Writing is a skill that gets better with practice. Like any skill, there are ways of working that help you to improve faster.

Get started and keep going

A blank page waiting to be filled with words can be very scary. Equally scary is running out of words halfway through writing something.

Editing text is usually easier than writing it. So, your first step is to come up with words to edit. Here are 2 approaches.

Jump straight in:

• Dump everything out of your brain and onto the page.
• Group ideas and impose a structure on the initial chaos.
• Ditch any clever ideas and favourite phrases that don’t fit into your structure (this can hurt).

Write an outline:

• Write down what needs to be in the document.
• Use as few words as possible for each idea.
• Shuffle the ideas around until they are in the right order.

Fact checks

Make sure you know where your facts come from. A quick search online is rarely enough. Find a reputable source and look for robust evidence. If you can’t find it, there are 2 options:

• Don’t include the material.
• Include the material and be clear about the limitations of its supporting evidence.

Always cite the sources you quote. Reports and briefs usually include citations or a list of references.

Sense checks

The narrative should make sense with your ideas in a logical order (see ‘Tell the story and follow the flow’). There must be a clear chain of logic between your facts and your conclusions.

After a while, you stop seeing what you’ve written. Instead, you start seeing what you think you’ve written. This makes it hard to know if the writing will make sense to your readers.

The best option is to get someone else to read your work. You can also check by using the ‘read aloud’ function in writing software.

Managing versions

Your working document changes constantly as you draft, get feedback and revise. Most modern file systems look after version control. This makes it easy to go back to an earlier version of the document if you make a mistake.

Follow your agency’s version control rules. You might be required to create a new version at every stage of the drafting process.

At the very least, it’s a good idea to save a separate file each time you reach a major milestone. For example, you could save a new file before and after you incorporate stakeholder feedback. This means you have a record of all comments and changes before accepting or removing them.

Collaboration

Some things make collaboration easier, no matter what writing software you use.

Everyone writes differently, so agree on a tone and voice that all authors should aim for (see ‘Relate to your readers’). This makes it much easier to edit the complete document to a consistent style.

How you divide tasks depends on your team’s skills and knowledge. When there is a lot of specialised knowledge, decide on the best expert to write each section. If some team members are better at writing and some at editing, make use of these strengths.

Style Manual pages

• Referencing and attribution (section)
• Reports