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In the Season of Docs program, organizations work directly with technical writers to create, improve, and update documentation. Organizations select technical writers directly. Technical writers interested in working with organizations should submit a statement of interest, using the channel specified on the organization's proposal page.
Your statement of interest should include your contact information, information about your technical writing experience, and an outline of the work you would do with the organization. It should also highlight how you meet any specific requirements the organization has for technical writers. Read the project ideas page of the organization carefully to make sure you have included all the information they require.
This template is an outline to help you create your own statement of interest.
Personal information
- Include your name and email address. If you do not wish your name included in the public final case study reports, please note that in your proposal and provide a username.
Professional information
- A link to a publicly accessible portfolio of writing samples, or individual links to examples of your work.
- An overview of your recent technical writing experience: List your most recent technical writing roles or work experience. If you have open source documentation experience, include it here too. Summarize your role, the responsibilities of the role, and the work you completed. Provide dates where relevant.
- A link to your resume or curriculum vitae (CV).
- If the organization has set out certain requirements for the project, include a sentence or two describing how you meet those requirements, e.g. “I have participated in more than six docs fixits as a technical writer and led three docs fixits for my team at XYZ Industries in 2018, 2019, and 2020.”
- (Optional) Any other information you want to add. For example, your interest in technical documentation, why you want to participate in Season of Docs, or other relevant experience.
Project statement
- Project title. If the organization's project page lists several possible projects, make sure your statement of interest title reflects the project you wish to work on. If you are submitting a statement of interest to an organization that has not yet determined possible projects, your title should summarize the work you are proposing. For example, "Create Interactive ProjectX API Documentation" is a better title than "Documentation for ProjectX".
- Detailed description.
- Give a description of how you would approach the project that the organization stated on their project proposal page.
- Say how what you’re proposing will solve the problem or meet the goal that the organization set out on their project proposal page.
- Include a summary of any discussions you’ve had with members of the organization about the project.
- Pay attention to the language and style of your proposal. The open source organization may use these as a factor in assessing your proposal.
- Proposed timeline
- Give a general outline of the timeline and phases of the project. For example, you may budget two weeks for information gathering, four weeks for writing, two weeks for review and changes, and a week for publication.
- Include explicit expectations for participation and feedback from project members. For example, you may state that your timeline is dependent on receiving responses to queries within three days.
- Proposed budget
- We recommend that technical writers propose a budget for the entire project, rather than an hourly rate.
- If possible, give options for reduced or increased scope. For example, you may give different budget options for documenting deployment instructions for two, four, or six platforms.