Writing For The Web | Online Writer’s Checklistpage no. 1 / 20

Online Writer’s Checklist

page no. 2 / 20 Writing For The Web | Online Writer’s Checklist

Stages of online writing

Planning Writing Distribution

page no. 3 / 20 Writing For The Web | Online Writer’s Checklist

What is the importance of planning your story?• To increase the quality of your blog

• To obtain better research

• To flesh out ideas

• To identify what your audience will be interested in

• To prepare for the story-gathering process e.g. Interviewing

URL | Image License

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Planning a story

Consider the following:

• Determine what is motivating you to write this story

• You can write a unique angle on an existing story

• Understand your relationship to the subject matter you are writing about

• Be honest about your agenda and those of your sources when writing Image Credit: Eric | URL | Licence

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Planning your story

Here are some questions to consider before writing your story:

• Is the information new?

• Is the story important?

• Geographical location?

• Does your content have an emotional appeal?

• Can you evidence your statements?URL | Licence

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Planning your story

How to cover your story?

• Find a suitable location, such as an office, public location or online

• Think about the most appropriate and comfortable way people would like to be interviewed

• Consider your personal safety and that of others

• Notify someone you can trust in case back-up is needed

• Seek legal advice if unsure about what information can publicized

URL | Licence

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Preparing for the interview:

• Prepare questions ahead of the interview

• Create simple yet direct questions

• Consider the medium (text and photo/audio/video)

• Develop two-part questions when interviewing for audio or video, to obtain more information

• Leave contentious questions till the end

Planning your story

Photo Credit | URL | Licence

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Have a look at some interviewing tips from the experts:

“Ask clear, simple interview questions” – Jeremy Paxman

“Research the interviewee” – BBC Academy

Planning your story

URL | Licence

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While conducting the interview:

• Make sure to listen carefully

• Show an interest in the information

• Use mobile phones or any other recording device for capturing photos and videos

• It is useful to nod and smile when interviewing for audio and video instead of saying hmm... or making similar sounds

• Take notes if/when possible - but do not obsess over this

Planning your story

URL | Licence

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Steps to consider when writing your story

Your writing should:

• Establish a clear lead

• Appeal to the audience through its liveliness

• Although ideas must be carefully explained the overall story should be compact

• Break-up your paragraphs

• Do not be afraid to include links in your stories

• KISS - Keep It Short and Simple!

For more details see PPT on Writing for the WebPhoto credit | URL | Licence

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Steps to consider when writing your story

• Decide whether it is a long or short story

• You can write your story in several parts if you have collected a lot of information

• Consider the format or composition of your content– which is subject to the writing platform you are using

• Think about your writing platform For eg. Wordpress or Tumblr

See more writing platforms here URL | Licence | Photo Credit

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• Think about the rules or standards you would like to apply or maintain For eg. Accuracy or Privacy (Link slides on Journalism Standards in Hyperlocal Media)

• Fact check and verify your story before publishing, especially if information was collected online

Steps to consider when writing your story

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Distributing your story

Develop a plan for sharing your story

• Share your posts multiple times throughout the day on as many social networks as possible, for example on Twitter or LinkedIn

• Publish your stories on different sites to attract more readers to your content

• The following are some tools that can be used to share your content: Buffer, Edgar or Coschedule

• Syndicate your posts with other networks for automatic redistribution

• ... and Keep an eye on how people share and respond, in case they have questions or are adding additional contextual information for you

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Distributing your story

Convert your story into different packages

• Create an infographic using platforms such as Visual.ly, Venngage, Piktochart

• Turn your story into an informative slide using Slideshare

• Convert your content into an email and send to your list of contacts

• Convert your written story into a video

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Distributing your story

Republish your story

• Circulate your content through RSS feed

• Get prominent people in your field to promote your story

• Guest post on other blog sites

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Resources

• What do Journalists and Bloggers decide what to write about blog.journalistics.com/2009/how-do-journalists-and-bloggers-

decide-what-to-write-about/

• Journalism Skills www.bbc.co.uk/academy/journalism/skills

• How to write for the web news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/school_report/resources_for_

teachers/9600548.stm

• What makes a story newsworthy www.mediacollege.com/journalism/news/newsworthy.html

• 6 Ways to Distribute Content and Boost Your Blog Traffic www.searchenginejournal.com/6-ways-distribute-content-boost-

blog-traffic/111098/

• Places to distribute your content

www.writersincharge.com/distribute-your-content/

Writing For The Web | Online Writer’s Checklistpage no. 18 / 20

BCMCR

In the next topic we will be looking at the words we use, an exploration of the language and structure of writing