18F/18f.gsa.gov

---
title: "A guide to the 18F Writing Lab"
date: 2016-04-28
authors:
- kate
- andre
tags:
- content design
- guides
- communication tools and practices
- how we work
excerpt: "The guide is designed to equip 18F staff with the information they need
to quickly and easily request writing and editing help from the Lab, and
also to provide our Lab editors with guidance on editing styles and
workflows so we can provide a smooth experience for staff who request
the Lab’s help."
description: "To help our Writing Lab become even more efficient, we’re introducing our Writing Lab guide."
image:
---

We’ve got some exciting news on the content front: To help our Writing
Lab become even more efficient, we’re introducing our [Writing Lab
guide](https://pages.18f.gov/writing-lab-guide/).
The guide is designed to equip 18F staff with the information they need
to quickly and easily request writing and editing help from the Lab, and
also to provide our Lab editors with guidance on editing styles and
workflows so we can provide a smooth experience for staff who request
the Lab’s help.

In case you missed our [last post](https://18f.gsa.gov/2016/01/22/18f-writing-lab/), the Lab is a virtual
writing center where 18F staffers can get personalized writing and
editing help from members of the 18F editorial team, which includes
members of the Content Guild, the Experience Design Content Team, and
the Outreach Team. We provide short-term, ad-hoc writing and editing
help for the rest of the 18F team. Our goal is to make sure every piece
of content 18F produces matches our [content guidelines](https://pages.18f.gov/content-guide/), and also to lift the writing and
editing burden off the rest of our staff so they can spend their time
working on projects with our partner agencies.

Since launching in June 2015, the Lab has been popular among 18F team
members. We’ve completed 144 individual projects, including writing and
editing position descriptions for our talent team, editing a series of
Node.js tutorials, standardizing the voice and tone of our internal team
handbook, and refining many other presentations, blog posts, one sheets,
and sections of site copy.

As we’ve grown, we’ve noticed a need for expanded documentation of our
internal processes. Though, all things considered, the Lab has run
really smoothly these past ten months, Lab editors have encountered a
few hiccups. For instance, Lab editors often debated the proper protocol
for closing issues in the Writing Lab’s GitHub repo. Some editors
preferred to close an issue as soon as they completed a client’s
request, while others waited to get the client’s OK before closing.
Identifying and codifying the preferred process has resolved these
debates. (If you’re wondering, the proper closing procedure is to
contact the client and ask them whether it’s OK for you to close the
issue. If you don’t get a response within two days, close the issue with
a comment saying you can reopen it if there’s more work to be done!)

In addition to documenting the workflows we already follow and the
expectations we hold, the Writing Lab Guide also introduces new
material. For example, the metadata section provides guidance on
estimating how long your request will take to fulfill. Suppose you’d
like help fleshing out an idea for a presentation; how much time do you
think your request will take? If you answered “at least one hour,”
you’re correct! Generative-help requests almost always take at least an
hour because they involve research, brainstorming, writing, and editing.
This guide will help folks using the Lab make more accurate requests,
which, in turn, will help Lab editors better budget their time.

We encourage you to review the entire guide and share your feedback with
us. To suggest topics we can cover (or to recommend updates to existing
topics), open an issue in our [repo](https://github.com/18F/writing-lab-guide). We review and respond to
issues as quickly as we can. Likewise, we encourage you to start your
own Writing Lab — stay tuned for more posts on this topic!