Editing, writing and interviewing workshops

The head of content asked me to create and deliver a series of workshops to improve the team’s skills in editing, writing and interviewing. This was a great assignment, as the people at Kooth / Qwell are so passionate about what they do. I drew examples from existing content on their site and put together workshops to help them build on their existing skills.

Editing workshop

This workshop opened with one of my favourite quotes from Dr Seuss, to illustrate the importance of keeping your copy precise and to the point.

“The writer who breeds more words than he needs is making a chore for the reader who reads.”

We then moved on to analysing what your reader wants and taking a hard look at which headlines and snippets work well online, before moving onto a variety of copy editing exercises tailored to suit the editors’ needs.

Writing workshops

I ran a couple of writing workshops for small groups of people from the Kooth / Qwell content team. They focused on the five essential stages for writing articles that capture your audience’s attention,

1. Prepare – how to maintain a tight focus on your readers and create a succinct main message, without getting distracted.
2. Research – the five main elements of research that will lend interest and give your article authority.
3. Structure – how to structure your article so it attracts and retains the reader’s attention.
4. Write – how to get over the tyranny of the blank page and use literary devices to add sparkle to your copy.
5. Edit – how to hone your copy by checking for 17 common writing mistakes.

Interviewing workshop

Most recently, I’ve run interviewing workshops for the Kooth / Qwell team. We discussed different types of interviews and interview techniques, including how to deal with sensitive subjects. The participants practised interviewing each other, then analysed what they’d learned from the process.  I shared tips I’ve picked up over many years of interviewing people as a journalist and copywriter, including my failsafe ‘5 bullet point’ time-saving trick.

How about you?

Are you looking for writing, editing or interviewing training workshops for your team? If so, do please get in touch and let’s chat about how I can help.