Become concise as news, precise as law.
Lead with the future — not background — for lead-ership, especially in a crisis. That’s the most important of eight journalism skills that will transform your writing. The others: write your readers’ language, be positive (to be both clear and upbeat), lay out logically, be consistent, be precise, be concise and choose strong verbs. (Plus a Speak Like the News skill: avoid “uptalk?”) Emulate the vivid news examples you’ll see in this workshop, and you’ll strengthen your writing voice with lively, engaging news style. At 7 sharp, we’ll critique TheWallStreetJournal.com, seeing how to communicate your main point in just a few words. To cover as much ground as possible, we’ll have just a few writing exercises and most of them will take less than a minute each.
Live video conference: This workshop will be held via our online video conferencing platform, Zoom. You can view brief tutorials on using the platform here. On the start date or the day before, participants will receive an email with login info (please check your spam if you don’t see it).
In this workshop you’ll learn:
- Lead with the future — not background — for lead-ership, especially in a crisis.
- Choose between raw numbers and a ratio.
- “Equal writes”: choose an egalitarian, engaging, non-clunky alternative to generic “he.”
- Break bad news the good way — and keep your readers reading.
- Plus a “Speak Like the News” skill: avoid “uptalk?”
Time requirements
- Some advance reading.
Materials
- You’ll receive a nine-page .docx booklet.
Who should take this workshop?
- Writers (business writers especially) who’d like to learn by emulating or improving excerpts from diverse sources — here news of course, but also the Supreme Court, Charles Dickens and the Ronettes.
If you need an accommodation for this workshop, please contact us at access@writer.org. We will attempt to fulfill all requests, but advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility services.
