We’re re-running a couple of workshops from past content conferences, one practicing pair writing and one to help people submitting content change requests to GOV.UK content designers at GDS.
Writing good content change requests
We know a lot of people find it frustrating to explain things on Zendesk over and over again. We do too! So Jon Sanger and Liz Lutgendorff ran a workshop on how to write good Zendesk tickets at our content conference (ConCon) in Manchester in March.
We looked at what Zendesk tickets look like when they’re received at GDS. Then we discussed how to to write requests that contain all of the information the GDS content team need, so we can make changes without asking lots of questions. Better tickets mean faster updates to GOV.UK.
Pair writing
Pair writing is when 2 people from different backgrounds write together. It builds trust between content designers and subject matter experts, and it can lead to great content.
We're teaching pair writing to people in government who write policy, so this workshop is a chance for content designers to practice those skills.
Pair writing is easy to learn, but it helps if you practice. Attendees will leave being able to pair write and teach others how to pair write, so there's no need to send the whole team.
How to sign up
We’re running 2 workshops for GOV.UK publishers in London on how to write good content change requests, on 9 June and 4 July.
Pair writing workshops are on 25 May and 1 June. You can sign up on the government content community on Basecamp, or by asking your organisation’s GOV.UK lead for a link.
We’d like to run more workshops, and particularly want to run more outside of London. If you can host one or want to know if there’s one running locally, leave us a comment or raise a support request.
3 comments
Comment by Nick Johnstone-Waddell posted on
Went to one of the pair writing workshops today and really enjoyed it. Loads of useful info to take away and I'm looking forward to putting it into action. Highly recommended
Comment by Charlotte Lane posted on
It would be helpful to see what is needed for a good content change request.
Comment by Nathan McIntosh posted on
Would love to more about the pair writing process too!