Improve your Writing
April 5th, 2015
It could be a stressful exercise. But by the time we force our commentary writing workshop participants into allowing others in the room to vote on the engagement capacity of their opening sentences, they’ve already laughed and commiserated enough that the “thumbs down” votes don’t feel personal. And the collective intelligence of the colleagues present invariably serves up a […]
read more...How to engage readers from the first sentence — and repurpose your content, too
Improve your Writing
August 9th, 2012
If you saw the following sentence at the start of a piece in your daily newspaper, would you keep reading? “You don’t see a lot of naked men in advertising.” Lots of people did — no thanks to me. The lede I’d originally placed at the top of an essay I wrote 20 years ago […]
read more...Don’t Bury the Lede!
Improve your Writing
July 29th, 2012
Whether you’re picked last for the ball team, get rebuffed on the first date, or fail to elicit a positive response from an editor, rejection stinks. That’s why Informed Opinions offers online editing feedback (free to our workshop participants, but available for a fee to others). We’ve found that many aspiring op ed writers – […]
read more...Most Common Errors Made by Aspiring Op Ed Writers – part 1
Improve your Writing
April 23rd, 2012
“No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be a heroine.” “Tap-dancing child abuser. That’s what The Sunday New York Times from March 8, 1993, had called Vivi.” “But, you may say, we asked you to speak about women and fiction.” Are you intrigued by one […]
read more...Opening lines – make ’em work
Improve your Writing
January 10th, 2011
Is it possible to write a brilliant op ed if you can’t write a grab ’em by the throat lede? (“lede” being journalism jargon for your first sentence or paragraph, the origins of which were designed to distinguish “leading sentence” from the “lead” — as in metallic chemical element — letters that used to be used […]
read more...Great ledes are a necessary if insufficient condition
