Writing your evaluation as a technical writer

Current phase:
The 2020 Season of Docs program finished on March 15, 2021. See timeline.

During the project finalization phase of Season of Docs, the participating technical writers evaluate their experiences with their mentors, their projects, and their overall participation in Season of Docs.

Submitting your evaluation

When project finalization phase opens, you will be able to submit your evaluation by completing a form that becomes available in the project finalization section of the technical writer guide.

Information to include in the evaluation

This section describes the type of information you can supply in your evaluation as a participating technical writer. The evaluation form will include free-text fields as well as multiple-choice questions.

Your achievements during Season of Docs:

  • Considering your original project plan, how close did you come to meeting all the goals you originally outlined?
  • On average, how many hours per week did you spend on your project during Season of Docs?
  • Comments about your achievements. Consider the following questions:

    • Did you solve unexpected problems?
    • Did you add needed docs that weren't on the original plan?
    • Did you contribute to the code as well as the documentation?
    • Did you improve the open source organization's contribution processes?
    • Are there any metrics to quantify your improvements, such as increased page views or page satisfaction?

Your experiences as a technical writer in Season of Docs:

  • What is your favorite part of participating in Season of Docs?
  • What do you consider the most challenging part of participating in Season of Docs?
  • Would you apply for Season of Docs again?
  • How would you rate your experience with Season of Docs overall?
  • Has Season of Docs helped improve your knowledge of code and/or open source?
  • Would you consider being a mentor for Season of Docs in the future?
  • What advice do you give to technical writers who're interested in participating in Season of Docs in the future, to help them prepare?
  • Comments on your experience as a technical writer in Season of Docs. For example, consider these questions:

    • Did you encounter an problems on joining an open source project as a writer rather than a developer?
    • If so, how did you and the mentor approach those problems?

Your experiences with your open source mentor(s) during Season of Docs:

  • Would you recommend your mentor(s) to other technical writers?
  • Rate the quality of interactions with your mentor(s).
  • How responsive were your mentor(s) to questions and requests for review?
  • Did you have any problems with your mentor(s) or the organization?
  • What can your mentor(s) or this organization do differently to better help technical writers in the future?
  • Do you have any feedback that you want to pass on to the open source organization and mentors?
  • Comments about the relationship with your mentor(s). For example, consider the following questions:

    • Did the mentoring relationship change during the program?
    • If so, how?

Your plans for and experience in open source:

  • Do you plan to continue to contribute to this open source organization?
  • Do you plan to contribute to more open source projects as a result of your experiences in Season of Docs?
  • Did you contribute docs or code to this open source organization before Season of Docs?
  • Have you contributed docs or code to any other open source project?

General:

  • Is there anything else you'd like to tell the Google program administrators, or do you have any suggestions on how we can improve the program?
  • Did you encounter any delightful surprises as a participant in Season of Docs?