Workshops and Presentations
I have more than 35 years of experience coaching writers, as the architect of Drake University’s magazine journalism program, founder of The E.T. Meredith Center for Magazine Studies, and the co-author of The Magazine from Cover to Cover. I am available for the following workshops, or contact me about a customized presentation.
Inspiration and Action
Remember why you wanted to be a writer? The love of language, the joy of reading and writing. But do you feel you’ve lost your soul to SEO? Are you tired of expressing yourself in bullet points and subheads? Let’s have fun with writing again. We’ll get inspired by the work of award-winning journalists and authors and celebrate how their words soar, their thoughts engage. Then we’ll discuss what this means to you, including new ways to publish essays, long-form journalism, and books.
Writing Short: Packing 5,000 Bits of Information into a 500-word Assignment
The average length of writing assignments continues to shrink, with editors frequently asked to tell a comprehensive story about a significant issue in fewer than 500 words. How do you get writers to create complete, well-researched pieces — with personality — in slightly more than a typewritten page? And how do you make that information pop off the page? You will learn strategies for focusing the assignment, requiring research that packs a punch, planning multiple points of entry, and perfecting the package.
Write Like A Leader
Social and traditional media can help you promote you as the leader with a message. But, to get prime media real estate and make readers stop and listen, you must craft that message with detail, authority, and energy. And you must launch it on the right platform. In this hands-on course, you’ll create a personal leadership blog and a column for a print outlet. Both with a consistent message that says you’re the leader to follow. Emphasis will be on developing unique market-appropriate content presented in a professional package that effectively communicates each student’s leadership message.
Page Edits That Work
Print is not dead, but it sure has to work hard for a living. Titles, captions, and pull quotes bring readers into your publication and keep them there, yet they sometimes are the last things we think about. We’ll show you the tricks of the trade to help your pages sing like sirens.