Course Description
In WRD 532, we will explore content strategy, a set of practices that guide the creation, delivery, and governance of useful, usable content in professional settings. Through readings, exercises, and situated work with a nonprofit partner organization, you will learn and try core content strategy practices, such as auditing content, conducting user and stakeholder interviews, and developing content templates, samples, and governance documents. Additionally, given the fast-evolving and ethically fraught ways digital content is now produced and circulates, we will discuss theories and methodologies that can help content professionals do their work responsibly and with ethical awareness.
By the end of this course, you should be able to:
- conduct and report actionable findings from key types of content strategy research, including user and stakeholder interviews, user testing, and peer/competitor research
- deploy the genres commonly used to evaluate and govern digital content in organizations, such as content audits, personas, content templates and mockups, and workflow documentation
- design content types and create sample content that meets users’ needs and organizational goals
- critically assess the tools and platforms involved in content strategy
Readings
Aalen, I. (2015, Jan. 6). The core model: Designing inside out for better results.
Beckerman, G. (2022). Excerpts from The quiet before: On the unexpected origins of radical ideas. Crown.
Bloomstein, M. (2014). How does message architecture drive the content and design? In Content strategy at work: Real-world stories to strengthen every interactive project (pp. 27-37). Elsevier.
Caldwell, J. (2020). Excerpts from Voice and tone strategy: Connecting with people through content. XML Press.
Getto, G., Labriola, J. T., and Ruszkiewicz, S. (2023). Content strategy: A how-to guide. Routledge.
Halvorson, K., and Rach, M. (2012). Content strategy for the web, 2nd ed. New Riders.
Halvorson, K. (2019, Jan. 22). “Laura Trujillo and Ashlee Harris, City of Austin – User research and creating empathy” . In The content strategy podcast. Brain Traffic.
Halvorson, K. (2024, Mar. 19). “Trisha Causley and Maria Hofstetter – Content design and AI” . In The content strategy podcast. Brain Traffic.
Halvorson, K. (2021, Jul. 13). “Helen Lawson, Co-op Funeral – The importance of empathetic language, voice and tone” . In The content strategy podcast. Brain Traffic.
Kirschenbaum, M. (2023, Mar. 8). Prepare for the textpocalypse. The Atlantic.
Land, P. (2014). Excerpts from Content audits and inventories: A handbook. XML Press.
Moran, K. (2021). Testing content with users. Nielsen Norman Group.
Redish, J. (2012). Planning: Purposes, personas, conversations. In Letting go of the words: Writing web content that works, 2nd edition (pp. 17–36). Morgan Kaufmann.
Rockley, A. (2016). Why you need two types of content strategist. Content Marketing Institute.
Tech for Good Live (2020, Jun. 16). “Making Friends With… David Dylan Thomas” .
Van Dijck, J. (2013). Excerpts from The culture of connectivity: A critical history of social media. Oxford Univ. Press.
Wachter-Boettcher, S. (2017). Normal people. In Technically wrong: Sexist apps, biased algorithms, and other threats of toxic tech (pp. 27–48). WW Norton & Company.
Wall, A., and Spinuzzi, C. (2018). The art of selling-without-selling: Understanding the genre ecologies of content marketing. Technical Communication Quarterly, 27(2), 137–160.
Zuboff, S. (2019). Excerpts from The age of surveillance capitalism: The fight for a human future at the new frontier of power. PublicAffairs.
Assignments
- Content Critique: Using principles and practices from content strategy, you will analyze several samples of online content from an organization of your choice and write a report that identifies key strengths and weaknesses of that content, makes prioritized suggestions for improvement, and presents some concrete revisions. The report will be designed for a busy workplace audience and should use screenshots, lists, tables, and other visual design techniques.
- User or Stakeholder Interview and Report: To practice some of the fundamental techniques for engaging with users and stakeholders during the content strategy process, you will conduct a remote or in-person interview and content testing session with a potential user of or stakeholder in our nonprofit partner’s content. You will document these activities, then write an approximately 2-3-page report summarizing your key insights and reflecting on the interview experience.
- Contributions to Nonprofit Partner Portfolio and Report + Informal Presentation: You will produce at least two deliverables for our nonprofit partner (independently or in collaboration with a classmate), which might include content templates and illustrative samples, updated website wireframes, or workflow documentation and governance documents. We will determine an appropriate set of deliverables near the midpoint of the course, from which you can choose those that interest you. You will also help craft overall recommendations and write material introducing your deliverables for a final portfolio and report to be presented to our nonprofit partner on the final exam day.
- Weekly Response Posts, Self-Assessment Tasks, & Participation: This category of work is ongoing and includes 1) your thoughtful completion of weekly D2L posts written in response to a prompt on each week’s materials, 2) your completion of midterm and final self-assessments, 3) your engagement with individual and group in-class practice tasks and discussions, and 4) your compliance with deadlines.