My advice on writing a great article!

For my internship, Judy asked me to act as her editorial assistant when we received a very puzzling submission to be reviewed for publication on the Garden State Woman website. I won't share any names, but the girl who submitted this piece was my age, going to a competitive school in Pennsylvania, and majoring in creative writing. She wanted an opportunity to write and get her work published, so Judy asked her to send something in.

The article began with her explaining how she is constantly paranoid about the certain doom of being assaulted by a man. She talks about her parents lecturing her to put her hair up with a hat on and wear baggy clothes when she takes the train home so that no one will approach her. She also speaks of hiring a body guard, and hooking her friends up to a lie detector to make certain they can be trusted. Then she says this:

You can imagine that when I read this I was extremely confused. Her article had no clear purpose, and I couldn't tell if she was being serious or sarcastic. I'm not posting this to make fun of her; in fact, I spent a lot of time on my response to her to help her become a better writer, and I wanted to share it with you. Writing and helping others become better writers is something I enjoy. So, here are a few tips I've come up with.

1. Tell a story

It's always nice to open a piece of writing with a story. The girl who wrote the article is a creative writing major, and the first piece she sent me didn't have a single story in it! People connect with stories. I could tell she was very passionate about this topic, but I couldn't tell why she was or where she was coming from. The questions I asked her was, "Have you ever been assaulted? Do you know someone who has?" I told her that giving real-life situations makes it a lot easier for the reader to feel just as emotional about the topic as you do. We want to be put in your shoes so we can understand. 

The second time around, she did this very nicely. She used all sorts of details about walking alone in the dark across campus, the feelings of fear she felt, the sounds she heard, which helped put me in her mindset. 

2. Have a clear purpose

If no one can figure out what your point is...well...what's the point? You don't have to explicitly say: "I'm writing this because..." but make sure the reader isn't left feeling like they were just dragged through a maze of similes and metaphors only to find themselves right where they started, still having no clue how to get out. After reading the article this girl sent me, I really couldn't tell you what she was aiming at.

3. Use facts

After you've told your story and made your purpose clear, what facts do you have to back up what you're talking about? She did a good job of bringing up a relevant court case, but that's all she did: brought up the case. I told her to expand on it. Perhaps the reader has never heard of the case? You should always assume the reader has no idea what you're talking about.

I told her that especially when she is writing about a controversial issue, her argument must be supported by cold hard facts, otherwise it is not credible. I told her to bring up some statistics about assaults that go on without any real punishment, assault rates in America, or maybe there is a poll out there about how safe women feel in certain situations. Accompanying an emotional story with facts and statistics makes for a solid persuasive argument.

4. Have a call to action

Once you have got the readers right in the palm of your hand through the use of an emotional story and the facts to back it up, what should they do about it? In this case, is there a place we could go to for more information about how to protect ourselves from being assaulted? Is there an organization we can join that works to educate people about assault, or fights for harsher punishment for assault? Is there a way both girls AND boys can be educated about this? 

I was so happy that the revised article she sent me was SO much better and followed all these rules. It was a great feeling knowing that I had helped someone improve their writing, and I hope to continue doing so with this blog.

With all that being said, I'm proud to say that MY first published article is up on the Garden State Woman website! Check it out here. Do you think I followed all my own rules?

Dana

If at first you don't succeed...

So, this summer I decided to put my social media skills to the test and put together my own social media marketing project. Basically, I would have a garage sale to make some money for my upcoming trip to Australia, and I would advertise it through a social media campaign. These are the steps I took for this project.

1. Create an Action Plan

I created an action plan which included using social media to market the sale (obviously), donating part of the proceeds to the World Wildlife Fund and reporting the results afterwards. I'm a big list maker, so this was a necessity for me to keep everything organized.

2. Use Campaign Hashtag

Next, I wanted to come up with a hashtag that I would use in all the social media updates so that it becomes recognizable to my followers what I am trying to do and what the purpose of this sale is, so I created #ProjectGoAbroad. I updated on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. I also added the event to an online calendar of a local newspaper and shared this on social media.

3. Tell people with connections about it

I decided to email my study abroad advisor about what I am doing to raise money for the trip. She was so impressed and excited that she forwarded the message along to the Financial Aid office and the Alumni office, who then posted about it on their Facebook pages. It was great that other people were supporting me!

4. Put together table display

In Microsoft Word I created a table that showed the estimated costs of my trip to Australia. Next, I made a document with pictures of endangered species in Australia, along with facts about them from the World Wildlife Fund-Australia website. I wanted people to see what they were donating to. I have always wanted to work for a non-profit, especially the WWF, so I thought this would be a great way to stand out to them, while helping a cause I am passionate about!

5. Compile Results

• Facebook: 4 likes
• Twitter: 2 favorites
• LinkedIn: 2 likes, 1 comment
• Instagram: 10 likes
• Long Valley Patch: 7 recommendations

I definitely didn't get the results I was looking for. One factor is that on Twitter, most of my followers are people from school, not from my hometown, so therefore they wouldn't be very interested in a garage sale. The same goes for LinkedIn. However, most of my friends from my hometown have Instagram, which was clearly the strongest resource. The Long Valley Patch, which is a local online newspaper, was more my target audience, i.e adults who live in town. Most people in my social media are just my friends (college students with no money). 

About 10 people came to the garage sale, and I made about $60. Obviously this was disappointing, but this experience helped me to realize not to forget my target audience. Therefore, I am trying again this weekend, and I have put ads in 4 different local newspapers, as well as made flyers and put them in Shop Rite, two post offices, and a convenience store. These are places people in my target audience are likely to go and newspapers my target audience are likely to read. Not exactly social media, but at least I got to practice doing something like this. I'm hoping this time I get better results! Practice makes perfect, right?

Dana

Update on June 16th: the second sale was a success! I sold all of the larger things I needed to sell, and a ton of clothes. I made about $70, so in total about $130. Yay!