How do I work with a content writer?

Articulating Your Design Vision to a Writer

Hi! I’m Angela. I’m a content writer who works with the LXDs at WGU Labs. I’m taking over the LXD blog for a minute to share a series of posts to offer new and experienced designers tips on getting the most out of your work with a writer.

Let’s say that you’ve asked a content writer to play the role of supporter on your latest project (Read about the writer’s different roles here). You’ve shared your vision with them at a project kickoff meeting, and are trusting them to do all the writing. As they write, they come to you with questions, and you think you’re completely on the same page. But when you review the content, it isn’t what you’re looking for at all.

Why did this happen?

There’s a big difference between telling a content writer your vision and offering them the correct tools, at the right time, to see and internalize the vision themselves.

Include Writers as Early as Possible on the Project
Incorporating the content writer as early as possible in the project can go a long way in meeting deadlines and maximizing your time and productivity with a writer. Building the vision for a project together, when possible, can go a long way in minimizing miscommunication.

3 Strategies for Clearly Articulating Your Design Vision to Writers

Drawing on my experiences as a content writer at WGU Labs, here are three helpful strategies designers can use to make sure they’re clearly articulating their design vision to writers.

#1: Clearly explain the writer’s tasks in the Project Kickoff Meeting.

Writers are usually brought into a project after the designer has already done a lot of preliminary research and work. The designer knows so much about the project that when they come to the kickoff, they sometimes talk about the project at a much higher level than the writers are ready for. This sometimes causes the writers to leave the meeting uncertain about what they’re supposed to do, so they may ask a lot of questions after that meeting to try to understand what you’re looking for.

What can designers do about this?

• Don’t try to cover everything because less is more. Just give us a general overview and our tasks. Answer the questions: Who are we doing the project for? What’s the goal of the project? What specifically will the writer/s be doing?
• Make Research Findings Relevant to Tasks. Tell us some of your research findings, but make sure those findings are tied directly to the specific tasks you’d like the writer/s to do.
• Remember that timing is everything. Create another meeting after the writer/s have grounded themselves in the basics to go deeper into the project and research. If you give too much info, too soon, you’ll find yourself explaining again.

#2: Include the writer in your user testing or research.

At Labs, designers often give content writers summaries of their preliminary research findings. These summaries are great, but as a writer, it often feels like we’re getting a partial view of the data and why the designer came to certain conclusions, making it harder to write.

What can designers do about this?

• Give the writer access to your research. Show us the information you know, so that we can dig into it personally, draw ideas from it for ourselves.
• Include the writer in user testing. Let us listen to recordings of your user interviews, or better yet, invite us to the actual interviews so we can ask questions.
• Discuss Insights and Develop the Vision Together. In this discussion, both parties benefit. The writer can see how you’re formulating the ideas you are, where the vision is coming from. The designer can get insights into data that they may not have considered before. This helps you form the vision together.

#3: Ask the writer to create an outline before writing the first draft.

After the kickoff, one way to know if you and the writer are on the same page, in terms of vision, is to ask them to do an outline. Doing this helps you both get on the same page cause you can see how the other person is thinking.

What can designers do with this?

• Include comments in the outline in areas that point out areas in the writing that don’t match the project vision. Doing this can help the writer to understand better what you’re looking for and can help you see where you can more clearly articulate the vision. It might even show that you may need to go back and rethink the vision because it might be unclear to you, too.

Talk with Your Writers to Discover What Works for You

These are strategies that have worked well for our team of content writers and LXDs at WGU Labs for making sure we’re on the same page about a project vision. But we recognize that not all writers are the same and may not have the same needs in terms of understanding a design vision.

We hope that you’ll use this post as a jumping off point to begin the conversation with your own writers to figure out what works best for you and your team.

About Labs
WGU Labs invents, builds, and enables innovative education products and offerings that multiply the effects of WGU’s mission to have a transformative impact on higher education: to expand access, improve quality, and optimize student outcomes. Click here to visit our webpage to learn more about our team, the projects we’re working on, and our expanding list of partners.

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