Clifton Creative — Practitioner Tool
The Editorial
A bad brief is more expensive than bad writing. Bad writing is fixable. A brief that sends a writer in the wrong direction produces polished work that accomplishes nothing — and costs the same as a piece that would have. Answer eight questions about your current brief. Find out whether it will produce good work.
01
The target reader is described as —
Not described — the piece is "for our audience"
A general category ("marketing managers," "small business owners")
A specific person in a specific situation
A named persona with documented needs and context
02
The goal of this piece is defined as —
A topic we want to cover
What the reader should know after reading
What the reader should be motivated to do after reading
A specific business outcome this piece supports
03
The core argument or takeaway is —
Not stated — the brief lists topics or points to cover
Implied but not written out explicitly
An outline of sections without a central claim
One clear claim or thesis stated explicitly
04
Success for this piece is defined as —
It isn't — we'll know it when we see it
Getting published on schedule
A traffic, ranking, or engagement metric
A specific conversion, action, or business outcome
05
Tone and voice guidance consists of —
Nothing — the brief doesn't address tone
Adjectives only ("conversational but authoritative")
Links or examples of content to match
Specific sentence-level instructions or annotated do/don't examples
06
The call to action is —
Not addressed — we'll decide later
Generic ("learn more," "contact us," "read this next")
A specific next step tied to this piece's argument and reader
This piece genuinely doesn't need one
07
The competitive landscape for this topic is —
Not addressed — we didn't review what else exists
Acknowledged but not reviewed
Reviewed — we know what's out there and how to be different
We identified a genuine gap this piece fills
08
The brief was delivered to the writer —
Verbally with no written documentation
In writing, no walkthrough or follow-up
In writing, with an open invitation to ask questions
In writing, walked through together, questions addressed
Score This Brief →
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