Senior Program Associate - Technical Writer

WRI India is looking for an accomplished substantive editor and technical writer to join our team, with experience in writing, editing and communicating scientific and social scientific research to diverse audiences. You will undertake substantive editing for manuscript drafts that require such editing during the writing and review processes.

All WRI-branded research publications or knowledge products (KPs) go through a rigorous peer-review process, involving both internal and external experts, to ensure quality, accuracy, institutional coherence, and a lack of bias in our research. As these products are intended for diverse, and often non-specialist audiences, including policymakers, business and civil society partners, researchers and peer organizations, and the broader public, we emphasize effective communication, clarity, accuracy and readability in our KPs.

Substantive editing involves editing, re-organizing and where required re-writing drafts to ensure that they follow a logical structure, meet WRI’s word limits and communicate effectively to intended audiences. They should use language and tone appropriate to research publications, demonstrate clear narrative flow and use concise text free of repetition and jargon. (Copyediting of final drafts before production is a separate operation post final approval, which is performed by external contract copyeditors.)  

In this role, you will review and screen written drafts early in the review process to assess whether they need a substantive edit. Where required, you will substantively edit manuscripts to ensure that review drafts are well-structured, readable and understandable. Following WRI’s Knowledge Product Guidelines and research teams, you will ensure that manuscripts contain essential sections such as an executive summary, an introduction that explains research goals, context and relevance, a clear methodology section, and logically structured findings, discussion and conclusions linked to the questions and analysis presented in the paper. 

You will work with program teams on specific publications as a technical writer, contributing to the writing of clear, well-structured drafts that meet WRI’s research standards for KPs.

Screening of draft manuscripts for pre-review

 ·       Screen and review draft KP manuscripts to determine whether they are ready for review in terms of writing: the draft is understandable and readable, standard of written English is acceptable, structure follows WRI guidelines, and contains required sections with essential information provided.

·       Provide constructive feedback and mentoring to authors and research teams where writing-related revisions are necessary and can be carried out by research teams themselves, to enhance their ability to edit and strengthen their own work.

Substantive editing of WRI India KPs for effective research communication

 ·       Undertake substantive edits of WRI publications that do not meet research standards. Such editing will involve re-organizing and rewriting to ensure a logical narrative flow; clear, understandable writing; an appropriate tone for the target audience, clear messaging, and overall readability (elimination of jargon and/ or superfluous content, filling in gaps in necessary information, evidence and explanation). Also, substantive editing will also include review of visuals, typically graphical presentation of data, for clarity, readability and relevance. 

·       Provide light substantive editing services when deemed necessary to strengthen the quality of writing, structure and effectiveness of message communication at the final stages of publication, in addition to copy-editing.

·      Provide feedback and substantive editing support for research-based communications products

·       Support programs to share and communicate WRI’s published research internally and externally, in partnership with programs  

Technical Writing

 ·      Work with program research teams on manuscript writing for specific publications, to meet research and writing standards for WRI Knowledge products

·       If applicable, review and support translation of KPs (or Executive summaries) and research materials into Indian languages to reach broader audiences