Master Class attendees boost reading ease by 226%, 230% — even 300% One of my favorite parts of my Catch Your Reader Master Class is our Cut Through the Clutter contest. Using Microsoft Word's Readability Statistics, attendees edit their copy, bringing their Flesch Kincaid grade level down and their Flesch reading ease up. Our Chicago Master Class winner increased … [Read more...] about Readability smackdown
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Catch Your Readers in Washington, D.C.
Learn to write copy that moves people to act in this 2-day, hands-on Master Class If you want to Catch Your Readers, you need to think like a reader. Then you need to use the bait your reader likes, not the bait you like. Problem is, many of the techniques we've institutionalized in business communication writing are not the bait the reader likes. But in Catch Your … [Read more...] about Catch Your Readers in Washington, D.C.
Break the news
The New York Times improves on the fact pack Writing a news story? You could do worse than study The New York Times for inspiration. We analyzed 87 stories in the Dec. 15, 2014, edition of the Times. (We skipped the sports pages and one-paragraph stories.) Reporters started 44 of those pieces with news leads. News leads put the bottom line up front so busy … [Read more...] about Break the news
I’ve got a little list
Eight thoughts about the length of your listicle Thank you, David Letterman. The Top 10 list rules the Web — or at least, Buzzfeed. The number of Buzzfeed listicles with the numeral 10 in the headline outranked the next most popular numeral (15) by 142%, according to research by Noah Veltman and Brian Abelson, two Knight-Mozilla fellows. Fiddle around with … [Read more...] about I’ve got a little list
Your brain on wordplay
We pay attention to and remember puns, alliteration A hand shoots up in my Make Your Copy More Creative workshop. "But," the communicator says, "don't you risk confusing people with wordplay?" Well … yes, you do. And that's part of the point. When readers encounter wordplay, they first try on the literal meaning of the words. When that doesn't work, … [Read more...] about Your brain on wordplay