Plan Your Project

Here are two important considerations to make when planning your writing project:

What is the Intent of Your Writing Project?

• Does your writing project summarize information, inform stakeholders, recommend ways to solve a problem or something else?
• Knowing the answer to this question will help you select the appropriate word choice, tone, and length of the writing project.
• For example, should the project be written in a formal tone, or can it be less formal (while maintaining professionalism and, where necessary, authoritativeness)?

Focus on the Reader

• Who is the audience you are communicating to and what are their general characteristics? Think about the type of people who would be interested in the information you are sharing. Are they likely to be individuals/families, small business owners, pedestrians, environmentalists? Is there a particular age range of your audience? Might they be tech savvy or do they have little expert knowledge of the subjects you are writing about?
• Think about "what does my audience need to know?" rather than "this is what I want to say" about the subject.
• If you have identified several target audiences, how will you communicate your message to make sure all stakeholders receive the information that they need? We are happy to work with you about different ways to present the same message to different kinds of audiences.

Need help with planning a writing project? Involve the Publications, Graphics, and Web Development Section. We can assist you in the following areas:

1. Content editing (documents, web pages, infographics, presentations, etc.) to check for errors, consistency, style, and branding. BYOC (bring your own content)!
2. Creation of images, infographics, charts, tables, and other data visualization to make your documents more readable and engaging.
3. We can draft background content for your project's webpage such as historical and purpose information, timelines, boundary maps, and contact details.