Approach for major rewrite projects

Major rewriting project ― we share the load.

To help you minimise a major rewriting project’s costs and to develop your team’s plain-language skills, we recommend a model we have used several times ― notably for the rewrite of the Australia Stock Exchange’s Listing Rules and for Westpac’s HR policies. 

The model is flexible — the version outlined here is an example only. After gaining a better understanding of the documents and people involved, we can work with you to change the version here to better suit your project.

Workshop: training and document scoping and structuring 

Day 1       We deliver our plain language training course to your team.

Day 2       We facilitate a discussion with your team:
  • to agree on a fairly detailed table of contents — both for the entire material and for select, sample "chapters"; and
  • to agree on various standards about, for example: which sort of material should be presented graphically, how headings will be used, use of examples, etc.

Day 3       We facilitate a discussion with your team to rewrite a "chapter" or 2.   

2.        Ongoing : writing and reviewing draft chapters 

Once the workshop is complete, you and we can decide whether your core drafting team is ready to start writing on its own — or whether they would prefer to have more assistance to help them to confidently write in the agreed style.

As soon as the team is writing independently, then our role would reduce to reviewing drafts for clarity.  All being well, after several "chapters", this reviewing role becomes quite minimal.

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