Writing workshops, communication consulting and writing services
People remember information better when stories are organized according to well-known structures. (Mandler and Johnson 1977; Kintsch, Mandel and Kozminsky in 1977; Mandler 1978; Stein 1976; and Thorndyke 1977)
The reason: People have mental frameworks — aka schemata — that they’ve built through experience and instruction.… Read the full article
How do you organize a compelling feature?
Model this piece, which Loring Leifer wrote for Northern Funds’ marketing magazine, Northern Update.… Read the full article
When Ian Jones needed to craft a — yawn! — diversity story for employees at Columbia Gas of Virginia, his first instinct was to go with a fact pack.… Read the full article
When I teach the feature-style story structure, communicators nod. It seems reasonable that readers would prefer concrete, creative stories to a hierarchical blurtation of facts.… Read the full article
I love it when my clients send me their rewrites after I present a writing workshop.
For one thing, it’s gratifying to see that people’s writing actually improves after I visit!… Read the full article
“Always grab the reader by the throat in the first paragraph,” said Time magazine reporter Paul O’Neil. “Sink your thumbs into his windpipe in the second and hold him against the wall until the tag line.”… Read the full article
Here’s the good news: You already know how to organize your copy.
Just think back to what your third-grade English teacher taught you.… Read the full article
It was a good story: More than 1,000 New Englanders would soon have safe, decent, affordable places to live, thanks to the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston’s Affordable Housing Program.… Read the full article
When you organize your copy logically, readers can read it more easily and get more out of it.
Or so says Bonnie J.… Read the full article
The feature-style story structure attracts 300% more readers and increases reading by 520%, according to an A/B test by Groove HQ.… Read the full article
