Workshop: Writing for Digital with Jon Bernstein

Workshop Friday 8 June 2018, 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Standard £165
Freelance/Student £140
Members £115

*Tickets include lunch


 

Writing for digital is exactly the same as writing for print. And completely different. This practical workshop teases out the differences between the two; familiarises participants with the principles of good writing and the fundamentals of storytelling; and explores the best ways to approach digital forms of communication including social media and blogging.

The principles of writing

  • Why writing for digital is exactly the same as writing for print. And why it’s completely different
  • What George Orwell can teach us about language and readability
  • EXERCISE #1: Simplifying language
  • EXERCISE #2: Decoding the press release
  • Understanding online reading habits
  •  6 more tips for writing online

News writing and the fundamentals of storytelling

  • The Inverted Pyramid of news. And why it still matters
  • The Five Ws (and the H) of news
  • How to define an audience
  • Establishing length
  • Defining tone of voice
  • EXERCISE #3: Reworking the press release

Social media: best practice

  • 6 ways social media can help your communications
  • 11 examples of social media in action
  • EXERCISE #4: How to tweet

How to blog

  • How to blog: the ‘atomised’ Inverted Pyramid
  • 3 blogging archetypes that work
  • EXERCISE #5: Writing a blog post

Crafting powerful headlines

  • Why headlines matter more on the web
  • Tailoring headlines for the web
  • Newspaper headlines that probably don’t work online
  • Headlines that do work online
  • EXERCISE #6: Writing a killer online headline

SEO: a brief introduction

  • A practical guide to keyword research

 

About the trainer

Jon Bernstein

Jon Bernstein is an award-winning journalist, editor and digital strategist. He was deputy editor, then digital director, at the New Statesman; multimedia editor at Channel 4 News; ran the Channel 4 FactCheck website during the 2005 general election; editor-in- chief of Directgov, working in the Cabinet Office’s eGovernment Unit; and editor-in- chief of dotcom start-up and technology website silicon.com. In 2011, he was named Website Editor of the Year by the British Society of Magazine Editors for Newstatesman.com.