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Writing Human-Interest Stories
Kirsten Gantenbein MSTC Student 2/28/06
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What Do I Mean by Human-Interest Stories?
Synonymous with Journalism term: “Feature Story” The stories you see in the Sunday paper Magazine stories in Time, etc. Profiling a person or event Appeals to the reader’s emotions or personal interests
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The Benefits of Learning Human-Interest Writing for Technical Writers
Basic journalism techniques can help to: Expand your audience Bring a more emotional and memorable impact Allow for different perspectives Bring persuasiveness for Marketing and PR writing Add more skills to your writing repertoire Journalism writing tells a story…grabs the reader. Provides conventions… As Technical writers, we’re trained to know our audience and understand how they will use our documents. By learning techniques of storytelling and journalims, you will have the ability to reach out to other audiences. Plus you’ll understand what it takes to grab a reader’s attention. Write something they want to read. Think about the PosTComm audience. Probably alumini, current students faculty…reading it for leasure. They want to read about interesting stories, updates on what’s new and happening. Satsifying to tell a good story, have a dialog with your reader…to engage them
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How to Write a Human-Interest Story
Audience Purpose Structure Breakout Session—Finding the Angle posTComm Tips for Writing Your Stories
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Audience Technical Writing versus Human-Interest Writing Specific
Audience research is very important before drafting a report or documentation Reading for information Broad Example: posTComm audience includes alumni, perspective students, donors, etc. Reading for leisure or personal interest
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How to Write a Human-Interest Story
Audience Purpose Structure Breakout Session—Finding the Angle posTComm Tips for Writing Your Stories
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Purpose Technical Writing versus Human-Interest Writing
To provide information: Useful To provide the reader with a story: 5 W’s Compelling Impact People Perspective In Depth Revealing If the reader can’t find the story, they get frustrated and STOP reading! Point of similarity--as technical communicators, we understand this very well. So once I’ve introduced to these basics, we will be very aware of what our readers want to read.
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How to Write a Human-Interest Story
Audience Purpose Structure Breakout Session—Finding the Angle posTComm Tips for Writing Your Stories
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Structure Technical Writing versus Human-Interest Writing
Thesis statement about points 1, 2, 3. Point 1 Point 2 Point 3 Conclusion Thesis statement--Lead Journalism--Inverted Pyramid Most relevant details to the least relevant details of the story
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Technical Writing Example
This study investigated how teachers planned for and involved their diverse students in classroom writing activity. Three strands of literature were relevant to understanding the ways teachers might foster students’ participation in writing tasks. First, research and theoretical positions that illuminate the nature of writing activity, writing development, and related conceptions of teacher support provide information about influences on conceptions of writing instruction. Second, studies of writing instruction provide understandings of teachers’ role in planning… Salient structure--if our reader is going to invest time, we want to provide them with easy access to information. Very dry and boring though, not leisure reading.
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The first sentence is the “lead”—who, what,
Journalism Example The first sentence is the “lead”—who, what, where, when, why SESTRIERE, Italy - The 21-year-old Californian Julia Mancuso earned a stunning victory in the giant slalom today in snowy, foggy conditions to salvage a disappointing Olympics for the U.S. women's ski team. “2006 Olympics: Julia Mancuso skied to the rescue in the nick of time.” By Associated Press February 24, 2006 Reader doesn’t want to invest time--newspapers and magazines as a medium, no one really wants to invest the time. This is for leisure or personal interest and they want a story. So journalists give it to them in one sentence. If the want to keep reading, this is where the inverted pyramid comes in…
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Structure—Inverted Pyramid
Tell your reader the end first…. Lead Info 2nd Most Important Fact 3rd Most Impt. Fact 4th Most Impt. Most common story structure. Historical significance to this as well. Give the reader a story, if they read on, you provide some details. However, this structure prepares for editors--in the past, if you story was too long, it didn’t fit in the layout and the deadline was a few hours away, the ending was chopped. Least Relevant Info
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Components of a Human-Interest Story
Headline Byline Lead Story up high Body Story Details Quotes Brings voice and insight from another source Ending (The Kicker) Expands on significance…memorable ending Your human-interest story will look like a journalism story. Conventions for storytelling in the newspaper , magazine, or newsletter medium. Ending-What happens next. Helpful to use quote kickers
