1. Writing Human-Interest Stories
Kirsten Gantenbein
MSTC Student 2/28/06

2. 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

3. 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

4. How to Write a Human-Interest Story
Audience
Purpose
Structure
Breakout Session—Finding the Angle
posTComm
Tips for Writing Your Stories

5. 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

6. How to Write a Human-Interest Story
Audience
Purpose
Structure
Breakout Session—Finding the Angle
posTComm
Tips for Writing Your Stories

7. 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.

8. How to Write a Human-Interest Story
Audience
Purpose
Structure
Breakout Session—Finding the Angle
posTComm
Tips for Writing Your Stories

9. 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

10. 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.

11. 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…

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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!

17. How to Write a Human-Interest Story
Audience
Purpose
Structure
Breakout Session—Finding the Angle
posTComm
Tips for Writing Your Stories

18. 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.

19. 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?

20. How to Write a Human-Interest Story
Audience
Purpose
Structure
Breakout Session—Finding the Angle
posTComm
Tips for Writing Your Stories

21. 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

22. 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

23. How to Write a Human-Interest Story
Audience
Purpose
Structure
Breakout Session—Finding the Angle
posTComm
Tips for Writing Your Stories

24. 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!

25. 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

26. 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

27. Thank you! Email Judy, Kate Long, or Kirsten for more information