Nut graph

Make your key point in writing

Use it as a headline, deck or nut graph

Once you’ve found your focus and written your one-sentence story summary, use it.

A well-written summary statement can become a headline, deck or theme sentence.… Read the full article

What’s the best article writing structure?

‘From Tina Turner to Taylor Swift’

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

How to structure an email invitation

Sensus goes to the science museum

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

How to structure a blog post

WCB-Alberta takes on opioid addiction

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

How to organize content [Example!]

Strathcona County masters feature-style story structure

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

What’s the best news release structure?

Federal Home Loan Bank nails the feature

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

Background tops the types of feature story leads to avoid

Don’t start with the blah blah blah

The background might be an important component of your story. After all, the readers might need some of the following elements to fully understand your story:

A definition
A short description of a key concept
A one-paragraph history of the subject
Additional facts or details that give context to the story or “prove” your point

Background comes third

But readers don’t need this material first.… Read the full article

What lede (or lead) should you use for web content?

4 types of web leads to try — and 3 to avoid

Lede or lead?

You won’t find it in the Oxford English Dictionary. But the alternative spelling lede was supposedly created during the linotype era so as not to confuse lead with the strip of metal that was used to separate lines of type.… Read the full article