Sensus Thought Leadership Article
Context
As a copywriting intern at Clean, Inc., my assignments consisted of writing
copy for marketing and advertisement purposes for the company’s clients.
This consisted of researching such clients in order to learn as much about
them as possible so that I could “speak” in their voice when writing copy.
This particular article was the first thing tasked to me as a new intern at
Clean. The company is Sensus, a technology partner helping utility companies, cities, industrial complexes, and campuses maximize their infrastructure. My supervisor was in the middle of an ongoing thought leadership project about Smart utilities and Smart cities. She had interviewed industry experts from Sensus about Smart Water, Smart Grid, Smart Gas, and Smart Lighting and had written three of the four articles for Sensus’ blog (Water, Grid and Gas). At the time she had been busy with other client projects and asked me to take on this last article. I was given all of the interview notes and final copy for the already written articles, as well as the interview notes for Smart Lighting. My job was to write the last article in a fashion similar to that of the others and in Sensus’ voice. I was given 3 days to do this.
Rhetorical Considerations
When writing something like this, it is just as important to go through the process of invention as it would be were you starting from scratch. Even though I was already given a lot of the information needed to write the article, I still needed to do some research in order to understand the context and how to write the article efficiently and effectively. For this, I came up with questions I would have as a reader and gained valuable information about smart utilities and the benefits surrounding their use. The next step in my invention process involved creating an outline using all the information I had gathered. Below is a picture of this. I also used the color highlight tool on Microsoft Word in order to identify which information was going where on the interview notes. You will also see a picture of this below.
​
This last step of creating an outline is also something to do when thinking about arrangement. While doing this I knew there were other articles I could model this article after, so I read through all of those to get a jist of how Sensus likes the flow of information to go. From this I was able to grasp that they wanted to open with a general statement about lighting as a utility and public good. From there I was to discuss what smart lighting is and a general overview of how it is beneficial as compared to non-smart lighting. Then I go into a more detail specific explanation of the value of smart lighting, which is supposed to be the most persuasive part of the article. And then I wrap it up with a conclusion. Throughout this process, I also had to keep in mind something that my supervisor had said. The interviewee for this article had gone off on a tangent about the digital divide and my supervisor had been unsure whether she could or should include it. From the very beginning I wanted to try to fit it in, because it seemed important to this person. I could also see how his tangent could end up tying everything together at the end. I tried not to go in with a set place for this information to go because I wanted to be flexible if it ended up not working out.
While starting the actual writing process I had to keep in mind the way Sensus “speaks.” When a company brands itself, they usually create a certain way of speaking to their audience, so people can tell if something is off brand when it doesn’t sound like something the company would say.
In order to make the material memorable, I needed to incorporate something that would grab readers’ attentions. I found that the interviewees tangent about the digital divide did just that. Instead of having the article be straightforward and only about Smart Lighting, I decided that discussing the problem of the digital divide would spur the audience to actually think about Smart Lighting and Smart Cities in general.
​
As for the delivery of the article, that was out of my control and up to the client. From what I know, the article is to be posted on a Sensus blog.
Evaluation
Writing for the real world is a lot more different than writing for academics. For one, deliverables in the real world have an affect on real people while academic deliverables usually only affect yourself (aka your grade).However, there are also similarities. Since beginning writing for real people I have realized how important the writing process is. Cicero’s canons helped a great deal in efficiency when it came to organizing my thoughts and creating something effective. And yes, in the real world there are most likely proofers and copy editors, but the revision step of the writing process is still as important. When turning in work for clients, you want to make sure it is done to the best of your ability. Writing this thought leadership article taught me that just because I am now writing in the real world, doesn’t mean I can abandon my academic writing tendencies of invention, drafting and revision.
