Writing & Editing

3 simple constructs to help improve anything you’re writing

These structures and templates will help hone your thinking, reporting and writing to turn out a finished product that achieves your business goals.  

By Allison Carter
@allisonlcarter
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3 simple constructs to help improve anything you’re writing These structures and templates will help hone your thinking, reporting and writing to turn out a finished product that achieves your business goals. Writing is one of the most deceptively simple things we do. If you’re reading this, chances are very good that you can also engage in the mechanical process of stringing words together to form sentences, paragraphs and pages. But doing that in a way that truly communicates something is the tricky bit. Learning to write better and more clearly is an endeavor every curious communicator should engage in every single day. Here's your lesson for today. Tyler Gray, editorial director for creative newsroom at Edelman Worldwide, shared his presentation on “Write like a Journalist: Pen Powerful and Precise Prose that Pops.” Watching that entire talk is well worth your time — and included with your Ragan Training membership. But in case you’re just looking for the highlights, let’s break down a few of the structural tips and tricks that Gray shared. Take inspiration from journalists Whether you have a background in journalism or not, the skills and thought processes that make news stories so compelling to read can still apply to whatever content you’re creating — from a press release to an item for your intranet or a brand journalism piece. Gray offered these reminders: Audience comes before all; everything must be communicated in a way that makes sense to and resonates with the people we’re trying to reach. And usually that means keeping humans at the core of everything: telling stories about impact, struggle (that’s where tension/conflict comes into play) and ultimately triumph. And don’tAlso, don’t forget about experts. Whether that’s a brilliant person within your organization, a partner or even someone completely unrelated, look to trueseek true experts to bolster your reporting, make you smarter and give greater credibility. In the age of Instagram and TikTok, it’s also criticalcritical to give people something to look at. These can help draw them into your piece of content via social media or keep them engaged. Take readers on a journey Once you have the general idea for your human-centric, audience-inspired story, it’s time to look at how to build that story in a way that will get the results you’re looking for, from press pickup to an uptick in open benefits enrollees. Gray broke down the key components of any story like this: Gray’s method calls for keeping a balance between problems and solutions. After all, a solution is meaningless without an obstacle, and a problem without a solve is just complaining. By taking readers through these steps, you’re able to keep them engaged as you lay out the case, all while layering in those human storytelling beats from above. Build a strong structure for storytelling Gray runs through a journalism structure that is a classic for a reason: it works. Call it the inverted pyramid, call it whatever you’d like, this template can be applied to nearly any story to great effect. Make sure you don’t miss the third step — having a great quote can elevate any story from meh to marvelous. Even if it’s a canned statement from leadership, work with them to make that quote sparkle. These structures and templates will help hone your thinking, reporting and writing to turn out a finished product that achieves your business goals. You can watch the full presentation here, or download Gray’s slides. These writing tips can help you in the long run.

Writing is one of the most deceptively simple things we do. If you’re reading this, chances are very good that you can also engage in the mechanical process of stringing words together to form sentences, paragraphs and pages. But doing that in a way that truly communicates something is the tricky bit. Learning to write better and more clearly is an endeavor every curious communicator should engage in every single day.

Here’s your lesson for today.

Tyler Gray, editorial director for creative newsroom at Edelman Worldwide, shared his presentation on “Write like a Journalist: Pen Powerful and Precise Prose that Pops.” Watching that entire talk is well worth your time — and included with your Ragan Training membership. But in case you’re just looking for the highlights, let’s break down a few of the structural tips and tricks that Gray shared.

Take inspiration from journalists

Whether you have a background in journalism or not, the skills and thought processes that make news stories so compelling to read can still apply to whatever content you’re creating — from a press release to an item for your intranet or a brand journalism piece.

Gray offered these reminders:

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