Why My Content Always Gets a ‘D’

We live in a time when you can generate a six-hundred-word blog post with a few prompts and a cursory review. But just because you can, doesn't mean you should.  

When Microsoft PowerPointTM arrived, creating presentations went from requiring time, care, and probably working with a specialist, to fast, easy, and available to anyone with a mouse and the software. I’m sure you have sat through presentations that have had you questioning the wisdom of that particular innovation.

AI-generated slop abounds, and if we are to show our readers that we respect their time, I think it’s important to lay out some quality standards for what we create and publish. So here are mine:

Everything I create has to have at least one ‘D’:

Data - new research, or a synthesis of several recently published reports. An analysis of trends, or perhaps a new finding that upends conventional wisdom. Whatever you write needs to have backing with quantitative or qualitative data. There are hundreds of smaller ‘State of…’ reports, significant yearly data dumps, and academic research to draw from, and a chance to give your readers insights they might not have time to develop themselves.  

Direction - forward-looking advice, inspiration, or insight. To use a tired and overused phrase, “Thought-Leadership”( but be sure to include both thoughts and leadership).  You want to present a credible, thought-provoking viewpoint or prediction your audience can consider in decision-making. You may even want to prompt a bit of debate.

Details - sure, announce a new product or feature, but tell your audience how it works, as well as why it’s good. If you have done your other two ‘Ds’ well, you will have established a solid ‘why’ to link to. Or tell your audience how to solve a problem - there is still a healthy appetite for a quality ‘how to fix this kind of vulnerability’ tutorial. Hand over concrete information that readers can use, which will improve their day somehow (even if it’s yet another exaltation to use parameterized queries to mitigate SQLi attacks). 

If we adopt these quality standards and ensure we have answers for the Five Questions, our content stands a better chance of being worth the time we ask our audience to invest in reading it. 

None of this means I’m against using generative AI appropriately. It’s great for research, as long as you can spot errors, and fantastic for transforming content into different formats, for social media, or short summaries. You can do a lot to remove the ‘toil’ of content creation. 

But always remember, your readers are human (for now) and deserve the care and effort involved in quality content.