Technical writing isn’t a profession that’s widely familiar to city planners, engineers, developers, and urban designers, and chances are good that you’ve never crossed paths with a pro from this growing field.
For private sector planners, winning a government contract is going to be even more competitive than it is today, and even more under the microscope when you do win. It’s going to be crucial that you can prove the value of your work and inspire confidence in your ability to be effective. Scribe is bringing the best practices from technical writing to city builders, so that we can get our cities through the current crisis and they can become even better places to live.
Now is a great time for companies to focus on reviewing their approach to competing for, and delivering, their projects. When you have a technical writer on your team, it allows your experts to focus on innovative project development. The technical writer takes on tasks like assessing, organizing, and writing your documents – so your subject matter experts don’t have to. The impact is better quality products that make your clients happy and increase the likelihood that you will be called on again.
1. Planning reports benefit from an objective assessment
Whether it’s a response to an RFP, a presentation to an investor, or a final report going to a board, council, or the public, we provide an objective assessment of your documents. We can even analyze your internal processes and procedures to ensure everyone is working efficiently as a team. One of the first things technical writers do is look at the state of your project documentation, identify any gaps, and suggest improvements where they’re needed. By bringing an objective, big picture perspective, the technical writer can function as a translator of your project to reach whatever audience you are trying to win over – and help you deliver top quality, jargon-free material that is effective in meeting your goals. We also adapt material for multiple audiences in a variety of formats, and specialize in knitting together the different components of a project so they read as a coherent whole, making it easier for proposal evaluators, investors and decision-makers to choose you, and take your advice.
2. This isn’t a job for your communications team
If you’re looking to your communications or marketing team, it’s often too late. You’re in a rush, everyone’s attention is already on the next project, and the subject matter expert has written the report and moved on. And they don’t know your project as well as your team does.
At Scribe, we’re not as interested in the “messaging” as in the content, and making it as clear, crisp, and accessible as possible. We want your best advice to come through, so decision-makers can act on the expertise of your professional staff.
While our work is inherently about communication, we focus on helping the experts address a major disconnect that we see between thought leaders, decision makers, and the public – by turning their subject matter knowledge into jargon-free documents that their target audience can understand, and act upon, to make our cities better places to live. Bringing us in early will make it easier for you to communicate the objective, expert content of your projects.
3. A technical writer can give you 100% of their attention.
We focus on writing and editing, so you don’t have to! Many experts aren’t good writers or don’t have in-house technical communication teams. They have difficulty sharing the importance of their behind-the-scenes work. When you bring on a technical writer, you are hiring someone that can give all of their attention to structuring and communicating your complex, detailed work, without “getting into the weeds” and losing sight of the big picture. We don’t just write and edit your documents, but, organize information, clarify processes, give constructive feedback, develop options, and provide the appropriate strategic and policy context that gels with your company’s brand. We provide a 360-degree view of what you are trying to achieve, and deliver the final products to the diverse audiences that you need to impress. The difference in quality that comes from having a technical writer on your team will show, and your clients will be happier for it.
4. Technical writers help to align your internal team
Despite a commitment to project management, many factors influence the quality of a project in the end. It’s easy for any team of experts to lose sight of their purpose and shared goals, get caught up in insider knowledge, forget who their audience is, and end up having to rush to a conclusion, despite their dedication and skill. A technical writer, especially when brought on-board early in a project, can help get and keep everyone aligned, and ensure the quality is evident to your client.
Our feedback helps to focus the team on developing and delivering the final product. We even help you avoid having to double back at a late stage to fix problems that naturally occur when you have multiple layers of management and staff, each with their own interpretation of the project’s purpose, so you can deliver on time and on budget.
5. We’re not here to make you feel bad about your spelling and grammar
Yes, we’re experts on the rules of language, but we aren’t here to resolve debates about grammar (ok, maybe about spelling). And we can recommend software tools to help if you need it. Our focus is on using the right language, at the right level of detail, to reveal the expert advice and recommendations that you are providing. We are concerned with how the whole document hangs together. Does it make sense from beginning to end? Does it help you achieve your goals for the project? And, we know that quality matters – if your final report has careless mistakes, it makes your audience question the quality of the technical content and your professionalism.
In future, urban resilience is going to be a challenge, and those who play a leading role will do so by proving their worth, page by page. Now is a great time to review your approach to how you compete for, and how you deliver, your projects. In bringing technical writing to city building professions for the first time, Scribe Technical Writers and Editors is focused on helping city builders – like planners, engineers, and developers – translate their complex, behind-the-scenes work for their key audiences.
Contact us to learn more – we are happy to meet (online) to talk about our vision for how technical writing and editing can help make our cities even better places to live.