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Recent work: snippetsOften we can't share names of clients. But we'd still like to share snippets of our work to give you an idea of what we could do for you.
Clear, friendly letters from a government departmentWhen you apply to this government department, you need to get your information absolutely right. If you don’t, they need to let you know the information required to complete your application. They need to be detailed and clear, and they want to be friendly and helpful.
The department came to us for help with drafting their letters to applicants. We worked closely with department staff to draft over 150 pieces of text that fit together to create complete letters.
It’s great to help them start as they mean to go on — with clarity and courtesy.
Web pages in a jiffyAn industry training organisation came to us with a challenge. They had three new services to offer, and the marketing was poised to go. They needed to get the new information on their website in under a week. Everyone was under pressure — they had the products but no final names for them.
Our briefing meeting turned into a working meeting as we hammered out the details. We created three sets of webpages in five working days. Our client had them published the following day so their customers could start ordering online.
User-friendly online forms
A government organisation needed a new application form to meet a change in legislation. They wanted a form that was online and user-friendly.
We worked closely with them to determine the information they needed to collect, in line with the complexities of the new law. We then collaborated with a specialist in online form design. They used the latest technology to design a form that delivers applicants’ information in a format the department can process.
— Posted by Document Consultant Inez Romanos on 6 October 2011
Changing people's perceptions of documentsA writing problem may not always be purely 'a writing problem' as such. It may point to a change of perception about a piece of writing that needs to occur.
Writers agreed that two separate pieces of writing — each with a different purpose — worked better for the reader.
— Posted by Trainer Margaret Austin on 31 August 2011
Getting the whole group to rewrite a letter of apology
Writers with the tricky task of writing apology letters were having difficulty with the wording. After struggling individually to come up with something that had just the right tone, we set up a data projector, appointed a scribe, and collectively had a go at editing one of the sample letters.
The group effort produced a letter that was:
— Posted by Trainer Margaret Austin on 8 June 2011 Margaret Austin's profile
Transforming web content in a day
We worked with a web team from a large bank. This team was already web savvy, and they were dealing with a myriad of pages that needed to be updated.
In a 1-day Web Lab, we (two trainers) worked with the team:
The proposed new pages fit well with our client’s vision and values and will work well for their web readers.
— Posted by Trainer Helen Wise on 1 June 2011 Helen Wise's profile Back to top
Making ‘how to’ guides more helpfulWe recently worked with writers at a government agency to help make their ‘how to’ guides clearer. The agency’s job is to help New Zealanders comply with some crucial legislation, so the ‘how to’ guides are very important. But the topic is complex, and many New Zealanders were getting stuck trying to follow the ‘how to’ guides.
Write to the rescue! We created a model ‘how to’ guide, complete with new template, and we wrote a handbook for the writers at the agency.
A model ‘how to’ guide
We redrafted one of the ‘how to’ guides, smartening it up rather than dumbing it down.
A new template
We collaborated with a brilliant designer, Craig Christensen of Graphic Solutions, to present the ‘how to’ guide in the most accessible, reader friendly way possible.
A handbook for the writers
The writers at the agency wanted to know how to apply the plain English principles to their many other ‘how to’ guides. So we wrote a handbook for the writers to follow, and we gave them some focused training to help them use it.
The result? A great first ‘how to’ guide, and staff empowered to produce many more like it.
— Posted by Trainer Colleen Trolove on 19 April 2011 Colleen Trolove's profile Back to top
Connecting brand values to writing
We’ve been connecting clear communication and brand for years, but our new workshops that focus explicitly on brand are taking that connection to a whole new level.
We recently used a combination of document review and highly customised face-to-face training to help an insurance team write information that reflected values of clarity and expertise. The rewrites writers produced were exciting for all of us — and especially their clients.
Every choice a writer makes sends a message to their readers. Credibility increases when these messages reflect an organisation’s stated brand values.
Writing web content about technical communications equipment and solutionsWe had to balance these requirements:
We changed the structure and focus of the content — and changed how the client thinks of their readers. They now have a much better idea how to write technical material that meets the reader’s needs. Technical writing project for the infrastructure and construction industryA recent technical writing project involved researching, writing, and editing sets of learning materials for the infrastructure and construction industry. We worked with our clients and their technical advisors to produce reader-friendly learning materials. We wrote:
We produced learning materials for five qualifications and nearly 200 unit standards. And our client is very happy with the outcomes.
Choosing roundtable reviews to follow plain English workshopsOne workshop alone, no matter how powerful, will not be enough to markedly change a person’s writing style. We recently led a follow-up roundtable review for a client who has invested in plain English workshops for all its staff. In the roundtable review, staff benefited from a refresher of the workshop content. And they worked together to revise standard letters and templates to better reflect the organisation’s plain English writing style.Creating a plain English standard for a large insurance companyWhen insurance companies turn to plain English we're excited. One of New Zealand's largest insurance companies decided that they needed to make a complete change in the way they wrote, to match their new brand values. They asked us for help in planning and running the project. We started with a document audit and then used the results to create their own plain English standard.
Document reviews for a government departmentWe're working on another set of document reviews as follow-up to a plain English workshop. These reviews give participants feedback on how well they are applying the workshop principles. In this case, the workshop was based on the department's own 'good writing checklist', and we used the checklist items as the assessment criteria.
The reviews work perfectly as a level 3 assessment on Kirkpatrick's Model of Training Evaluation.
Style Guide for an education clientStyle Guides seem to be getting a lot more use these days — which is great news as they can make such a difference to the overall consistency and professionalism of an organisation's writing. We used The Write Style Guide for New Zealanders: A Manual for Business Writing as the base document and customised from there.
Redrafting a contract into plain EnglishA government client wanted some urgent work done on a contract because of recent changes in legislation. Our client had already done some work on the original contract document to make it plainer, but the new clauses were written in a very stiff legal style that didn't match the tone of the other wording. We managed a quick turnaround and were delighted that the legal team accepted a significant number of our suggestions. For the next iteration, when there's more time, we'll have a workshop with all concerned to talk through further plain English changes and make decisions on the spot.
Specialised workshops for non-native speakers of English at a bankA large New Zealand bank that employs a lot of talented migrants asked us to do a series of writing workshops for their non-native speakers of English. We analysed a sample of the documents of these writers, and we created a workshop called 'Perfecting your English'. Participants enjoyed the opportunity to spend a day in a small group discussing the challenges and solutions to writing clearly and correctly in English. Many participants reported that the workshop had given them increased confidence.
A year's worth of plain English tips for a law firmThe plain English project leader at a law firm we were working closely with, was going on maternity leave. She wanted help to keep people focused on plain English while she was away. So we wrote a series of tips to email to the whole firm once a fortnight. The tips promoted an aspect of the firm's Plain English Standard, and included a relevant article and a quiz (with answers in the next email). The regular emails have proved very popular and are keeping plain English foremost in the minds of staff members.
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