Editors Note: This Content Quality Review Template is one in a series of templates to help readers plan and manage communications and content management activities, resources and deliverables. We welcome ideas and suggestions for other TechWhirl Templates Library materials.
Definition
The Content Quality Review Checklist and Editlog provides a method for ensuring consistent and comprehensive reviews of a wide range of content before it is published to an audience. In addition the checklist and editlog provide an audit trail of changes proposed and implemented on the content, and can become a source for assisting authors and editors in improving their skills in creating effective conte.
Purpose
A content quality review checklist or editlog helps reviewers record items as they analyze your written, spoken, visual, and web content. By providing additional guidance surrounding the goals you have for the content and specific areas you want reviewers to focus on, the quality of the feedback and recommendations will greatly improve, allowing you to more easily update your content to transform it into the best possible outputs for your audiences. The checklist also reduces the level of effort, helping reviewers to focus on the appropriate areas for feedback, rather than wasting time on areas outside of their expertise or control.
Relevance
The evaluation of “quality” is subjective and based on many factors. Nonetheless content quality is a key consideration in meeting organizational objectives, especially with regard to customer satisfaction and brand or reputation. A consistent process for reviewing the level of quality in your content and keep track of challenges, revisions, and plans for improvement can lay the foundation for continuous improvement efforts, and support measurement of KPIs (key performance indicators) and other metrics. Quality reviews should be performed as often as necessary to catch errors early and minimize the costs and time associated with rework.
Everyone, inside and outside of the organization, has an opinion about what constitutes high-quality content in writing and design. Without formal guidance and practices for review and revision, those opinions can result in a mish-mash of revisions, delays in publication schedules, and declines in collaboration and teamwork. To ensure your content meets the needs of users (task-based, complete, accurate) while also establishing credibility and brand recognition (consistent message, easy to find information), provide specific guidance and expectations to get the most usable and actionable feedback.
Using the Template
- Download the Content Quality Review Template in MS Word (145kb).
- Review the potential content quality review areas provided in the document.
- Select the format for your content quality review checklist and/or editlog.
- Modify the design elements to fit your company’s style requirements for color palette, writing style, etc.
- Copy and paste in the content quality review areas that match the needs of your company’s quality review.
- Add elements you want reviewers to focus on.
- Send the review checklist and/or editlog to managers or team members for buy-in and approval.
- Provide an electronic copy to all reviewers for each content review.
- Revise the guidance and review expectations as needed.
Related Resources
- Documentation Review Checklist Template
- eLearning Standards and Style Guide Template
- Situational Impacts to Content Quality and Best Practices for Improvement
- What Factors Impact the Quality of Content?
- Developing a Departmental Style Guide
Do you have other templates that work well for the products or services you support? Feel free to contact us and submit your templates. We’ll provide credit to you for assisting the TechWhirl community and contributing to the TechWhirl Templates Library.
