Interview Questions About Writing Skills With Sample Answers
A writer must be able to incorporate feedback into their work without taking criticism personally. An interviewer will ask this question to determine how self-aware you are and your understanding of the need to make edits as needed.
Top 25 Creative Writing Interview Questions and Answers in 2022
There are many forms of writing, content writing, medical writing, publishing and technical writing. Creative writing, as the term itself says, it’s about writing skills paired with imagination. Writing a book, ghost writing, copy writing… these are a few of the forms of creative writing. Using your felt senses is a key component of creative writing. In a creative writing course you learn the usage of sentences in their short and long constructions. Which allows the story to unfold as if being told.
I am going to try and approach this holistically. Let’s say, hypothetically you have applied for a creative writing job. The job is to write a biography. Let’s look at what are the possible questions you could be posed with.
Before we dive into the questions, let’s talk a little about how to prepare yourself for the interview. Approaching an interview with integrity and truth is essential. Being honest as opposed to giving BS, of stuff you do not know about will not work in the long run. Enthusiasm is your dress code for an interview.
It is important as a Creative writer that you are passionate about what you do. This needs to show in whatever your response is. Having some understanding of the current market regarding your topic or job title is a must-have. Research on the company that’s interviewing you is crucial. And of course presentation, presentation.
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Interview Questions About Writing Skills With Sample Answers
Written communication is a key element of many different job opportunities across various industries. The ability to communicate effectively and succinctly can help you get ahead and convey your ideas. When interviewing for positions that require written communication skills, you might face certain frequently asked questions. In this article, we will discuss some of the most common interview questions about writing skills and provide sample answers to use in your preparation.
Some of the more specific interview questions for writing skills can help you elaborate on your ability to communicate effectively and highlight your skills. When facing certain writing skill interview questions, review sample answers to prepare for how you will answer.
How do you know if your content is performing well?
An interviewer asks about the performance of content to determine whether the writer can be subjective about their own work and whether they understand how the work they produce aligns with the strategy and goals of the business. Some examples of how to track content performance include clicks, page views and visitors, as well as engagement through sharing and commenting.
Example : “ Good content drives page views, clicks and engagement, often in the form of comments and shares. If a piece of content I wrote is not performing in any of these ways, I will take a closer look to determine what may be missing and how to improve on the next piece I produce.”
How would you capture the voice of the organization?
Communication should engage, inform and educate the reader about a specific topic, so when you are writing for an organization, it is important to convey the brand voice. An interviewer will want to know what methods you use to capture the voice and communicate it to the reader. You can prepare for this question by reviewing the content currently on the company’s website to get a sense of the brand voice and highlighting how your skills would contribute to that voice.
Example : “ When reading some of the content on the organization’s current site, I found that the brand voice is relatable, friendly and relaxed. My writing tone closely follows this voice, as I enjoy writing for an audience that feels like a group of friends, so I feel my skill set would help me excel when capturing the brand voice.”
Describe the most significant report or written work you have completed.
When asking about a significant achievement in your career, the person conducting the interview often wants to know what you see as your greatest success. You can use this question to elaborate on something you are especially proud of or that generated a lot of success for you.
Example : “My most significant written work was a blog post that went viral overnight. I wrote it for an organization that offered a relevant product, and the post focused on the need for the product and the pain points it addressed for members of the target audience. The previous blog readership averaged 150 per week per post, and this post had 500,000 views in a 48-hour period, as well as thousands of shares and page views.”
How have you developed your writing skills?
An interviewer may want to know how you have developed your writing skills to determine how you came into this industry and whether you have any formal education. This question may also help an interviewer determine whether you are willing to continue developing and improving your skills.
Example : “ I found my passion for writing in college, where I earned a degree in English. Many of my courses required me to develop and strengthen my writing skills, and I spent a lot of my time reading to further understand what makes good writing. Since completing my formal education, I have worked as a writing intern for a large corporation and continued to develop my skills by writing on my own personal blog and working on a novel.”
What is your favorite thing to write?
When asking about your interests in writing, an interviewer may be trying to determine whether you have the experience needed to write the content the company needs. In your answer, you might focus on some of your personal writing interests, such as a novel, along with your professional interests, such as marketing copy or technical manuals.
Example : “ My favorite thing to write is social media posts that will get in front of a wide audience. I enjoy creating content that has a short lifespan, as it encourages me to create engaging and attention-grabbing posts and captions.”
Do you prefer to present orally or through written communication?
Professional writers may have to present their content orally, so the ability to speak in front of a group or individual may be important to an interviewer. If you struggle to present orally, consider taking a course on public speaking or presentation and elaborate on your willingness to improve your skills.
Basic Content Writer Interview Questions
1. What do you think are the integral components of good content?
Usually, there exist a plethora of aspects to make a content piece outstanding. However, like other content writer interview questions and answers, the interviewer is expecting you to discuss the key elements that are an integral part of any write-ups.
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2. What are the ways to decide the tone of a particular content?
Like other technical content writer interview questions, you should be confident while answering this one. If you can answer this question perfectly, you are one step closer to impressing the interviewer.
Content writing requires you to draft write-ups for various mediums. For instance, social media posts differ by a great margin from SEO blogs. Hence, it is important to keep in mind the medium for which you are writing.
3. How can you make your information credible?
Through this question, the interviewer wants to know whether or not you do your research carefully. Including credible information in your blog is quite crucial to make them acceptable amongst the readers. In other words, the information which you would quote in your articles or blogs should be from a credible source.
