At Communiqué PR we do a lot of writing. We write press releases, case studies, company messaging and contributed articles. In fact, during the past several months we have written articles for clients that have been published in more than 20 industry or business magazines or daily newspapers. (Please e-mail me if you’re interested in a summary of articles and publications written by Communiqué PR.)
Nonetheless, we are consistently striving to improve our skills and style. We also understand with social media, attention spans are getting shorter so it is imperative that we grab the reader’s attention early on so they continue reading and are interested to know where our story is headed.
Given this commitment to continuous improvement, we were excited when Jeanne Miller with Tecplot Inc., shared an article about the Blundell Technique. For those of you who aren’t familiar, William E. Blundell came up with a technique for feature writing while he was with the Wall Street Journal and detailed it in a book entitled, “The Art and Craft of Feature Writing.”
Among other things, this book explains how and where to get story ideas; what readers like and don’t like; how to infuse articles with energy and color; and how to organize one’s material. We encourage anyone striving to perfect his or her non-fiction writing to pick up a copy of this book.
Jeanne, who is an amazing writer, also provided us with an overview the Blundell Technique which suggests writers organize feature articles as follows:
- The story lead or introduction. The opening of a feature article should tease the reader and spark his or her interest in the topic. The introduction may or may not be an anecdote. If it is an anecdote it needs to be easy to grasp and relevant. Typically, the story lead is no more than three paragraphs long.
- A Nut Graph or angle for your story. This is the paragraph that explains the story focus, theme or point of view. Clearly this is a critical element to writing and organizing a well-written and compelling piece.
- The main body or supporting points. This section of your article backs up the Nut graph. These are the paragraphs that demonstrate the validity of your angle, premise or argument. Oftentimes, quotes are used here to bring the material to life and illustrate key points.
- The conclusion. This should summarize the material and make an impact on the reader. There are many ways to do this, but the main goal of the conclusion should be to reinforce the central message or theme of your article.
We hope as you embark on the development of your next article that intends to inform, educate or entertain your reader, you take a few minutes to think about Blundell’s Technique. We believe it is more relevant than ever and want to thank Jeanne for reminding us about Blundell’s impact on journalists and writers around the world.