.

Here are some suggestions for what to do after contributing:

  1. Take time to assess what you learned during the process. What skills did you develop? What challenges did you face? Reflecting on your experiences can help you identify areas for improvement and growth.
  2. Stay active. Join the project’s community by participating in discussions or forums. This can help deepen your understanding of the project and build valuable relationships.
  3. Ask for feedback. You should feel free to ask for feedback on your contributions from maintainers or other community members. Constructive feedback can give you insights on how to improve your skills for future contributions.
  4. Contribute more. Look for other areas within the project where you can contribute. Continuous involvement can solidify your place in the community.
  5. Share your experience. You can write a blog post, create a video, or even tweet about your contribution journey. Let the world know the impact of your contribution. This might even inspire someone else to start contributing.

Hacktoberfest is an excellent opportunity for technical writers to make a real impact on open-source software. Either through polishing existing content or creating new guides, your contributions help make projects easier to use and more accessible to everyone. Plus, you’ll build skills, network with professionals, and strengthen your portfolio along the way.

Happy Hacktoberfest!

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