Rewriting content

Sometimes creating content can be about turning fairly boring or neutral facts into something more accessible, interesting or entertaining and which will resonate with your target audience.

Whether it’s transforming stale product marketing copy or making something seem more exciting than perhaps it might seem at first glance, clever writing can bring content to life. You’ll now get the chance to put some of the techniques from the previous step into action.

In this exercise, you’ll examine and write a short piece of content based on facts which have been provided. Although factual copy is helpful, it isn’t always very engaging, but with your help it can be.

Rewriting content

The text below forms the basis of a description of a marketing team, such as you might find on the ‘about us’ page of a company website.

• Step 1: Read the text, thinking about what you have learned so far about tone, language and intent.

This company has a marketing department. The main marketing team is based in London, with smaller teams in Lima, Miami, Accra and Bangkok. There are 50 people in the whole team. The team is responsible for all marketing copy and materials, including websites and so on. They also handle campaigns, alongside the advertising team. Projects are allocated to staff with relevant experience. Team members have a range of industry experience and some members have been in the company for a significant amount of time.

• Step 2: Using a search engine, look for other examples of similar pages. How do other companies treat the same subject matter? How do they use language and tone to make the content, and the team, more interesting, approachable or professional?

• Step 3: Use what you have learned to rewrite the copy in any style or tone you choose, basing it on the same information. You can add details if you want, though keep the piece under 1200 characters.

When you’re finished, post your version in the Comments section. When you’re posting, you might want to explain how you approached this task.

You should also make sure to spend some time reading the submissions from your fellow learners. You can offer some feedback by letting them know if they achieved what they had planned.