In brief ...

Some writing tasks are small and we already know what has to be done and why. But for larger projects, a few minutes or even hours spent asking some high-level questions about the function of the writing will pay us back many times over.

Before we start, we must ask ourselves some questions:

• What kind of text will best meet our needs? Book, website, pamphlet?
• What is the document for? Do we want to inform, persuade, encourage, amuse, enthuse, warn …?
• Who is it for? What can they be expected to know? What is their reading level?
• What are our main messages? What content must we include to get them across?
• What constraints are we working within?

Click here to get a copy of our brief guide to information design.

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