Repurposing Old Material to Make New

One of the tasks I had to do at my internship was to create new webpages for an upcoming training program.  The one good thing about creating the website pages was the ability to repurpose old material instead of creating brand new material.  The Forensic Science Initiative (FSI) conducts two to three large onsite training programs every year.  For each upcoming program, there is corresponding information on the FSI’s website for that current program.  My task was to update and edit the old webpages and use the repurposed material for the new event.

Repurposing old material can be beneficial especially if the projects are similar. It can save time and resources especially if you are on a deadline.  But there are a few things you have to be aware of when repurposing old material.  Here are the ones that I encountered. One, if you are not the original author you have to make sure the additions and edits have the same voice as the original content.  Secondly, you have to be extra aware of all the changes especially if dates and locations are involved.   Thirdly, make sure the content is still relevant (i.e. no rules have changed or staff is current).  Finally, if there are hyperlinks in the old content, make sure they still work in the new document. Repurposing old material is a timesaver and there is no need to reinvent the wheel.