Content Development and the Content Writer

At Cultivate Learning, many teams work on writing and creating products for public use. These materials vary and serve many purposes.

Content writers are responsible for designing, writing, and editing materials for use in higher education and professional development settings. Materials are developed for print, digital and other formats.

Content writers focus on translating evidence-based research to practical strategies and plain language. They also focus on transcreation to multiple languages.

They also collaborate with internal producers, external partners, participate in review and feedback cycles and ensure materials meet federal accessibility standards.

Content Development as a Production Process

When writing content as a content developer, it is important to keep in mind the goals, audience, and how the content will be presented. Your approach will vary when creating material for your own use or if delivering a professional development package for public use to a funding partner.

Think about content development as part of a production process. The Cultivate Learning Charter (download link) is a tool to facilitate this process. The Content Development and Style Guide can also support your approach to content writing as part of a production process.

Other production teams that writers partner and collaborate with include:

• The graphic design team creates visuals, templates, graphics, and layouts to support the written text.
• The media team brings the content to life through photos, instructional videos, exemplar videos, webinar production, creative storytelling, remote recordings, and more.
• The media liaison helps plan for specific program filming and photography needs.
• The instructional design team collaborates to design instructional formats, structure, and interactives for online courses and trainings.
• The editing team provides copyediting to create clarity and proofreading to review for grammatical errors.
• Stakeholders and reviewers (fill in the blank)

Please refer to the Partnering for Product Development chapter for more tips for teaming.