Writing about unknown topics

Don't listen to the people that say you should not have taken the job. As freelancers, that is what we do...

Research is an even more important skill than writing. Here is how I do it...

1. Find out from the client what does he mean by 'audit'. An audit has a number of different meanings depending on the context. You can audit taxes, finances, business operations, spending, marketing, labor etc. He needs to be more specific.
2. Secondly, ask him what his 'long tail' keyword focus is for the piece that you have to write. Does he want you to explain the process of auditing? The legal requirements that make auditing necessary? How to find an auditor? What entities needs to be audited? The auditing process?The list goes on and on, but I think you get the general idea.
3. Google the longtail keyword (eg auditing process UK) & bookmark, print or save the articles.
4. Go look at his competitors and see if they published articles similar to what your client wants. Save, print or bookmark the content.
5. At this stage, I use pen and paper and start pulling out the information from the articles I saved. Just the facts.
6. I open up a new word doc and put all the information, facts or stats in bullet form.
7. I take one bullet point at a time and start fleshing out the point.
8. Then like normal you format the doc, write your subheading, title etc. (I am sure you know what)

That is pretty much the process I follow when I have to write something. I do that even if I know a lot about the subject because there is always something out there that you didn't know.

Good luck!