What’s Your Angle?

1. What’s Your Angle? Kevin Duncan Editor, Energy Now August 26, 2009

2. What we will do in 60 minutes • Understand the mission of Energy Now • Discover the real job of an Energy Now news writer • See the elements of writing for Energy Now • Learn the secrets of a good headline

3. Energy Now is the full-color monthly FPL Group newsletter prepared by Internal Communication for the employees of FPL Group companies. The mission of Energy Now • Promote employee pride • Develop employee understanding / awareness of the company’s business environment, strategies, goals and objectives / knowledge of key business positions • Enhance safety and teamwork / promote active participation • Encourage and build employee trust • Drive support for company strategies

4. Energy Now stories inform employees about the company, its strategies, goals and objectives. The real job of an Energy Now news writer Ensure each story is • Inviting. Less is more. Make the content digestible for your reader

5. Energy Now stories inform employees about the company, its strategies, goals and objectives. The real job of an Energy Now news writer Ensure each story is • Inviting. Less is more. Make the content digestible for your reader

6. Energy Now stories inform employees about the company, its strategies, goals and objectives. The real job of an Energy Now news writer Ensure each story is • Inviting. Less is more. Make the content digestible for your reader • Easy to read and understand. The content should be factual, but not exhaustive, in detail

7. Energy Now stories inform employees about the company, its strategies, goals and objectives. The real job of an Energy Now news writer Ensure each story is • Inviting. Less is more. Make the content digestible for your reader • Easy to read and understand. The content should be factual, but not exhaustive, in detail

8. Energy Now stories inform employees about the company, its strategies, goals and objectives. The real job of an Energy Now news writer Ensure each story is • Inviting. Less is more. Make the content digestible for your reader • Easy to read and understand. The content should be factual, but not exhaustive, in detail • Actionable. Provide a benefit to the reader that addresses the WIIFM factor

9. Energy Now stories inform employees about the company, its strategies, goals and objectives. The real job of an Energy Now news writer Ensure each story is • Inviting. Less is more. Make the content digestible for your reader • Easy to read and understand. The content should be factual, but not exhaustive, in detail • Actionable. Provide a benefit to the reader that addresses the WIIFM factor

10. 5 essential questions to ask before writing your story. Elements of writing for Energy Now • Why is the story newsworthy? • Tell readers why they should care • Who is involved? • Include not just names, but also their titles. Describe their role as it relates to the story • What is the nature of the news story or event? • Where is the news or event taking place? • Is it at a wind farm in North Dakota, a speech at the LFO, a conference at a service center? • When will (or did) the event take place? • If it is a future event, what does the reader need to do to participate?

11. Identify your story’s particular angle or “slant.” What’s your angle? • Make the story about employees • Write for the reader who is intelligent, but unfamiliar News stories are all about employees and other people.Make the story involve, or be about, them.

12. Identify your story’s particular angle or “slant.” Message Map

13. Identify your story’s particular angle or “slant.” Tell a good story • Focus on what makes your topic unique • Write short, simple sentences • Use smaller words, concrete examples, similes • Use the active voice in third-person (“it,” “them”) • Use direct quotes You are the narrator, the story teller.

14. Identify your story’s particular angle or “slant.” Tell a good story • Focus on what makes your topic unique. • Write short, simple sentences • Use smaller words, concrete examples, similes • Use the active voice in third-person • Use direct quotes You are the narrator, the story teller.

15. Information is the lifeblood of your story. Identify your source(s), take good notes and fact-check. Get information for your story • Gather your research • Review your notes • Look for common theme / good quotes / interesting facts • Develop a focus • Write the focus of the article in two or three sentences • Write and edit your story When you have written your entire story, you are ready to edit by removing all unnecessary words.

16. Writing a news story for Internal Communication is similar to writing a news story for a newspaper. 5 steps to an effective story • Find the focus • Make it relevant • Use Associated Press style and news writing format • Think of photo opportunities • Plan ahead and give adequate advance notice

17. Writing a news story for Internal Communication is similar to writing a news story for a newspaper. Writing your story • Think about your assignment • Be objective • Write the ‘nutgraph’ • Write the lead • Write the body of the story • Check your facts Before writing, can you answer these six questions:Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?

18. “Simplicity, clarity, and brevity are the most important criteria of all writing.” – Paula LaRocque, The Book on Writing 12 guidelines to good writing • Keep sentences short / one main idea per sentence • Avoid pretensions, gobbledygook and euphemisms • Change long and difficult words to short and simple words • Be wary of jargon, fad and cliché • Use the right word (or say what you mean) • Avoid beginning with long dependent phrases

19. “Simplicity, clarity, and brevity are the most important criteria of all writing.” – Paula LaRocque, The Book on Writing 12 guidelines to good writing • Use active verbs and voice • Cut wordiness. Strive for word economy • Avoid vague qualifiers (“very,” “totally,” “intense,” or “etc.”) • Reduce the number of prepositions, such as “of,” “at” and “in” • Limit the number of items to three in a single sentence • Get to the point of the story and stay focused

20. Good headlines bring focus to a story and announce it with flair and action. An arresting headline • Get attention • Tell the story • Lead the reader into the story • Classify the story • Enhance the page

21. More than half of the readers who read your story will do so because of the headline. 14 tips for writing a good headline • Use active voice • Use present tense • Use short, pithy words • Avoid “to be” verbs • Make positive statements • Be specific • Be accurate • Be impartial • Don’t repeat key words • Avoid confusing line-divisions • Omit articles (“a,” “an”) • Avoid abbreviations • Avoid exclamation points and other punctuation • Use important numbers

22. A picture says a thousand words …

23. A writer captures ideas and transforms them into verbal pictures for the reader. “Tell me a story.”– Don Hewitt, “60 Minutes” creator and executive producer