Creating this website
Creating this freelance website was an interesting task.
I had put together a website before – Evaluating Coventry UK City of Culture 2021 – and so the process wasn’t new to me, but this time the challenge was to write content about me.
I sat down to face my blank screen and had to work out the services I would offer, but as I progressed, I also remembered and learnt a lot about myself.
My first role was as a bid writer for a national training company, where I tested myself against specifications and edited the work of colleagues.
At an FE college, I had a more direct role in developing partnership offers that I built into bids; I then project managed many of the contracts I had won.
Although project management became my primary role, writing and editing reports were integral parts of successful delivery, especially when presenting findings and results from European Commission funded partnership research projects.
It was this experience that contributed towards me becoming an Advanced Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP).
Building case studies for my website took me back into the successful projects that I had managed, the research deliverables that I had developmentally and copyedited to make messages clear, and the summary reports that I had written.
I realised that the combination of editing, project management and content writing has made each element stronger.
Developing my website has provided me with unexpected personal insight, as well as outlining my experience and service offer for others.
How writing content made my editing stronger
When writing bids/tenders there would be a detailed specification that needed to be written against, in word-limited sections. It was important to understand the detail of what was required and to make sure that every sentence was clear and contributed to the core message.
Sometimes there would be no guidance, just a request to start from a blank page and write a proposal. This needed thought and planning to identify content and then develop a structure that presented a persuasive argument.
Having written bids, and later project reports and other media, I have waited nervously to see what people thought of them. I know that it takes courage to put an idea on paper and share it.
This experience has shaped who I am as an editor and my approach to working with authors – for developmental editing and copyediting – to help them structure and make their own messages clear.
What I learnt from managing projects that has improved my writing and editing?
Working on projects has given me an understanding of the big picture, overarching objectives and the different stages of delivery.
Every project has a beginning, a middle and an end. They will, most likely, have different characteristics, and the middle sections will vary in length and complexity, but they will have a structure that enables people to understand what is happening and why it is being done.
Any piece of writing, whether it is for a book, report or post has to have an objective and a structure that guides a reader from the beginning to the end.
The challenge with writing is to move beyond the initial blank page, define the structure and decide where to begin. A good way to start is to create headings, jot down ideas and think about what comes next.
The challenge with writing is to move beyond the initial blank page, define the structure and decide where to begin. A good way to start is to create headings, jot down ideas and think about what comes next.
The challenge with writing is to move beyond the initial blank page, define the structure and decide where to begin. A good way to start is to create headings, jot down ideas and think about what comes next.
My experience of writing technical project reports – that provided background information, described delivery, assessed challenges and measured success (and potential impact), as well as considered what comes next – helps me to support authors to summarise their own activities and results.
This means that when (developmentally) editing a book, report or webpage, I can often spot gaps and identify information that would be helpful for readers, and therefore support authors to create structured narratives that share their messages.
My writing style and approach continues to evolve
Editing had unexpected benefits for me as, not only could I help authors refine their structures and present clear messages, but I could learn from how they had approached their work.
It was interesting to consider how other people built their arguments and shared information. Over time, this understanding began to influence my own writing.
As a member of the independent Coventry UK City of Culture monitoring and evaluation team, I built, populated and managed a website to disseminate findings. For this, I adopted a more informal writing style.
Over the year as City of Culture, a series of outputs, reports and videos were produced. I reviewed all content, identified messages, edited text to make it more web-friendly and summarised evaluation findings. The website has 76 pages that tell the story of what happened and the lessons that were learnt.
Having worked on long and detailed academic and project texts, it was interesting to change my approach and use only short sentences and paragraphs to share information.
My writing has benefitted from extending my scope for this knowledge exchange project. It is now far more adaptable to the requirements of differing media and audience expectations. This, in turn, has also enhanced my editing of different types of content.
How editing and writing content has enhanced my project management
Every project has its own requirements and objectives and therefore needs tailored delivery plans and approaches. The large projects that I managed had lots of moving pieces and included team members from different types of organisations.
Some people were involved at the developmental stage, others joined as work began or even when activity was underway. There were different levels of understanding among team members and yet to be effective, everyone needed to be clear about what had to be done and when.
My project management has benefitted from my experience of bid writing and editing and providing clear and precise communication. Explaining to those involved what had to be completed, why it had to be done, the timescale and the relationship to other project tasks (while also offering my support).
An important part of funded projects is that they report their findings. I know from editing that some authors are too close to their work and don’t provide sufficient context for those new to the subject. It is such a waste when hard-working project teams fail to share the value of their results.
Having written and edited technical and public facing reports and webpages, I understand the importance of setting the scene and summarising findings for the appropriate audience.
My projects have always been successful. This is not only due to planning, monitoring and taking action to keep tasks on track, but also because of effective internal and external communication that helped teams to be clear about their roles and the workflow, and others to understand project achievements.