Theory Matters

“Kristeva deals with the process of creating a text outside the already present discourse. The authors are not original and do not create anything from their texts from original minds but compile from the already existing texts. The author compiles the text by reading other texts and the text becomes available to the audience in a process of reading.”

P. Prayer Elmo Raj Assistant Professor of English, Pachaiyappa's College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

Writers may take for granted the role that theory plays in the practical application of daily professional tasks. However, recalling and implementing the thinking behind theories that frame narrative development has helped me infuse effective recommendations into company processes that continue to produce great outcomes. These processes also reduce the number revisions to creative pieces and decrease the time a project stays in our development queue.

Challenge

How do I help non-writers write copy that gets results?

Developing documents that are easy to read, help focus the user's objective, and give the receiver of the information a comprehensive overview of their task is important in an advertising agency where time is money. We often have fifteen minutes with our creative, public relations, or media team to deliver the information they need to produce deliverables that already have short turnarounds.

I direct a team of brand managers. One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced is getting them to produce great copy. I learned that even highly intelligent and educated workers struggle with just getting out of the gate when copywriting is involved. This creates a roadblock. In my agency, the brand managers are the quarterbacks. We initiate and manage every project. So if I approve a media plan that includes radio, television, print, and social and digital advertising, it’s up to my staff to develop draft copy or key messaging points around which all of these ads are built.

I had to find a way to help my team, who are often new to marketing and advertising and often NOT writers, draft copy for two purposes: 1) to communicate clearly what they need their teammates to produce, and 2) to highlight the messages that speak to the audience we're targeting.

Solution

I developed two tools that include the mandatory use of muses that can be used to inspire how we approach our copy points. These muses must have similar audiences and be in the same client space in which we're writing.

1. Creative Brief
2. Production Request

Step-by-step instructions were the key. So I begin to think critically about ways to help my staff. I thought about the theory that texts are built upon existing text, and that authors develop texts by reading other texts. From the moment I discovered Julia Kristeva’s Theory of Intertexuality, I have been fascinated with its implications. The theory allows each author to infuse their own social and cultural voice into the retelling of a narrative, and this is important in my profession. I work for the state’s largest multicultural marketing firm, and we often have to write from a perspective with which we may not be familiar. For example, my staff consists of college-educated individuals. They may not have the cultural contexts needed to write copy that drives Arkansans without a high school diploma to my clients at Arkansas Adult Education to earn their GED^®. So when I began to develop a process that would help my team find a voice that may not be their own, it was imperative that they build upon existing texts drafted with the same goals in mind. I infused the use of muse sources into my development process so my team could research how this task has been done by others. The step-by-step process included in the above documents forced staff to evaluate similar texts to aid in the development of new texts.

This process continues to help my team. Whether they’re experienced or new to the field, team members have a starting point from which they can effectively develop new copy. I was proud to be able to back up my recommended process with theory. It was one of my first professional, teachable moments.

How the Process Works

Project muses are used to pose questions that force us to evaluate multiple aspects of existing texts. The answers help us arrive at a derivative text that is unique in voice and appeals and ends with a measurable call to action.

If we are developing messaging for a print ad, a review of muses may inspire the following questions:

• How do these pieces look?
• Are there keywords common to them all?
• What type of imagery have previous authors used?
• What tense does their copy take?
• Are they using rhetorical appeals, and if so which ones and how?

If we are redesigning a website, a review of muses will inspire questions that are different from those we ask of print muses, and may include:

• What websites have we explored that we can use to highlight the redevelopment of our main navigation and site map development?
• Is our call to action the same as your muse sites?
• What are common functional considerations that affect the user experience that we see as common threads across multiple sites?
• How do the sites we’ve identified as muses use imagery, video, chat boxes?
• What can we learn about SEO best practices that we see in our muse sites?

Outcome Addressed

Understanding the history and theory of the profession:

• Using theory as a framework for reading and composing texts

Cited:

Raj, Prayer Elmo. (2015). "Text/Texts: Interrogating Julia Kristeva's Concept of Intertextuality" An International Peer-Reviewed Journal of Humanities and Social, Vol. 3, Pp. 77-80.