• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Wylie's Writing Tips

Improve your communications with our training, consulting, and writing services

  • Home
  • Writing training
    • Topics
      • Content-writing classes
      • Email-writing classes
      • Persuasive-writing classes
      • PR-writing classes
      • Readability classes
      • Storytelling-writing classes
      • Web-writing classes
      • Writing-process classes
    • In-house writing workshops
    • Public writing workshops
      • Storytelling | July 11-15
      • PR writing | Aug. 15-19
      • Tight writing | Sept. 19-23
      • Email writing | Oct. 17-21
      • Writing process | Dec. 12-16
      • Past writing workshops
    • Association workshops
      • Case study: PRSA Puget Sound
      • Case study: IABC Detroit
      • Case study: IABC Lincoln
      • Case study: PRSA Alaska
    • Writing training clients
    • Trainer
  • Writing services
    • Ask Ann
    • Writing & editing
    • Writing coach
    • Writing guidelines
    • Writing training
    • Consulting clients
  • Writing tools
    • The Power Pack
    • Rev Up Readership: toolbox for writers
    • Art of Storytelling
    • Block Busters handbook
    • Clarify Complex Copy
    • Cut Through the Clutter manual
    • Get Good at Getting the Goods
    • Jargon: Start Making Sense
    • People Power
    • Think Like a Reader
    • Think Outside the Pyramid
  • Writing tips
    • Content writing
      • Relevant content writing
        • Relevant content writing resources
        • Relevant content writing quotes
      • Creative content writing
      • Structure for content
      • Readability for content
        • Resources on blog post length
        • Quotes on blog post length
      • Scannable web copy
      • Content writing resources
      • Content writing quotes
    • Email writing
      • Why email writing?
      • Subject lines
        • Resources on subject lines
        • Quotes on subject lines
      • Target your email
        • Quotes on targeted email
      • Feature story structure
      • Short, readable emails
        • Quotes on readable emails
      • Scannable emails
        • Quotes on how to write scannable email
      • Resources on email writing
      • Quotes on email writing
    • Microcontent
      • Skimming, scanning, reading
        • Resources on skimming, scanning, reading
        • Quotes on skimming, scanning, reading
      • Bulleted lists
        • Quotes on list writing
      • Callouts, pull quotes
        • Quotes on pull quotes and callouts
      • Captions, cutlines
        • Quotes on captions
      • Decks, summary blurbs
      • Headlines
        • Benefit headlines
        • Feature headlines
        • Web headlines
          • Quotes on web headlines
        • Quotes on headlines
      • Links, buttons
        • Quotes on links
      • Subheads
        • Quotes on how to do subheadings
      • Resources on display copy
      • Quotes on display copy
    • Persuasive writing
      • What’s in it for me?
        • Quotes on WIIFMs
      • Write about benefits
        • Quotes on verbs
        • Quotes on benefits
      • Write to, about You
        • Quotes on ‘you’ writing
      • Quotes about persuasive writing
    • Public relations writing
      • Why PR writing
      • Target readers with PR writing
        • Relevant releases quotes
      • Organize PR writing
        • Leads for releases
          • Press release first paragraph
          • Quotes on press release leads
        • Body for releases
      • Quotations
        • Quotes on writing a quotation
      • Readability for PR
        • Quotes on short press releases
      • Headlines, display copy for PR
        • Headlines for releases
        • Visuals for releases
      • Resources on press releases
      • Quotes on press releases
    • Readability
      • Why readability?
        • Information overload
          • Information overload quotes
        • Time spent reading
          • Quotes on time spent reading
      • Story length
        • Why short content
        • Measure A.R.T.
        • Tighten your story angle
        • Resources on writing short content
        • Quotes on writing short content
      • Paragraph length
        • Quotes on paragraph length
      • Writing with statistics
        • Quotes on writing with statistics
      • Sentence length
        • Activate the passive voice
          • Quotes on the passive voice
        • Resources on short sentences
        • Quotes on short sentences
        • Quotes about sentence length
      • Word length
        • Quotes on short words
        • Jargon
          • Quotes on jargon
          • Quotes on acronyms
        • Adjectives & adverbs
          • Quotes on modifiers
      • Readable
        • Resources on readability
        • Quotes on readability
      • Conversational copy
        • Quotes on conversational business writing
    • Storytelling and creative writing
      • Concrete details
        • Why concrete details?
        • Types of concrete detail
        • Quotes on concrete details
      • Description
        • Quotes on scent
      • Human interest
        • Quotes on human interest
      • Metaphor
        • Why use metaphor?
        • Complex copy
        • Creative comparisons
        • Simplify stats
        • Metaphor writing
        • Resources on metaphor
        • Quotes on metaphor
      • Storytelling
        • Why is storytelling important?
        • Find stories
        • Storytelling research
        • Elements of storytelling
        • Storytelling structure
        • Resources on storytelling
        • Quotes on storytelling
      • Wordplay
        • Alliteration
          • Resources on alliteration
        • Balance
        • Coin a word
          • Resources on coin a word
          • Quotes on coin a word
        • Quotes on the etymology of words
        • Rhyme
        • Rhythm
          • Quotes on using rhythm in writing
        • Twist of phrase
        • Quotes on how to use wordplay
      • Resources on creative copy
      • Quotes on creative copy
      • Quotes on boring copy
    • Type of articles
      • Case studies
      • Tipsheets
      • List-writing tips
    • Web writing
      • Why writing for the web?
        • Quotes on why writing for the web
      • Above the fold
        • Quotes on above-the-fold content
      • Tight web copy
        • Quotes on tight web copy
      • Scannable web copy
        • Quotes on scannable web copy
      • SEO for writers
        • Quotes on SEO
        • Quotes on SEO for releases
      • Quotes on crafting good web writing
      • Writing for mobile quotes
    • Writing
    • Writing process
      • Creativity step by step
        • Creative process
          • Quotes on the 5-step creative process
          • Quotes on foraging
          • Quotes on analyzing information
          • Quotes on incubation
          • Quotes on breaking through
          • Quotes on knuckling down
        • Quotes on creativity
        • Quotes from naysayers
        • Creative story ideas
        • Communicating with comics
      • Prewriting
        • Research blog posts
          • Research quotes
        • Tighten angle
          • Quotes on finding your focus
        • Quotes on prewriting
      • Freewriting
        • Quotes on freewriting
      • Writing difficulty quotes
      • Writer’s block quotes
      • Writing process quotes
    • Writing structure
      • Feature story structure
        • Why features structure?
          • Why feature structure?
        • Feature structure examples
        • Feature leads
        • Nut graph
          • Quotes on nut graph
        • Background section
          • Quotes on the background section
        • Body
          • Quotes on the body
        • Conclusion
          • Quotes on how to write good endings
        • Transitions
          • Quotes on transitions
      • Other story structures
      • Quotes on story structure
  • Writing newsletter
    • Current issue
    • What others say
    • Archives
  • Blog
  • Calendar
  • Why us?
    • About the trainer
    • Contact Ann

