Tech Elevator was a full-stack software development bootcamp based in Cleveland, Ohio. They offered full and part-time bootcamps and teach students from diverse backgrounds to become software developers. Their career-readiness program, Pathway Program™, was nationally recognized.
At the time, students could choose to learn Java or C#. The bootcamp covered:
- Programming foundationals
- Backend development
- Web programming
- Full-stack development project
Project duration
October 2020 - March 2021
Project description
As the sole technical writer for the curriculum team, I was responsible for editing our technical curriculum before we delivered it to our students. Sometimes, I would receive drafts that had major style and grammar issues. As a result, it would take longer to complete my edits.
To solve this issue, I implemented Vale, a popular linter for writing. Vale helps you maintain a consistent and on-brand voice by allowing you to create your own custom rules, or you can use some pre-defined rules based on popular style guides.
I implemented rules based on the Google Developer Documentation Style Guide and taught the developers to use the linter in Visual Studio Code. As the developers worked on their drafts, Vale reported any major errors that needed to be fixed before they submitted drafts to me for review. Many of the developers I worked with responded positively to the linter and found it useful during the drafting process.
This approach reduced the number of documentation errors by 71%, allowing me to focus more on accurate code samples and larger structural improvements. While some warnings and suggestions remained, all critical errors were eliminated. Students and instructors reported improvements in the company’s technical curriculum.
Work samples
Tech Elevator’s curriculum is hosted in a private repository, so I cannot share links here. I can, however, share links to blog posts that I wrote about Vale: