Creating Your Writing Portfolio Melissa Kulm Staff Technical

Creating Your Writing Portfolio Melissa Kulm Staff Technical Writer, Salesforce mkulm@salesforce. com http: //www. linkedin. com/in/mkulm GMU Writing and Rhetoric Career Day April 21, 2014

Who am I? • Technical communicator with 23 years of experience • STC competition judge and literacy volunteer • Currently write documentation for Salesforce developers and administrators

What will we cover? ¡ ¡ ¡ What do YOU want to cover? Why you need a portfolio How to obtain and curate material Online portfolio examples Q&A

Why you need a portfolio Show your skills and back up your resume ¡ Create a good impression ¡ Engage the interview team ¡ Catalog your past work ¡

How to get material School ¡ Work and Internships ¡ l Caution: Proprietary Volunteer work ¡ Personal work ¡ l l Your resume Personal Web site ¡ ¡ Be aware of search engines and information privacy Optimize samples for speed and browser compatibility

How to curate and organize material Choose 8 -12 pieces of your BEST work ¡ Put material in context ¡ l l l Identify audience and purpose Identify problem and solution Before/after stories rock! Group according to subject or media ¡ Limit number of pages per sample; no tomes ¡

Online Portfolio Examples ¡ Linked. In ¡ ¡ Web sites ¡ ¡ ¡ http: //www. rachelworks. com/portfolio/index. html http: //dianawidjaja. com/ Consultant: http: //www. cybertext. com. au/services_doc_samples. htm Academic: http: //mindymcadams. com/sites. htm Blogs ¡ ¡ https: //www. linkedin. com/in/mkulm http: //everypageispageone. com/ Git. Hub Pages l http: //dianawidjaja. github. io/aura-library/

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