Try MBWA

Gain color and insight you can’t get any other way

You’ve heard about MBWA, or management by walking around? Try WBHA, or writing by hanging around — going to the scene to observe.

Observational research
Just looking Firsthand observation brings your message to life. Image by Joel Overbeck

Observational research is the most overlooked reporting tool there is. Which is a shame. Because firsthand observation gives your copy color and insight that you can’t get any other way.

Observational research means that you, the writer, experience the event or product or procedure so you can re-create the experience for your readers.

Covering a new roller coaster? Get on that sucker and ride it. Doing a piece on a new medical procedure? See if you can get into the operating room. Writing about a new line of chocolates? You haven’t really done your job until you’ve sampled a box or two.

The first step to good description is to find concrete, compelling details. Here are 7 tips for getting the goods:

1. Be there.

Hang up the phone, back away from the keyboard and go to the scene to observe. You won’t come up with good description if you never leave your desk.

So:

  • Spend a day (or an hour) with your subject matter expert as she goes about her regular business.
  • Ask for a demonstration. Get the subject matter expert to show you how she found the computer glitch or otherwise demonstrate parts of the story for you.
  • Take a tour with the subject matter expert. Let the plant manager show you “how things work around here.”
  • Find an action setting. Put yourself and your subject matter expert in a situation that reveals something about the topic. When I profiled a customer-service guru, for example, I took him to a white-tablecloth restaurant where I could observe him observing the service.
  • Watch the subject in action, then talk. Be on hand while the surgeon performs surgery, for instance, then ask questions afterward.

