Re-writing things from somewhere else

You know I'm not an expert copywriter by any means, but if you guys don't mind me asking how do you guys go about re-writing something your not famaliar with....

for example say someone wants you to write something up on Public Court Records how would you go about that becuase today I read 52 page on something and really couldn't rewrite it into 1000 words it was like I was struggling with it, but if I was to write about something that I do I could easily write up about it all day long.

I don't know just trying to get some feedback on how I can improve that area because I actually have a few content writers that work for me and they can jump right into something and boom craft a nice piece up doesn't make no sense to me.

I guess I need to read more?

 

The idea is simple, you can't rewrite what you don't understand Otherwise, that would be rephrasing and not rewriting.

 

Well how do some people rephrase so fast?

For example we have a content writer we outsource to and she can write something up extremely fast and it looks great even if shes not famaliar with the topic?

 

Very true. You might want to find some smaller articles to use for your research. The most I ever read for a 1000 word article was 15 pages. You really just need to skim and pick out the important details. If you keep having trouble like this, though, you may want to rethink writing.

 

They are called book reports remember doing those in grade school?

 

If I know nothing about the subject I head to Wikipedia and Dictionary.com first thing. Then I work from there. I know that if I don't understand the first few sentences of Wikipedia then I will really need to do some research.

Does anybody else have an opinion on admitting to the client that you don't understand the basics of the topic? I've never had a problem saying "I can absolutely elaborate on that--if you'll explain it to me in a few easy to understand sentences that I can use as a jump off point for my research."

 

I have asked clients to give me a little info on subjects, I don't think its a big deal. It helps you do your job easier, and lets them know you care enough about providing correct information to humbly ask them.

 

I am not an expert copyrighter either, however when I am asked to write upon, I always ask for enough controversial/contradictory info on which I might focus upon... that way the article gets attention and even a little writing results in satisfaction.

 

There are certain ways to go about re-writing things that makes the reader fall in love with the content, and not ever realize they are reading more or less the same content

 

as for me...i don't do re-writing or re-phrasing if i am not familiar with the topic. i feel that i can't be the best as i can be.