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The Feature Lead: How to Begin Your Human-Interest Story
Leads are important Grab their attention Tell them the story Tell them what’s in store Types of feature leads Narrative Anecdotal Descriptive Focus-on-the-person Nut Graph 3rd or paragraph into story Don’t keep audience guessing Focus So I introduced you to some basic journalism structures for hard news story. In journo…two types of stories: hard news and features. Now, the lead is just as important for a feature story--but it’s the story that we’re building on in the feature lead. We are involving the reader with the story, so we have some license about how we can deliver the story. Here are some types of leads that build off that principle. But the nut graph is critical if you are beginning your story in a more round-about way. Remember, the reader wants the story before they keep reading. Narrative-tells a story with enough dramatic action so readers feel like witnesses
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The first sentence is the “lead”—who, what,
Journalism Example The first sentence is the “lead”—who, what, where, when, why SESTRIERE, Italy - The 21-year-old Californian Julia Mancuso earned a stunning victory in the giant slalom today in snowy, foggy conditions to salvage a disappointing Olympics for the U.S. women's ski team. “2006 Olympics: Julia Mancuso skied to the rescue in the nick of time.” By Associated Press February 24, 2006
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Strategies for Writing Interesting Human-Interest Leads
“Mancuso fastest in snowstorm, wins giant slalom” By Elliott Almond, San Jose Mercury News February 25 TURIN, Italy — Since she was a child, Julia Mancuso wanted to be crowned a champion. The California skier even wore a tiara during one of her races last week. Now she doesn't have to pretend after slicing through a blinding snowstorm Friday to capture America's first gold medal in the giant slalom since 1984 — the year she was born. Narrative elements Anecdotal Descriptive Sets a scene Focuses on person Nut Graph This story is about her winning a medal in the giant slalom Answers the 5 W’s Find the story angle and begin your story!
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How to Write a Human-Interest Story
Audience Purpose Structure Breakout Session—Finding the Angle posTComm Tips for Writing Your Stories
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Break Out Session: Review Statistics and Find an Angle
Analyze the data: Which statistics have the most impact? Which do you find the most interesting? Find the possible angles: What would appeals to a broader audience? What would makes an emotional impact? This is a great exercise because this is how it happens when you write a human-interest story. You are assigned a story--in this case research funding at UW. You do the research--stats--and find the angle. This is from a year ago, but it’s an example that hits close to home…pair up, 5-10 minutes.
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Break Out Session: Evaluate Feature Leads
Read the article published in the Seattle Times: Is it effective? What grabs you about this lead? Did you like or dislike the techniques the writer used? Discuss some differences you find Why are these difference important? How could you apply this to a technical communication story?
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How to Write a Human-Interest Story
Audience Purpose Structure Breakout Session—Finding the Angle posTComm Tips for Writing Your Stories
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Rewards of Writing for posTComm
Learn layout skills STC recognition Get in touch with alumni Crete a publication that represents the TC department Give back to the TC department Pride
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Examples of posTComm Stories for 2006
Beth Kolko goes to the UN Summit on Technology in Tunisia STC Career Fair: March 28 Student Internships--Los Alamos Faculty profiles--New Hire Anita Salem (MSTC graduate) and her work with the Red Cross Relay for Life team and event
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How to Write a Human-Interest Story
Audience Purpose Structure Breakout Session—Finding the Angle posTComm Tips for Writing Your Stories
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Tips for Writing Human-Interest Leads
The lead comes from the story Build on a quote Focus on a person Memorable fact or impression from an interview Put yourself in the reader’s shoes Never make up a lead or pull one out of thin air or from your head…difficult to do and probably won’t work with your story. Get inspiration from your story since it contains the focus of the story. Try Several Versions and Don’t Give Up!
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Add’l Tips—Tips for Story Writing
Structure is looser Think cinematically Long shot: Establish background Close-up or zoom in: Main character Point of View shots The Five S’s So come on in So what? So and so So therefore So long! End your story with a kicker Ending with a quote is always a good strategy POV of person, POV of field, POV of project Fiction writing techniques: scene setting, dialog, foreshadowing
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Add’l Tips—Tips for Interviewing
Brings voice and insight from another source Planning the Interview Research interviewee’s background, facts of story Open-end vs. closed ended questions Note-taking Tape recorder (have back-up) Slow the pace of the interview Rewrite notes after it’s over
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Thank you! Email Judy, Kate Long, or Kirsten for more information
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