My philosophy: even the most technical content doesn’t have to be jargony or dry; a warm, conversational tone can engage readers while still providing accurate and expert knowledge on complex topics.
Professional Copywriting/Editing
Writing for the web means understanding that, more often than not, you have mere moments to grab your audience’s attention before it shifts elsewhere. This means getting to the point quickly, incorporating visual elements wherever possible, and organizing content to be easily scanned.
For the copy below, I needed to translate the contents of an academic report into persuasive web copy meant to galvanize the readers to action. Use the tabs to compare the first page of the initial academic report to my web-based version.
Overdue for a Change
Today nearly 47 percent of all undergraduate students are enrolled in a community college, a number which jumps even higher for certain student demographics. These institutions serve an important role in our communities and in the lives of the students they serve, with a mission that has expanded greatly since their establishment in 1901. However, an expanding mission means a growing list of competing priorities, which can put a strain on well established initiatives. One such initiative that has been consistently mired in complexities and tensions is the transfer process that enables students to successfully transition from a community college into a four-year institution.
Looking back on the history of the transfer process reveals three overarching themes:
- Shifting Responsibility. Transfer was designed to be a shared responsibility between community colleges and four-year colleges and universities, but the responsibility for transfer outcomes has shifted to largely rest on community colleges.
- Lack of Recognition. Two- and four-year institutions have almost never been recognized or rewarded for the work they do on behalf of transfer students.
- Complex Policy Initiatives. Policymakers’ attempts to improve transfer, though earnest and well-meaning, have created a hodgepodge of initiatives that rarely simplify what is an already too complex process.
Not surprisingly, then, despite this 100-year history, transfer has never been a reliably productive route to the baccalaureate degree. Current estimates indicate that the proportion of community college students who transfer successfully to a four-year institution hovers around 25 to 35 percent, a rate which reflects an enormous opportunity for improvement.
Click through the virtual toolkit below for information on ongoing initiatives and resources you can use as you work to improve this process within your own institution and beyond.
A Look Forward and a Look Back
“With the current emphasis on the [community] college as the institution which will presumably care for an increasing share of this nation’s college freshmen and sophomores, representatives from all types of four-year colleges and from all types of [community] colleges must use all means of enabling the greatest number of transfer students to have a satisfying and successful experience in the next institution … To date, too much has been left to chance.”
– Leland Medsker, UC Berkeley, 1960
Although Leland Medsker’s critique is over 50 years old, it remains as accurate as ever. Transfer has been a primary mission of community colleges since the establishment of these institutions in 1901.1 It is, by definition, a collective responsibility of community colleges and four-year colleges and universities. However, it has not always been viewed that way. Even at the beginning of the community college movement — a movement initiated by leaders at several of America’s most elite four-year colleges and universities — helping students make the transition from a two-year to a four-year institution was, if not an incidental activity on the part of the senior institutions, then certainly a secondary one. Community colleges also come in for similar criticism as these institutions have expanded their mission, forcing educators there to balance transfer against a growing list of other priorities. Today, despite the fact that nearly 47 percent of all undergraduate students are enrolled in a community college, the relationship between two- and four-year institutions is often strained over disagreements about academic preparation, credit transfer, and control of the baccalaureate degree. Not surprisingly, then, despite this 100-year history, transfer has never been a reliably productive route to the baccalaureate degree. Current estimates indicate that the proportion of community college students who transfer successfully to a four-year institution hovers around 25 to 35 percent, a rate reflecting an enormous opportunity for improvement.
The way in which community colleges and four-year institutions have collectively dealt with the transfer of students from one institution to another has created the transfer process we have today; a process that remains frustratingly complex for students, largely opaque to policymakers, and one given insufficient attention by educators at both two- and four-year institutions. Our analysis of the historical record reveals three overarching themes. First, that transfer was designed to be a shared responsibility between community colleges and four-year colleges and universities, although the responsibility for transfer outcomes has been placed at the door of community colleges; second, that two- and four-year institutions have almost never been recognized or rewarded for the work they do on behalf of transfer students; and third, that policymakers’ attempts to improve transfer, though earnest and well-meaning, have created a hodgepodge of initiatives that rarely simplify what is an already too complex process.
1. A more extensive discussion of the history of the transfer process can be found in Recurring Trends and Persistent Themes: A Brief History of Transfer (available at http://advocacy. collegeboard.org/admission-completion/community-colleges).
Software Help Articles
A user accessing a help article is likely stuck somewhere, and my goal is always to get them unstuck as quickly as possible. A lot of that has to do with the use of effective content strategy, but some of it is also language and level of depth.
For this type of writing, I aim to always:
- Match the language my audience is already using and to define any terms they may be unfamiliar with.
- Go as granular as possible when outlining the steps I want the user to take, while using various organizational/structural content strategies (such as content expanders) to ensure that more advanced users don’t tune out.
