Blogs

Three Tips to Improve Writing

Throughout the semester, I have learned multiple techniques on how to improve my writing as a journalist. Three of the most useful pieces of information for me have been to be strategic, creative and how to use the mobile platform for your advantage.

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Being Strategic

The first tip I found useful was to be strategic. This means that the writer has to know their audience and deliver content that would benefit their readers. This tweet from The Blogger’s Advocate shows why knowing your audience is key.

Did you know this?! As a content creator, how well do you know your audience? What problem(s) do you think your content helps your audience solve?! pic.twitter.com/tbmgWNAKd1

— The Bloggers Advocate (@growwithTBA) April 27, 2020

Another way of being strategic is to focus on the important details of a story. By putting the most important information first, the reader will not get bored searching for the actual story.

Creativity

The next tip I found to be helpful was to be creative. Creativity draws people in. If the tweet has an interesting title, or picture, more readers will tend to click on it. This could be as simple as a sport journalist proposing grades for a team. Just like this tweet from Eric Stephens, lead writer for the Anaheim ducks.

The latest filing: Grading the #NHLDucks defensemen and goalies over their 2019-20 season. https://t.co/tOR94O4PKf

And here were the marks for the forwards: https://t.co/hJJB6UCOpr

— Eric Stephens (@icemancometh) April 15, 2020

To the fans, this tweet can help them understand how good or bad a player has been during the season. It also is a simple and effective way to assess how high level athlete has been performing.

Using the Mobile Platform

The last piece of advice that helped me was how to use the mobile platform to your advantage. Social media is growing each and every day. In fact, social media is taking over the news world, as the younger demographics receive information almost exclusively online. This YouTube video by The Atlantic has journalist explain why and how the digital form has changed news media.

Nearly everyone has a smartphone or laptop that they can check the news for. By being able to write stories that are easy to navigate, it effectively makes the reader more interested in the story.

In conclusion, although there are many tips that have been useful to me over this semester, these three have taken my journalistic writing to the next level. These may seem simple at first, but with practice these have helped me be more effective with what I post on twitter. Social media is taking its place as the new norm in society and these tips have made the transition much smoother.