4. Illustrate the basic difference between an article and blog
This is one of the most asked content writer interview questions through which the interviewer wants to analyze the basic skills you have in content writing. To be precise, articles are written by following a more formal format. They are usually informative and give insights to the readers about a particular subject. In articles, you are free to use various types of facts and can even make your analysis, present research work and draw insights from there for your readers. A blog differs from an article in terms of tonality. The blogs are usually drafted informally. Note that in the case of blogs, you can be casual and talk one on one with your readers.
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5. Content writing at times can be downright monotonous. What are the ways through which you can dispel boredom while writing content?
This content writer interview question from the interviewer’s end is usually asked to analyze your passion and seriousness about the job position. When pursued as a passion, content writing would never be monotonous. Instead, content writing is one of the very few fields which give you the unique opportunity to learn and grow.
It is also one of the most asked content writer interview questions which you should answer with care. Well, you may communicate to the interviewer that sometimes you feel annoyed while writing on the same topic or niche. But quickly state that you also have your own ways of overcoming this state.
For instance, you can tell the interviewer that while writing for the same niche, you like to experiment with different tones and styles. Your ability to experiment with various writing styles and tones also highlights the important skills you have in your arsenal to curate various types of articles and blogs. While providing an answer to this question, always be specific about your creative skills in writing. A tactical answer, like the one as mentioned above, would also cast a good impression on the interviewer.
6. What are the things you enjoy most about content writing?
The main motive behind asking this question is to assess your seriousness about the job role you have been offered. It is worthwhile here to note here that the answer to this question would differ as per your experience level. If you are a fresher, you should concentrate on bringing forth the inner abilities that inspire you to be a content writer. On the other hand, if you have the experience, you can portray how content writing has shaped your career in a purposeful manner. Through both these perspectives, you should always depict content writing as your most preferred field.
Focus on your key talents and connect them with the craft of content writing. For instance, if you have a penchant towards creative writing, tell the interviewer how you want to transform this skill to earn. On the other hand, if your favourite hobby is playing the guitar, tell the interviewer that online articles on guitars inspire you to write easy-to-understand content for your fellow musicians.
Ensure to emphasize on the various skills you have learnt in your previous workplace. You can also communicate to the interviewer that you have developed a large number of skills which have made you better. You can also state that with years of experience, you have now started taking various writing assignments as a challenge. Also tell that you love to experiment and innovate with various writing styles, tones and formats.
Intermediate Content Writer Interview Questions
8. What are the types of procedures you emphasize on to get your write-ups finally done?
The interviewer asks this question to assess your written skills on various types of write-ups. It is important to mention here that there exists an array of write-ups and each write-up needs a different kind of approach. For instance, the research you conduct before writing a blog would differ when you write white papers.
Through this content writer interview question, the interviewer wants to analyze your attitude towards research. The purpose of asking this question is to get an idea from where you usually source your content. The interviewer also wants to know the kind of websites you usually refer to while writing a specific piece of content. To be precise, not all websites are the same. They differ in terms of their overall quality. If you are referring to these sub-par websites, then it is normal that your write-up would be inferior and of low quality.
9. What kind of writing style are you most comfortable with? What tones of writing have you come across?
To be precise, every writer has his/her own unique writing style of forging a piece of information. For instance, some explain stuff in detail, some write while referring to a third person and some focus on readability more. Usually, this query is raised by the interviewer to assess your knowledge on the technicalities of writing.
Your tone of writing along with its structure and syntax can either make or break a piece of content. Through this content writer interview question, the interviewer wants to be sure of your writing skills. While providing an answer to this question, it is crucial on your part to be aware about the various tones of writing.
It is worth noting here that while providing an answer to this question, you need to have sufficient knowledge about the writing style you are selecting. In all probabilities, the interviewer may ask you in detail about the writing style. You may also be asked to quote various examples in describing the writing style.
On the other hand, the majority of times, the answer also depends on the voice which the readers want to read. As a proficient professional, it is important that you identify your audience and select a writing style which best caters to their interests.
10. Are you adept in planning and scheduling your work?
The main objective of forecasting and developing content is to manage it effectively. In other words, you should be able to meet objectives and deadlines without affecting the quality. Here are few steps which you should narrate in case the interviewer asks these kinds of content writer interview questions:
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11. What are the ways through which you integrate SEO into your content?
This is probably where even the most experienced content writers stumble. URLs in content should always be small and integrated with proper keywords. This enables the search engines to discover them easily.
12. Are you a professional content writer? What are the ways through which you manage deadlines?
Note that deadlines and submitting work on time are not only limited to the field of content writing. It is one of those work ethics which is present in every field. Hence, while providing an answer to this content writer interview question, you need to emphasize your dedication levels. Usually, this question is asked to determine how well you cope up with time in pressure situations. Moreover, the interviewer also intends to analyze the extent to which you are serious about completing your work on time. Being a content writer, it is normal that you would be assigned various kinds of assignments. Moreover, the topic of these assignments would also vary as per the requirements.
Some are based on niches while some are typical and complex in nature. Note that you cannot take the same approach of time planning with different niches. Thus, while providing an answer to this question, lay emphasis on the significance of proper planning as per the importance of the topic.
In other words, state that the less important topics need less planning when compared to the important topics. Your research levels should be thoroughly based on the topic of the subject. Furthermore, the urgency of the work should also be considered while meeting deadlines efficiently. Being flexible is the best way to handle deadlines in pressure situations.
13. How would you capture our company’s vision?
As a writer, it is normal for you to possess your style of writing. The interviewer expects you to write compelling content by keeping in mind the objectives and message of his/her organization. This is the reason that you should familiarize yourself with the company’s goals and vision before the interview.
Sources:
https://www.henryharvin.com/blog/creative-writing-interview-questions-answers/amp/
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/interviewing/interview-questions-about-writing-skills
https://www.simplilearn.com/content-writer-interview-questions-article