Use the tabs below to see recent examples of help articles I have written. Note that these are text-only recreations, so they include only basic styling elements and no images/screenshots.
Creating and Editing an Academic Year
To create an academic year, complete the following steps:
1. Navigate to Academic Years within System Administration.
- Select System Administration in the top navigation bar to open the System Administration menu along the left side of the page.
- Expand the Campus Information options in the left navigation menu and select Academic Years.
2. Open the Create New Academic Year window and specify the details of the academic year.
- Select the + icon next to the Academic Years header to open the Create New Academic Year window.
- Fill in the required data fields with this academic year’s information. Fields denoted with a red asterisk are required. You will not be able to save your new academic year if data is not entered in these fields.
- Fill in the non-required fields (Pell Formula and Term Type) if applicable to your school.
3. Save the new academic year by selecting Create.
Once you have completed the fields in each section as needed, select Create.
A success message is displayed in the lower left portion of the page letting you know the academic year has been created.
Note: This academic year is now available to add to students. See the additional topics linked in the sidebar for more information.
4. If necessary, enter the Federal Pell Grant cost of attendance information for the newly created academic year.
Note: This table is only displayed if you have selected a Pell Formula for the associated academic year.
- Select + Add New to add a new cost of attendance item in the Pell Grant Cost of Attendance Information table.
- Expand the Institutional Category menu to see a list of cost of attendance categories you previously created and select the appropriate category.
- Expand the Selection Set menu and select the set of students to which this cost of attendance item applies. This is the selection set used to determine eligibility for this cost of attendance item. Any student associated with this academic year who falls into or out of this selection set will have the associated cost of attendance item added or removed accordingly.
- Specify the type and amount of Base Cost for the associated cost of attendance item. There are two ways to specify the base cost:
- Fixed Amount: This option allows you to manually enter the base cost for this cost of attendance category.
- Custom Process: This option allows you to select one of your previously created custom processes to calculate the base cost for you.
- In the Note field, enter any internal information relevant to the cost of attendance category that’s not captured elsewhere.
- Once you have completed each of the fields in the row, select Save. You can also select Cancel to discard your changes.
5. If necessary, add any custom process targets you want to associate with the academic year.
Note: For more information on working with custom process targets, see Custom Process Targets.
- Select + Add New to add a new custom process target in the Custom Process Targets table.
- Select the set of students for which the associated custom process target data applies from the Selection Set list.
- Select the appropriate custom process target from the Custom Process Target list.
- Once you have completed each of the fields in the row, select Save. You can also select Cancel to discard your changes.
6. Save the updated academic year by selecting Save.
Once you have completed the fields in each section as needed, select Save.
A success message is displayed in the lower left portion of the page letting you know the academic year has been saved.
Crossover Academic Years
For nontraditional programs with academic calendars that straddle two federal award years, you can choose which federal award year to associate with that academic year. When creating an academic year in System Administration, PowerFAIDS will automatically recognize when an academic year crosses over into the next award year, and the Award Year field will allow you to select between the two applicable award years.
Note: With this crossover year functionality, PowerFAIDS also supports borrower-based academic years (BBAY). To learn more, see Borrower-Based Academic Years.
Microcopy and UX Writing
Throughout my career, I’ve seen how designing clear, consistent messaging for a product – from button labels to in-line help text to error messages – leads not only to a more engaging user experience, but also to tangible business impacts, such as fewer support calls and increased adoption of new features.
Use the tabs below to see examples of some of the common types of microcopy I have written.
My approach to error messages is that they should always give the user the exact information they need to resolve the issue, and/or who to contact if it’s not something they can fix themselves.
One of my favorite strategies for developing error message content is to make use of variables when the platform allows for it. For example, the following is a field-level validation message I wrote:
$$fieldName$$ cannot be more than $$maxLength$$ characters.
But when rendered to the user, it would display something more like this:
Note Text cannot be more than 1000 characters.
Using variables this way means that the text does not need to be updated if the variable ever changes. Writing the validation message in this way ensures it’s always accurate.
For messages more complex than simple validations, another strategy I have used in the past is to include with the message an error code that can be easily referenced in other help resources. So even if the short message itself can’t include everything the user needs to resolve the issue immediately, they can still easily look up the associated error code to find more detailed troubleshooting steps.
My approach to field-level help is that it should only be used when additional context beyond the field label is needed or could be helpful. Field labels themselves should provide enough context for the user in most circumstances, but there are some cases where additional information is helpful. Below are some of the situations where I’ve found it necessary to provide field-level help text, with an example of the associated text.
Explaining system-calculated values:
This flag is automatically set by the system if the student’s taxable income is $25,000 or less.
Explaining where to find required data:
This is a six-digit number representing your institution in the associated federal database. It can typically be found by logging into your HED account.
Explaining how data will be used:
This information is collected only for the purposes of account validation and will not be sent to HED. Review our Account Validation help article for more information.