Leveling-up by sharing what you know with others

Introduction

The Impostor Syndrome is something virtually all Developers struggle with. At its core, diagram (see Developers: How to Overcome Impostor Syndrome) below sums up this syndrome very accurately and concisely.

The impact of the Impostor Syndrome is it impacts your belief that you have knowledge and experience worth sharing. But take heart! Despite the fact that the left side of the diagram above is how you may feel, the right hand side is far closer to reality.

One way to overcome the Impostor Syndrome, and to improve what you know at the same time, is to share with others in an article or video. The advantages you will gain from this include:

1. Increase your knowledge of the subject from the research you conduct for the article or video.
2. Your article or video can be added to your portfolio and resume to demonstrate your expertise to peers and prospective employers
3. Giving back to the Developer community at large

Examples

Some examples of articles and videos created by members of the Chingu community are:

• Keys to a well written README
• Understanding Redux Middleware

It is Time to Get Started!

What follows are guidelines to help you create content that will be relevant, easily understood, and professionally formatted. These can be used as your checklist as you create content:

1. Choose a Topic
2. Research and Collect References
3. Organize your Presentation
4. Write your Article or Script
5. Publish your Work

Throughout this article we’ll use the general term content to refer to both articles and videos.

Choosing a Topic

The first step in creating an article or video is to choose a topic. The following will help whether you already have a topic in mind or if you want to create one, but aren’t sure how to start.

Finding a Topic

To find a topic you’d like to write about the best place to start is by thinking about your own experiences.

• What is something you have found difficult?
• What tips or advice have you found that made something easier?
• What errors have you made that others might be able to learn from?
• What techniques have you discovered that improved the speed and/or quality of your work?
• What is something you feel passionate about?

Other sources of inspiration can come from:

• Posts in the Chingu Discord channels, especially the #ask-cohort-n-code-questions channel on the Chingu Discord server.
• Questions and conversations with colleagues at work or school.
• Posts on sites such as StackOverflow and Reddit.
• Articles or videos that presented an overview of an interesting topic, but didn’t go into the depth you thought was needed.
• Articles or videos you’ve seen that you thought were incomplete, overly simplified, or contained errors.

Refining Your Topic

Once you’ve chosen a topic take a step back and ask yourself “who is this being created for and if it has the right level of focus?” Is it so broad that its value for the reader or viewer will be diluted? Is it so narrow that it becomes esoteric? You might decide that a broad or narrow topic is what you want to cover, but keep in mind that having the right level of focus will improve the value your content has for the target audience.

For example, let’s assume you want to create an article with the working title “Parameter Passing in React” for an audience of experienced React developers. In this case the article may be too broad since an experienced React developer is most likely already aware of the different ways parameters can be passed between components. This is probably more appropriate for someone just starting out with React if it is an overview of the different ways parameters can be passed.

For an experienced developer a more focused article explaining in detail how to pass parameters between components using a specific technique would be more helpful. In this case your options are to either change the focus of the article or its target audience.

This may sound overly simplistic, but having a clear understanding of both your topic and who it is intended for subtly, but measurably impacts what you write, how you compose it, and its value to the reader or viewer.

If you are unsure about the topic you have selected, or if you just want feedback, reach out to your peers to get their advice and opinions!

Complexity

It’s important to keep in mind that you shouldn’t treat the content (i.e. articles or videos) you create in the same way you would a formal thesis. The best content does not have to be complicated. Quite often the most useful content addresses a situation or problem you’ve encountered that also affects others. Think about the types of roadblocks you have hit in your development workflow that is also likely to impact other developers.

For example, how do you deploy an app to a hosting platform? What are Cross Origin Request Sharing (CORS)? How do you secure sensitive environment variables? How do events impact attributes in an HTML page and the Javascript logic needed to intercept and process them? What are ‘props’ in a React application and why are they important? What is a development workflow and how does it relate to an Agile methodology?

The point isn’t that complex topic is bad. It’s that the content your audience will find most helpful starts by answering the simple questions frequently encountered by developers. In reality you will sometimes discover that a seemingly simple topic can evolve into something more complex so it is advisable to begin from a simpler starting point.

Researching and Collecting References

Once you have decided on a topic it is time to look for resources containing information to help you support the theme(s) you are creating and to help you increase your understanding of the subject.

As you find relevant resources it is important to maintain a list of references so you will be able to cite them in your work. Many instances of plagiarism are not intentional. They are the result of neglecting to properly cite references and sloppy or non-existent validation of source material.

For each reference this list should include:

• Title
• URL / ISBN Publication # and date
• (Optional) Your notes about how you intend to use this reference

Despite the fact that this is defined as the “second” step in a content creation process, it is something that doesn’t happen only once. You will find that this is a continuous effort from the time you start preparing content until it is published.

Organizing Your Presentation

You are now ready to start writing!!! Well, not quite yet. First you need to give some thought to how you will categorize the sub-topics you will by covering and the sequence in which they will be presented.

Creating an outline is an effective tool to help you accomplish this goal. This might take the form of a traditional outline, or it may start as a list of headings that you add notes and comments under. Think of the outline as a “sketch” of your article in the same way an artist creates a sketch before starting to paint a portrait.

Every article or video contains three unique sections. You can start your outline with these and add additional sections and subsections as you see fit. By the time your outline is complete you typically find that new sections and subsections replace the body.

1. Introduction — Defines what the goal of the article/video, the target audience, and why it is important
2. Body — This is where you explain the details of what, why, where, when, and how necessary to address the topic. You’ll want to progress in a logical fashion showing what the issue is, alternative methods for solving it, explaining the advantages and disadvantages of different techniques, and the details of the preferred technique(s).
3. Conclusion — Provides closure by summarizing the key points in the body, repeating why this is important, and providing encouragement to the target audience to ask questions and try it out on their own.

Writing is never easy, but having an outline before you sit down to write will makes it more straightforward and, more importantly, results in content that has a logical order that is and easier to read or view.

Also keep in mind that it is important to review and revise your outline not just once, but until the concepts and ideas in it flow in a logical and complete manner.

Writing Your Article/Script

Once your outline is complete, or nearly so, you are ready to begin translating it into prose. Start by creating a heading for each section in your outline. Then begin the process of translating the notes in the outline into sentences and paragraphs in each of the sections.

Writing more than just translating notes into sentences and paragraphs. How those elements are composed and how they flow to support your central argument is important. Also important is to follow accepted rules and guidelines to improve the clarity of what you create and how it is received.

These are are especially important if you will be sharing your work with peers and prospective employers since well written content shows a level of professionalism and that you care about your work.

• Use Good Grammar — The importance of following the rules of your written language, whether that be English or Hindi, can’t be overly stressed. Good grammar aids the user in being able to quickly and clearly understand what you are saying. Poor grammar is also a distraction and can lead to misinterpretation or to your readers or viewers simply giving up and moving on.
• Write Simply — Don’t try to impress your reader by using complex words or phrasing. Clarity and readability is almost always improved by writing in a simple style. This also includes making sure every word you use is needed, writing short sentences and paragraphs and eliminating “fluff” words that don’t add meaning and only lengthen what you are writing. For example, words like very, more, and rather.

“Readability is very much improved by writing in a much more simple style” → “Readability is improved by writing in a simpler style.”

