Remote Technical Writer Portfolio: Samples That Prove You Can Write

Technical writing might be the most naturally remote-friendly profession there is. The entire job is about taking complex information and turning it into clear written communication. That's also the entire job description of a good remote worker. The overlap is nearly perfect.

So why do so many technical writers struggle to land remote roles? Usually it comes down to the portfolio. Either they don't have one, or the one they have doesn't do their skills justice.

Which is ironic, when you think about it. A writer without a strong portfolio is like a chef without a menu. You're asking people to take your word for it.

Why technical writers absolutely need portfolios

In some fields, the portfolio debate is ongoing. Not here. If your job is writing, people need to see your writing. There's no way around it.

Resumes tell a hiring manager where you've worked and what your titles were. Portfolios tell them whether you can actually do the work. And for remote roles, the stakes are even higher because your writing will be the primary way your team and your users experience your work.

A technical writer who can point to clear, well-structured documentation samples has an enormous advantage over one who can only describe their experience in abstract terms. "I wrote API documentation for a SaaS platform" is fine on a resume. But showing the actual documentation, with its clean structure, thoughtful examples, and consistent voice, that's what gets you hired.

What samples to include

The ideal portfolio shows range. Not every type of document ever written, but enough variety to prove you can handle whatever a role throws at you.

Product documentation. This is the bread and butter. User guides, feature documentation, getting-started guides. Include samples that show you can explain complex features in a way that someone with no prior context can follow. Pay attention to structure. Good technical writing is largely about organization, and hiring managers can see that at a glance.

API documentation. If you write for developer audiences, API docs are essential. A well-crafted API reference with clear endpoints, parameters, response examples, and error handling shows a specific and highly sought-after skill. Even if you've only written API docs once, include them.

Tutorials and how-to guides. These show a different skill than reference documentation. Tutorials need to walk someone through a process step by step, anticipating where they might get confused and addressing it proactively. Good tutorials are surprisingly hard to write, and a strong example really stands out.

Release notes or changelogs. These seem small, but they demonstrate a valuable ability: distilling technical changes into language that different audiences (users, developers, stakeholders) can understand. If you've written release notes that translated engineering jargon into clear user-facing language, that's worth showing.

Internal documentation. Process docs, onboarding guides, decision records, runbooks. These are less glamorous but incredibly relevant for remote roles, where internal documentation is the connective tissue that holds distributed teams together. If you've got samples, use them.

The paywall and NDA problem

Here's the catch: most of your best work is probably locked behind corporate logins, NDA agreements, or proprietary platforms. Your Confluence pages, your internal wikis, your help center articles that live behind a product login. You can't just link to them.

This is frustrating, but it's solvable.

Screenshots and excerpts. You often can't share a full document, but you can share screenshots of the structure, the table of contents, or a representative section. Pair it with a written explanation of the context: what the product was, who the audience was, what challenges you navigated.

Recreate similar samples. Take the skills you used on proprietary work and apply them to something you can share. Write a tutorial for an open-source tool. Document a public API. Create a getting-started guide for a popular framework. These spec samples demonstrate the same skills without any legal concerns.

Before-and-after rewrites. Find poorly written public documentation (there's no shortage of it) and rewrite it. Show the original and your improved version, with notes explaining your editorial decisions. This is incredibly effective because it shows your editorial eye and your ability to improve existing content, which is what you'll actually be doing on the job.

Contribute to open source. Many open-source projects desperately need better documentation. Contributing to one gives you portfolio-ready samples and demonstrates community involvement. Some of the strongest technical writer portfolios we've seen are built entirely on open-source contributions.

Creating spec samples that actually impress

If you need to create writing samples from scratch, approach it like a real project. Don't write a generic tutorial about something nobody cares about. Pick something relevant to the kinds of companies you want to work for.

Targeting developer tools companies? Write documentation for a real tool that has poor docs. Targeting healthcare tech? Write a patient-facing guide for using a health app. The closer your spec samples match the domain you're targeting, the more effective they are.

Structure your spec samples the same way you'd structure professional work. Include a brief context note at the top: "This is a spec sample demonstrating my approach to API documentation. The API is real (Stripe's webhook endpoint), and I've rewritten the documentation to demonstrate my process."

This shows self-awareness and professionalism. Hiring managers appreciate the transparency.

Async communication: your hidden superpower

Remote technical writers are valued for something beyond their documentation skills: their ability to communicate clearly in async environments. And your portfolio is the perfect place to demonstrate this.

Think about it. Every well-written portfolio description, every clear case study, every thoughtfully structured project page is evidence that you communicate well in writing. The portfolio itself is a writing sample.

But you can be more explicit about it too. Mention experience with async review processes. Talk about how you've collaborated with engineers and product managers across time zones. Describe how you've handled documentation review cycles through tools like Google Docs comments, GitHub pull requests, or Notion.

Remote companies aren't just hiring someone to write docs. They're hiring someone who will raise the communication bar for the entire team. If you can signal that, you're ahead of most candidates.

Structuring your portfolio for maximum impact

Keep it simple. Technical writers who overthink their portfolio structure are usually procrastinating on the hard part, which is selecting and presenting their best samples.

Lead with your strongest sample. Whatever your best piece is, put it first. Hiring managers often only look at one or two samples before making a decision.

Provide context for every sample. A writing sample without context is hard to evaluate. For each piece, include a brief note: what the product was, who the audience was, what your role was, and any constraints you worked within.

Show range, but don't overwhelm. Four to six samples is plenty. Enough to show versatility, not so many that someone feels overwhelmed choosing what to look at.

Make samples easy to read. PDFs that require downloading are friction. Screenshots in a gallery are hard to read. Whenever possible, present your writing in a format that's easy to scan directly on the page.

Get it out there

The best time to build your portfolio was six months ago. The second best time is right now. Don't wait until you're actively job hunting. A portfolio that's been live for a while, with consistent quality across the samples - that reads very differently than one thrown together during a job search.

RemoteWorks makes the logistics easy: pick a template, add your samples and context, and you've got a professional portfolio live in minutes. Spend your energy on curating the right samples and writing great context descriptions. That's where a technical writer's portfolio is won or lost.

Your writing is your proof. Let people see it.