How to flesh out my corporate writing?
December 3, 2021 6:40 AM Subscribe
I am working on a few contracts that use my ability to consume large amounts of policy and research information and summarize key points applied to local community development questions. But - my output is bulleted lists, lots of parentheticals, direct quotations from key source materials, and somewhat unrefined ... something (see what I mean?). What's the next step for learning to turn that into a nice PDF with lots of words that sound good?
Besides just adding more words, I also want to learn more about when is the right time to say something. Like, is it better to put the conclusion as the first sentence and then explain in the next few paragraphs, or is it better to lead the reader through the journey of arriving at the conclusion?
And also - What's the right way to use information from source materials? If a brilliant research study has already written a clear explanation, I'd prefer to insert the whole thing as a block quote and link to the original PDF. But these are bespoke reports, and it looks to me like people are able to summarize and re-write the source material, often with little attribution, all while maintaining the voice of an authority on the topic.
I don't have time or energy for taking classes, doing writing exercises, or following Ben Franklin's method . I'd love a useful book or guide or methodology for identifying ways to improve my writing and working on that through the writing I already do.
Finally, I want to be realistic about how much I'm really able to change my writing. I'm very conversational, very good at reflecting and organizing information that another person has, and I rely on bouncing ideas off people to do my best writing. (I like to say I do my best thinking inside other people's heads.) And I've worked since grad school to write at a 10th grade reading level (although it's been quite a while since I checked if I'm still doing that).
Besides just adding more words, I also want to learn more about when is the right time to say something. Like, is it better to put the conclusion as the first sentence and then explain in the next few paragraphs, or is it better to lead the reader through the journey of arriving at the conclusion?
And also - What's the right way to use information from source materials? If a brilliant research study has already written a clear explanation, I'd prefer to insert the whole thing as a block quote and link to the original PDF. But these are bespoke reports, and it looks to me like people are able to summarize and re-write the source material, often with little attribution, all while maintaining the voice of an authority on the topic.
I don't have time or energy for taking classes, doing writing exercises, or following Ben Franklin's method . I'd love a useful book or guide or methodology for identifying ways to improve my writing and working on that through the writing I already do.
Finally, I want to be realistic about how much I'm really able to change my writing. I'm very conversational, very good at reflecting and organizing information that another person has, and I rely on bouncing ideas off people to do my best writing. (I like to say I do my best thinking inside other people's heads.) And I've worked since grad school to write at a 10th grade reading level (although it's been quite a while since I checked if I'm still doing that).
Response by poster: My clients don't tell me "You need to improve this" but I would like to be able to finish the content myself instead of handing the summary back to them and saying "Now you flesh this out."
posted by rebent at 7:36 AM on December 3, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by rebent at 7:36 AM on December 3, 2021 [1 favorite]
Who besides a client can provide you feedback? If you’re a solo freelancer, can you afford an editor or at least a student to look at your writing?
If looking for a single resource, try some of the articles at Purdue OWL.
posted by michaelh at 11:27 AM on December 3, 2021
If looking for a single resource, try some of the articles at Purdue OWL.
posted by michaelh at 11:27 AM on December 3, 2021
I found a lot of good similar advice by looking for guidelines for writing policy papers. I don't have any favorite links offhand but there are a lot of good resources out there at universities. And it's aimed at people who may not have a lot of academic writing experience, so it's easy to digest.
posted by sepviva at 3:40 PM on December 3, 2021
posted by sepviva at 3:40 PM on December 3, 2021
It seems like a context where people are going to be a lot less concerned about originality and more about whether useful information is presented in a usable form. So I wouldn't worry overmuch about how you format quotations.
What I have found in many years of corporate life is that people tend not to read long documents. I always add an "executive summary" at the top -- two paragraphs at most -- giving the key takeaways I want to get across to folks who look at it and say tl;dr.
posted by Chlorine at 7:16 AM on December 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
What I have found in many years of corporate life is that people tend not to read long documents. I always add an "executive summary" at the top -- two paragraphs at most -- giving the key takeaways I want to get across to folks who look at it and say tl;dr.
posted by Chlorine at 7:16 AM on December 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
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What's the right way to use information from source materials?
Totally depends on the project and the client. For one project, I attributed a statistic or quote to a particular research firm. The client asked for the title of the paper the information was drawn from, and then agreed to keep the attribution as it was because the information came from a blog post by the research firm, not a white paper or anything with an impressive title.
Some clients expect footnotes with explicit sourcing. Since I'm usually churning out marketing BS or web copy a simple, "according to expert NAME, affiliation" usually does the trick. (Good for you in keeping the reading level in mind, I often forget to do that.)
posted by Bella Donna at 7:14 AM on December 3, 2021 [1 favorite]