How to write a brief that gets you the right work

Most disappointing work is not badly done. It is done against a different definition of finished than the one in your head.

Before describing the task, describe the outcome: what you will do with it, who will read it, and what would make you send it back. A specialist can hit a target they can see.

Constraints are more useful than instructions. "Around 3,000 words" tells someone less than "my marker stops reading at 3,000 and deducts for overrun".

• Hard limits — word count, page count, file dimensions, formats
• The style or standard you are held to, by name
• What must not appear — banned sources, competitors, house rules
• The real deadline, and whether it is the submission date or your own buffer

A marking rubric, a brand guideline PDF, a previous piece that was well received — one attachment usually removes more ambiguity than three paragraphs of description.

If you are unsure whether something is relevant, attach it. Nobody has ever been let down by too much context.

In our experience these cause most revision requests.

• The citation or file format, assumed to be obvious
• Who the audience is, so register and depth are guessed
• The fact that part of the work already exists and must be matched