Public Writing (2) Fall 2018
2018.12.13
Our workshop session today was our last meeting together as a class. We ironed out a few more details about the final assignment thanks to student questions.
First, please give me as much contextual information as you can about your piece of writing, such as where it would appear, in what type of media, and who the intended reader/market/audience is. Do not simply say "in my blog." I would prefer you write something for a real online or offline media outlet, but if you want to write for an imaginary outlet, please be very detailed about what it is, how it appears, and its audience. Make it creative, but also make it believable.
Please post your final piece of writing to the class Canvas discussion area AND deliver a hard copy to me in my office (room 404, Main Building) or put it in my mailbox (Room 106, Main Building). The revised deadline for Canvas and hard copy submission is midnight Monday, Dec 17th.
Also, while we do not have a final exam in this class, you do have one last task for the class during exam week. Please give helpful, thorough feedback to at least one classmate on their Canvas submission by our class meeting time during exam week.
Have a great holiday and thanks for a great class!
JBH
2018.12.06
As the semester winds down, we are focused on wrapping up our final projects in workshop sessions weeks 14 and 15. These last two regular class sessions are for questions and answers and working together. If I can help you with any feedback or suggestions about what you're putting together, let me know.
Please remember to do some audience or market research in your writing genre/niche and examine similar types of writing, if they exist. Include a few paragraphs at the beginning of your project giving me an explanation of the context with as much detail as possible.
For example, tell me what you know about your readers, what they are curious about, what sort of media or publication your writing would appear in, and anything else relevant to your writing to help me understand how it would be perceived by the public in the real world.
Remember, your final project deadline will be Dec. 15th.
I look forward to reading some amazing writing.
Thanks!
JBH
2018.11.15
Something I found recently: the Public Writing Guide.
Perhaps some of you have already been there. It has a good list of Public Writing project possibilities. I don't know if all qualify or are evaluate-able, but we can start there and add our own ideas
There is also another page, the Guide to Public Writing.
Again, I'm not sure all the projects listed are workable, but taken together with what we have done in the class so far, there is enough for you to choose from to figure out your final project. If not, create your own. My only requirement is that it must be something that could possibly have some kind of "real world" use as far as writing for the public.
It's time now for you to decide what you want to do and make a solid plan. You do not have to have your project finished, but you do need a concrete idea about what you are going to do. And please don't change your mind right before deadline. Those kind of decisions rarely work out for the best.
Next week, please bring a hard copy of your one-page proposal for your final project(s) (1,500-2,000 words total -- no fluff). We will talk about them in class, and discuss how to get them done.
Your final project deadline will be Dec. 15th.
Also next week, be prepared to tell your classmates about the remaining chapters in Writing That Works.
See you in class!
JBH
2018.11.08
In class today, first we reviewed The Science of Email Copy
AND
Market Research Notes from 2018.11.01
Then we discussed our niches and what we learned about them, first in small groups, and then with the whole class.
It can be a good idea to focus on what the potential customers are saying they wish your product or service did for them, like their complaints about what’s missing. That way, you can consult with the provider of the service or product and let them know what their market is asking for. If you give people what they want and let them know in your copy that you are offering it, they might just buy from you.
After that, we compared notes on our short, strange copywriting project -- eight sentences translated from Chinese to Korean to English for a Korean resort company. The English versions read a little strange, so we tried to make them clearer and more inviting for American tourists.
For next week, I’ll share with you a quick way to make at least $3,000 a month on your own. I came across Nate Schmidt’s 18-minute YouTube video a week or two ago; he just made it early in October. What was interesting about it was that a lot of the things he recommends are things we were already doing (the website Swiped.co for one).
If you’re interested, take a look. It may help you with your assignment for next week. He gives you eight steps on email copywriting.
It’s a good lesson, it’s free, and it works. If you’re interested, the opportunity is right here. This guy is talking about something that works for people who seriously go for it. I have watched him and several others do it over the last few years. Most people don’t want it bad enough and move on to other things because it does take some work. But I’ve seen people do it -- fast, and I am working on some similar things myself. My wife wants me to keep this job until I retire from HUFS. We’ll see what happens.
After the video, wrap up your email copywriting project with a strong sales email to your niche customer. When we meet again next week, we’ll talk about what’s next.
Please post your completed piece of copy to Canvas before class time Nov. 15th and we will take a look at some of them on the screen
Have fun!
JBH
2018.11.01
As far as direct response ad copy and email marketing goes, I think we kind of started from the middle a few weeks ago.
Today, I’d like to share something I found that gives a more thorough overview than I think we have before, offers some solid tips on principles and techniques, and puts you ahead of 99 percent of the people who know nothing about how we are being persuaded every day.
Please read and review: The Science of Email Copy
AND
Market Research Notes
For next week’s class, please choose a market segment or niche, for example dog food or economy cars or European backpacking. Not an advertising niche that is too big nor one that is too small. It’s really your call, but we will talk about it more in class.
Use the techniques mentioned in the market research notes above to create an avatar and report on some of the characteristics you find. Your goal is to find out about your market. You should use at least two distinctively different sources of information and answers to severalof the market research questions to explore the characteristics of people in your market. For example, one might be posts on a relevant facebook group you joined, and another might be audience comments on a YouTube video channel.
Whichever forum or other sources you use, we want information directly from the audience. Don’t report on what someone wrote or said about the audience. Pay attention to what people in the audience say for themselves. Please write up a page or two and post it to the Canvas discussion area under the subject “Your Niche” