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1 | | -<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" ><generator uri="https://jekyllrb.com/" version="4.4.1">Jekyll</generator><link href="http://localhost:4000/feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" /><link href="http://localhost:4000/" rel="alternate" type="text/html" /><updated>2025-06-04T19:54:55-04:00</updated><id>http://localhost:4000/feed.xml</id><title type="html">Devin Logan, Technical Writer and Editor</title><subtitle></subtitle><author><name> </name></author><entry><title type="html">Getting into technical writing: a primer</title><link href="http://localhost:4000/2025/05/23/primer.html" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Getting into technical writing: a primer" /><published>2025-05-23T00:00:00-04:00</published><updated>2025-05-23T00:00:00-04:00</updated><id>http://localhost:4000/2025/05/23/primer</id><content type="html" xml:base="http://localhost:4000/2025/05/23/primer.html"><![CDATA[<p>Over the past few years I’ve talked to a number of people who are interested in getting into the technical writing field. After years of meaning to do this, I finally took some time to write up the thoughts and resources I typically share with people looking to get into the field. This is far from a comprehensive guide and notably doesn’t include much specific resume or cover letter advice.</p> |
| 1 | +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" ><generator uri="https://jekyllrb.com/" version="4.4.1">Jekyll</generator><link href="http://localhost:4000/feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" /><link href="http://localhost:4000/" rel="alternate" type="text/html" /><updated>2025-06-04T20:03:20-04:00</updated><id>http://localhost:4000/feed.xml</id><title type="html">Devin Logan, Technical Writer and Editor</title><subtitle></subtitle><author><name> </name></author><entry><title type="html">Getting into technical writing: a primer</title><link href="http://localhost:4000/2025/05/23/primer.html" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Getting into technical writing: a primer" /><published>2025-05-23T00:00:00-04:00</published><updated>2025-05-23T00:00:00-04:00</updated><id>http://localhost:4000/2025/05/23/primer</id><content type="html" xml:base="http://localhost:4000/2025/05/23/primer.html"><![CDATA[<p>Over the past few years I’ve talked to a number of people who are interested in getting into the technical writing field. After years of meaning to do this, I finally took some time to write up the thoughts and resources I typically share with people looking to get into the field. This is far from a comprehensive guide and notably doesn’t include much specific resume or cover letter advice.</p> |
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3 | 3 | <p>I worked as a technical writer at Google for almost 7 years. (And wrote <a href="https://blog.google/inside-google/life-at-google/sowhat-does-technical-writer-actually-do/">this blog post</a> for Google’s The Keyword back in 2021, which captured my own journey into technical writing.) During that time, I interviewed a lot of candidates, including some people who were switching careers. Now, I’m a freelance technical writer and have spent a lot of time refining my resume and applying to jobs.</p> |
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52 | 52 |
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53 | 53 | <p>After a bit of trial and error (error = getting a lot of rejections!), I wrote a few samples that I’ve had pretty good success with. (Success to me is getting to the initial interview for a job that requires writing samples upfront.) Here they are:</p> |
54 | 54 | <ul> |
55 | | - <li><a href="2025-02-09-jekyll.md">Using an LLM to revamp my site</a></li> |
56 | | - <li><a href="2025-01-10-librarykobo.md">Managing library books on the Kobo Libra H2O</a></li> |
| 55 | + <li><a href="/2025/02/09/jekyll.html">Using an LLM to revamp my site</a></li> |
| 56 | + <li><a href="/2025/01/10/librarykobo.html">Managing library books on the Kobo Libra H2O</a></li> |
57 | 57 | </ul> |
58 | 58 |
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59 | 59 | <p>These aren’t really traditional “technical documentation” and I didn’t write them for a company, but they show a couple of critical things:</p> |
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82 | 82 | <ul> |
83 | 83 | <li><strong>Technical writing is broader than you might think.</strong> You don’t need to be an ex-engineer writing API docs. Many careers that involve some amount of writing and working with technology can translate well to technical writing, which brings me to the second takeaway…</li> |
84 | 84 | <li><strong>Your experience is more relevant than you realize.</strong> Whether you’re a teacher, marketer, or engineer, you likely have transferable skills. The key is learning to frame documentation you’ve written, teaching experience, or technical problem-solving as relevant technical writing experience.</li> |
85 | | -</ul>]]></content><author><name> </name></author><category term="ai" /><category term="tech" /><summary type="html"><![CDATA[Over the past few years I’ve talked to a number of people who are interested in getting into the technical writing field. After years of meaning to do this, I finally took some time to write up the thoughts and resources I typically share with people looking to get into the field. This is far from a comprehensive guide and notably doesn’t include much specific resume or cover letter advice.]]></summary></entry><entry><title type="html">Using (and not using) Claude to write book reviews</title><link href="http://localhost:4000/2025/03/12/aiproofreader.html" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Using (and not using) Claude to write book reviews" /><published>2025-03-12T00:00:00-04:00</published><updated>2025-03-12T00:00:00-04:00</updated><id>http://localhost:4000/2025/03/12/aiproofreader</id><content type="html" xml:base="http://localhost:4000/2025/03/12/aiproofreader.html"><![CDATA[<p>I write a lot about books on this site. I write about books because I love reading and I love writing about the books I read. Recently, I’ve been experimenting with using AI as part of my writing process, most notably for my two recent writeups on <em>The Count of Monte Cristo</em> and <em>The True Deceiver</em>.</p> |
| 85 | +</ul> |
| 86 | + |
| 87 | +<script data-goatcounter="https://dlog.goatcounter.com/count" async="" src="//gc.zgo.at/count.js"></script>]]></content><author><name> </name></author><category term="ai" /><category term="tech" /><summary type="html"><![CDATA[Over the past few years I’ve talked to a number of people who are interested in getting into the technical writing field. After years of meaning to do this, I finally took some time to write up the thoughts and resources I typically share with people looking to get into the field. This is far from a comprehensive guide and notably doesn’t include much specific resume or cover letter advice.]]></summary></entry><entry><title type="html">Using (and not using) Claude to write book reviews</title><link href="http://localhost:4000/2025/03/12/aiproofreader.html" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Using (and not using) Claude to write book reviews" /><published>2025-03-12T00:00:00-04:00</published><updated>2025-03-12T00:00:00-04:00</updated><id>http://localhost:4000/2025/03/12/aiproofreader</id><content type="html" xml:base="http://localhost:4000/2025/03/12/aiproofreader.html"><![CDATA[<p>I write a lot about books on this site. I write about books because I love reading and I love writing about the books I read. Recently, I’ve been experimenting with using AI as part of my writing process, most notably for my two recent writeups on <em>The Count of Monte Cristo</em> and <em>The True Deceiver</em>.</p> |
86 | 88 |
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87 | 89 | <p>I initially wrote these posts with no AI input whatsoever. I got about 90% done with the page, to the point where I was basically happy with the content and structure, but knew there were some repetitive bits and sentences that weren’t quite right but that for whatever reason was having a hard time fixing while maintaining my point.</p> |
88 | 90 |
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116 | 118 |
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117 | 119 | <p>When I was in high school, I’d print out drafts of English class essays and give it to my best friend to proofread. She’d return it to me later that day with it all marked up and a note on the back, and I’d do the same for her essays. Using Claude to edit my work felt like a surprisingly similar experience, except I got the edits back in a few seconds rather than a few hours. Claude wasn’t as thorough, harsh, or personal as my friend, but for this kind of personal writing that isn’t for a job (or a grade!) that works just fine for me.</p> |
118 | 120 |
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119 | | -<p>For this kind of personal writing, I don’t think I’ll ever use AI to write a first draft. That takes the fun out of writing. Also, for me writing is a way to get my thoughts in order and work out my opinion. Having Claude write a first draft would take away this processing stage, and I know my writing and my thoughts would suffer without it. But it’s great at clarifying my thoughts and firming up my points.</p>]]></content><author><name> </name></author><category term="ai" /><category term="tech" /><summary type="html"><![CDATA[I write a lot about books on this site. I write about books because I love reading and I love writing about the books I read. Recently, I’ve been experimenting with using AI as part of my writing process, most notably for my two recent writeups on The Count of Monte Cristo and The True Deceiver.]]></summary></entry><entry><title type="html">Truth, lies, and life in *The True Deceiver*</title><link href="http://localhost:4000/2025/02/21/truedeceiver.html" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Truth, lies, and life in *The True Deceiver*" /><published>2025-02-21T00:00:00-05:00</published><updated>2025-02-21T00:00:00-05:00</updated><id>http://localhost:4000/2025/02/21/truedeceiver</id><content type="html" xml:base="http://localhost:4000/2025/02/21/truedeceiver.html"><![CDATA[<p>My favorite book is <em>The True Deceiver</em> by Tove Jansson, famed creator of the Moomin comics. It was published in 1982 (late in Jansson’s life; she started creating the Moomin comics in the 1940s) and released in English in 2009.</p> |
| 121 | +<p>For this kind of personal writing, I don’t think I’ll ever use AI to write a first draft. That takes the fun out of writing. Also, for me writing is a way to get my thoughts in order and work out my opinion. Having Claude write a first draft would take away this processing stage, and I know my writing and my thoughts would suffer without it. But it’s great at clarifying my thoughts and firming up my points.</p> |
| 122 | + |
| 123 | +<script data-goatcounter="https://dlog.goatcounter.com/count" async="" src="//gc.zgo.at/count.js"></script>]]></content><author><name> </name></author><category term="ai" /><category term="tech" /><summary type="html"><![CDATA[I write a lot about books on this site. I write about books because I love reading and I love writing about the books I read. Recently, I’ve been experimenting with using AI as part of my writing process, most notably for my two recent writeups on The Count of Monte Cristo and The True Deceiver.]]></summary></entry><entry><title type="html">Truth, lies, and life in *The True Deceiver*</title><link href="http://localhost:4000/2025/02/21/truedeceiver.html" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Truth, lies, and life in *The True Deceiver*" /><published>2025-02-21T00:00:00-05:00</published><updated>2025-02-21T00:00:00-05:00</updated><id>http://localhost:4000/2025/02/21/truedeceiver</id><content type="html" xml:base="http://localhost:4000/2025/02/21/truedeceiver.html"><![CDATA[<p>My favorite book is <em>The True Deceiver</em> by Tove Jansson, famed creator of the Moomin comics. It was published in 1982 (late in Jansson’s life; she started creating the Moomin comics in the 1940s) and released in English in 2009.</p> |
120 | 124 |
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121 | 125 | <p>In <em>The True Deceiver</em>, Katri Kling and her brother Mats live in an isolated town in Sweden. That is, I assume it’s Sweden; the book contains no dates, no references to current events, no clue about the exact location or references to big cities. The book’s insularity makes it all the more compelling.</p> |
122 | 126 |
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182 | 186 | <li>A child dies as the result of a scenario that Monte Cristo overengineers.</li> |
183 | 187 | </ul> |
184 | 188 |
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185 | | -<p>Monte Cristo plays god, but he isn’t god. His morality is hard and brutal and not always actually moral. This moral ambiguity and the Count’s subtle back and forth between a righteous god and a megalomaniac makes the book incredibly gripping.</p>]]></content><author><name> </name></author><category term="books" /><summary type="html"><![CDATA[I bought a copy of The Count of Monte Cristo from my local Half Price Books when I was in high school. It remained on my shelf for all of high school, and I donated it (probably back to Half Price Books) when I went to college. Last month, over 15 years after I first bought the book, I finally read The Count of Monte Cristo. My first impression of the book was that it was boring. I thought it would be a lot more swashbuckling than it was – a tale of revenge! Perhaps I was also mixing up The Count of Monte Cristo with the author’s other famous work, The Three Musketeers. Even though I had a hard time getting into the book, once I was in it, I loved it. It’s a slow burn revenge plot – scenarios take years (and many chapters) for the Count of Monte Cristo to set up, but the final reveal is always incredible.]]></summary></entry><entry><title type="html">Using an LLM to revamp my site</title><link href="http://localhost:4000/2025/02/09/jekyll.html" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Using an LLM to revamp my site" /><published>2025-02-09T00:00:00-05:00</published><updated>2025-02-09T00:00:00-05:00</updated><id>http://localhost:4000/2025/02/09/jekyll</id><content type="html" xml:base="http://localhost:4000/2025/02/09/jekyll.html"><![CDATA[<p>Recently, I revamped this site to use Jekyll and Markdown instead of handwritten HTML. I used Claude to do it. Overall, I found that Claude is good for troubleshooting when you already have some domain experience.</p> |
| 189 | +<p>Monte Cristo plays god, but he isn’t god. His morality is hard and brutal and not always actually moral. This moral ambiguity and the Count’s subtle back and forth between a righteous god and a megalomaniac makes the book incredibly gripping.</p> |
| 190 | + |
| 191 | +<script data-goatcounter="https://dlog.goatcounter.com/count" async="" src="//gc.zgo.at/count.js"></script>]]></content><author><name> </name></author><category term="books" /><summary type="html"><![CDATA[I bought a copy of The Count of Monte Cristo from my local Half Price Books when I was in high school. It remained on my shelf for all of high school, and I donated it (probably back to Half Price Books) when I went to college. Last month, over 15 years after I first bought the book, I finally read The Count of Monte Cristo. My first impression of the book was that it was boring. I thought it would be a lot more swashbuckling than it was – a tale of revenge! Perhaps I was also mixing up The Count of Monte Cristo with the author’s other famous work, The Three Musketeers. Even though I had a hard time getting into the book, once I was in it, I loved it. It’s a slow burn revenge plot – scenarios take years (and many chapters) for the Count of Monte Cristo to set up, but the final reveal is always incredible.]]></summary></entry><entry><title type="html">Using an LLM to revamp my site</title><link href="http://localhost:4000/2025/02/09/jekyll.html" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Using an LLM to revamp my site" /><published>2025-02-09T00:00:00-05:00</published><updated>2025-02-09T00:00:00-05:00</updated><id>http://localhost:4000/2025/02/09/jekyll</id><content type="html" xml:base="http://localhost:4000/2025/02/09/jekyll.html"><
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