Most freelancers and VAs get handed a style guide nobody reads or no guidance at all, and both produce the same result: three rounds of revisions before anything sounds like you. One page fixes it. This brief is the single document that gets a new writer producing usable drafts from their first assignment, built for the Cohesion pillar. For a longer onboarding process once someone's a regular, see the Team Onboarding Kit; for the mechanics of your prompt system, see the Brand Voice JSON Guide.
What goes on the page
One page, front and back if needed, no more. If it's longer, nobody opens it before their first deadline.
Section 1: Who you're writing for and as. Two sentences max.
Audience: _________________________________ Voice (paste your Voice Charter): _________________________________
Section 2: The 3 rules that matter most. Not your full style guide, the three that cause the most off-voice drafts if skipped.
Section 3: Banned words and constructions. The list they'll actually get flagged for.
Section 4: The 5 examples. This is the section that does the real work; see below.
Section 5: What to send and when. Format, deadline convention, where drafts go, how revisions get requested.
Draft format: _________________________________ Deadline convention: _________________________________ Where drafts go: _________________________________ Revision process: _________________________________
The 5 examples to attach
A rule without an example is a suggestion. Attach these five, each with one sentence explaining why it's on the list:
- Your best recent piece, full length. "This is the target: [one sentence on what makes it work]."
- A short piece (social post or email) that nails the voice in under 100 words. Shows they don't need length to sound like you.
- A generic AI draft next to your edited version. Shows the actual edit distance you expect, concretely.
- One piece that's slightly off, with your notes on why. Teaches the failure mode before they hit it themselves.
- A piece from a different format than their assignment. Proves the voice holds across formats, so they don't assume "brand voice" only means blog posts.
Label each file clearly: 01-target-longform.pdf, 02-target-short.pdf, 03-generic-vs-edited.pdf, 04-off-voice-example.pdf, 05-cross-format.pdf. A freelancer who has to guess which file is which won't read all five.
The review rubric for their first 3 pieces
Score every piece 1 to 5 on each line. This turns "doesn't sound right" into something you can actually explain and they can actually fix.
| Criteria | 1 (off) | 3 (close) | 5 (on-voice) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charter match | Could be any brand | Recognizable with effort | Unmistakably us |
| Banned words | Multiple hits | One hit | Clean |
| Concrete detail | All abstraction | One specific | Specific throughout |
| Opener | Generic setup line | Decent but slow | Sharp, specific, fast |
| Structure/length | Ignored the brief | Close to spec | Matches spec exactly |
Scoring guide:
- Piece 1, average 3+: Good start. Give two specific notes, assign piece 2.
- Piece 1, average under 3: Don't assign piece 2 yet. Walk through the 5 examples together first; the brief probably wasn't absorbed, not that the writer can't do it.
- Piece 3, average 4+: Cleared for lighter review. Move to the Team Onboarding Kit's week-one cadence if they're becoming a regular.
- Piece 3, average under 4 and no improvement from piece 1: This freelancer and your voice may not be a match. Say so directly rather than dragging out four more rounds.
Worked example: brief for a blog freelancer
Audience: Small business owners who feel behind on marketing but resent being talked down to. Voice: Direct, warm, a little dry. We tell people what to do, not what's possible in theory.
3 rules that matter most:
- Open with a specific scenario or number, never a general statement about "today's landscape."
- Every claim names something real: a step, a timeframe, an example. No floating adjectives like "powerful" or "seamless."
- End with what to do next, not a summary of what was just said.
Banned words: leverage, unlock, empower, elevate, game changer, seamless, robust, in today's fast-paced world.
What to send and when: Google Doc, comments on, due by 5pm the Thursday before publish. Drafts go in the shared folder, named [topic]-draft-[date]. One revision round included; a second round means the brief needs a follow-up conversation, not just more notes.
Keep it current
Revisit the brief every time you catch yourself giving the same correction twice to different freelancers. That correction belongs in section 2 or the banned list, not in your head. A brief that only reflects last year's voice will train new writers into last year's version of you.