Taking on an assignment beyond your experience
An unfamiliar assignment can offer a chance to learn while testing the limits of a writer’s current ability. Accepting it involves judging those limits, arranging support and deciding how to explain the experience gap to the client.
Fear and existing strengths
Fear of failure can prevent a writer from attempting unfamiliar work. One writer asked to draft three manuscripts on complex heart surgery initially felt unqualified and spent at least an hour staring at the word processor. After seeking a supervisor’s advice, she recognised that she knew how to research, had succeeded in laboratory work and could ask colleagues to explain the surgery. She drafted the first paper, which came back the next day with minor stylistic corrections rather than corrections to its content. She kept that note and later compliments, rereading them when fear returned as reminders of previous successes.
A writer can build confidence by showing how existing, even apparently unrelated, experience applies to a new assignment, while taking care not to cross the boundary between what they realistically can and cannot do. Completing successive projects can build both the writer’s confidence and clients’ confidence in them. Setting an annual challenge to attempt something previously thought impossible is another writer’s approach to development.
Acceptance and disclosure
Advice differs on accepting work without direct experience. One freelance encourages accepting an unfamiliar, well-paid project and using ingenuity, rapid learning and advice from other freelances to work out how to complete it. Another advises midcareer freelances to accept opportunities to learn new therapeutic areas but decline projects too far beyond their knowledge and ability; turning down a suitable project is preferable to accepting an unsuitable one.
One freelance’s approach to disclosure depends on the client’s requirements: if prior experience is stipulated, the writer should disclose the gap, explain their existing experience and let the client decide whether to take the risk. If the client stipulates no such requirement, that freelance would accept without volunteering the gap when confident of being able to do the work with more experienced writers as backup. A stricter view rejects offering to do work never previously done: one freelance who hired people without the abilities they claimed reported spending thousands of dollars correcting writing and desktop-publishing errors.
Preparation and support
Workshops can provide background in unfamiliar document types, and experienced freelances in a writer’s network can provide help. Stepping outside the comfort zone can widen it and build confidence. A newcomer can look for a mentor or subcontracted work to gain experience in a new area.
Writers starting a new regulatory document type should ideally support experienced colleagues first and obtain practical and theoretical training. They should confirm the applicable standard operating procedures, style guides and templates and ask for recently completed examples, because client preferences may go beyond the templates. Learning alongside an experienced colleague also helps a new writer see how to write and lead the process before leading projects independently.
Capacity and asking for help
Eagerness to prove ability can lead new writers to accept too much and avoid questions or requests for help for fear of appearing inexperienced. In one early regulatory assignment, a writer took on an investigator-initiated ocular-surgery protocol after its kick-off meeting, under an aggressive timeline while leading several other projects. Wanting to manage without support, he accepted the design as final and concentrated on assembling the document editorially. Only when preparing it for approval did he notice that both eligible eyes of a patient could be treated on the same day, raising bias and safety concerns. The whole team had missed the problem; the study required redesign and the timeline was extended, although the protocol was completed and the study proceeded.
New writers should not underestimate an assignment: changes in the regulatory environment and document strategy can shift its scope and timeline. Where possible, writers should avoid working on too many documents simultaneously. A colleague who shares the workload, oversees the project or offers advice or a sanity check can help when support is available. Asking for help when needed shows foresight and project management rather than weakness. Mistakes can happen at any level of experience. Writers should clarify their roles, expectations and communication lines, seek senior help when overwhelmed and make only promises they can keep.