Wherever you go, get out of your office.

2. Tune into your five senses.

Once you’ve left your desk for someplace more interesting, report with all your senses.

Remember: You have five.

Different senses affect readers differently. If you want to foster memory and emotion, for instance, focus on the sense of smell. The smell of Lipton’s tea still transports me back to my grandmother’s kitchen, circa 1972.

From the tick-tick of the heart-beat monitor to the “Jaws” theme song, sound can build tension in your readers.

You can use sound, on the other hand, to build tension. From the tick-tick of the heart-beat monitor to the “Jaws” theme song, sound can create stress in your readers — stress you can “break” by showing how your organization, product or service can solve the problem.

How can you tune in to all five senses? Try this exercise recommended by Perry Garfinkel in Travel Writing: For Profit and Pleasure. Ask yourself:

“Here and now I hear what, see what,
smell what, feel what, taste what?”

That way, you’ll capture, according to Kevin McGrath, assistant metro editor at The Wichita Eagle, “not just sights but sounds, smells, actions, reactions, interactions, bits of conversation, facial expressions, posture, clothing and the state it’s in (crisply pressed, badly wrinkled, sweaty, dirty, raggedy, shirttails hanging out etc.), how things look in relation to their surroundings, etc.”

You’ll see how your subject matter expert stands, sits and gestures and what she keeps on the bulletin board.

“Does a clock on the wall of a high-powered executive tick-tock relentlessly, like a metronome for his pressure-packed career?”
— David A. Fryxell, former editor of Writer’s Digest

You’ll notice the sounds the machines make in different parts of the company’s plant, and how your subject’s voice tone changes when he’s feeling stressed out, passionate or joyful.

And you’ll use your senses of taste, touch and smell to re-create the scene for your readers.

3. Compare it.

Metaphors, similes and analogies can help you describe what you’ve experienced. Ask:

“What’s it like?”

One key to great copy: Be there.

Being on the scene can yield great anecdotes and description. That will spark reader interest in a way that virtually nothing else can.

How do you use observational research in your writing?

“The question is not what you look at, but what you see.”
— Henry David Thoreau, American author and philosopher

Master the Art of the Storyteller Master Class on July 25-26 in Portland

Want to stimulate some brain activity around, say, your CEO’s latest strategy or that brilliant Whatzit you’ll be releasing later this month? Description is the answer. Learn how at our Master the Art of the Storyteller Master Class on July 25-26 in Portland. You’ll learn to make your readers’ brains light up.

Don’t miss out: Just 8 tickets left.

Register now.

Bring Ann in to
train your team.

Email   Print   Digg   Facebook   Twitter

“Ann inspired me to exorcise the dusty demons of my journalism career and embrace a livelier and more agile writer within.”
– Laura Ingalls, senior manager, communications, PetSmart Charities
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • WhatsApp
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
  • More
  • Pocket
  • Email
  • Print

Primary Sidebar

June 30, 2022

Master the Art of Storytelling - Ann Wylie's creative-content workshop on July 11-15

Save upto $100 with our group discounts.

Register for Master the Art of Storytelling - Ann Wylie's creative-content workshop on July 11-15
  • Cut a long story shortCut a long story short: Would your story be twice as good if it were half as long?
  • What goes into a press release boilerplate?What goes into a press release boilerplate? Boil your company down with boilerplates
  • How to write funny contentHow to write funny content: Try self-deprecating humor
Archives

Wylie Communications, Inc. logo
    Training
  • In-house writing workshops
  • Public writing workshops
  • Association workshops
    Services
  • Writing guidelines
  • Ask Ann
  • Editing and rewriting
    Tools
  • Learning tools
  • RevvingUpReadership.com
  • Free writing tips
Subscribe to our ezine
Upcoming Workshops

Master the Art of Storytelling - Ann Wylie's creative-content workshop on July 11-15

NOT Your Father’s PR Writing - Ann Wylie's PR-writing workshop on Aug. 15-19

Rev Up Readability - Ann Wylie's tight-writing workshop on Sept. 19-23

Think Inside the Inbox - Ann Wylie's email-writing workshop on Oct. 17-21

© Copyright 2022 · Ann Wylie · All Rights Reserved
May not be duplicated and shared without authors permission. Contact us