• Consider Your International Audience — You should assume that many of your readers will be English speakers as their second language and assume that they may have trouble understanding colloquialisms, local references, and contractions.
• Spell Check Your Work — Correct spelling is also very important and in this day and age, with spell checkers embedded in almost all writing tools, there is no excuse for spelling errors in your work.
• Define Acronyms — An old joke says there are two kinds of acronyms — three-letter acronyms (TLA’s) and four-letter acronyms (FLA’s). Acronyms are useful shortcuts for commonly used phrases. But make sure to list the phrase and its acronym in parentheses when it is first used to help your readers understand what the letters mean. For uncommon acronyms you might also consider adding a more detailed definition and why they are important.
• Give Credit Where Credit is Due — When using your reference material be sure to cite your sources. This helps to avoid plagiarism and demonstrates your professionalism by the fact that you are recognizing the contributions of others. Two commonly used formats for citing other works are from the American Psychological Association (APA) and the Modern Language Association (MLA).
• Edit Before you Publish — Few, if any, first drafts are ready to be published. That is why they are called first drafts. Taking the time to review and revise what you’ve written produces stronger and more polished content. You might also want to put yourself in the place of your target audience and read your article or script out loud. Hearing how it sounds is a good technique for finding phrasing issues and cadence.
• _Don’t be a Perfectionist — _As important as it may be to conduct multiple edits you should balance the number of edits against the reality that what you produce is useful only if it reaches the audience! Use the rule of diminishing returns to determine when it is time to stop editing.

If you are creating a video your script will have these same elements, however it should be in the form of a more detailed outline rather than an article. When presenting you’ll use this script as a guide to ensure you include all the necessary topics and key points.

Video Considerations

If you are creating a video there are a few additional guidelines you should follow to make your presentation even better.

• Speak Clearly — Speak clearly and at a slower pace. The latter is especially important when presenting technical topics, which may be difficult for the audience to comprehend if you speak too fast. It is also helpful to those in a global audience who didn’t learn English as their first language.
• Prepare Your Environment — Video has the added elements of picture and sound that you don’t have to worry about when writing an article. Be sure to remove any visual or audible distractions that might detract from your presentation. Some specific tips are to ensure you camera is focused, tidy up the area visible to the camera, mute your phone, turn off any audio sources such as your television, make sure the area is well lit, and take the time to test your video and audio.
• Think About Your Appearance — Video presentations may be informal and relaxed, but remember that it is you the audience sees and your audience might include friends, professional colleagues and even prospective employers. You don’t have to wear a suit and tie or a formal dress, but what you wear should be appropriate.
• Conduct a Dress Rehearsal — Practice your presentation and get used to using your script as your guide. You shouldn’t read from it verbatim since that results in a stilted and stiff presentation. Your goal is to stay relaxed and speak naturally. It is always a good idea to record your dress rehearsal and to play it back so you can see what works in your presentation and what needs improvement.

Publishing Your Work

Your work is almost done and luckily, publishing it is the easiest step in the content creation process.

Publishing an Article

Follow these steps to submit your article to the Chingu Publication:

1. If you haven’t yet been added as a writer for the Chingu Publication contact one of the Chingu administrators.
2. Once you receive an email notification indicating you been added as a writer you will be authorized to submit your article as a New Story to the Chingu Publication
3. When you submit your article the Chingu team will review it and may suggest revisions or corrections.
4. Once the editing process is finished the Chingu team will approve your article and you’ll receive a notification that it has been published. At that point you’ll see it on the Chingu Publication page.

Publishing a Video

The process for submitting your video to the Chingu Channel is even easier. Simply upload your video to YouTube and then contact a Chingu administrator with its URL. You will be contacted when it has been added to the Chingu Channel.

Conclusion

Creating useful content, whether it be an article or a video is hard work. But as with most hard things the rewards are proportional to the work that goes into them. Even though you may feel exposed and fearful at the prospect of sharing your knowledge with others, there are many benefits you can gain from it.

Creating content gives you a deeper understanding about the topic you are presenting. There is an old and very true adage that says the best way to learn a subject is to teach it. There is a leveling up component that comes from the preparations you take as part of content creation process and the questions you’ll get from readers and viewers.

Sharing what you know is also an excellent way to counter the Impostor Syndrome. A large part of the syndrome comes from being hesitant and unsure about your knowledge as compared to others. It only makes sense that the effort you put into researching the subject you are presenting will increase your confidence in what you know, but also in your ability to learn new information and effectively communicate it to others.

Finally, remember that once you’ve published your article or video don’t forget this final critical step — Celebrate Your Success!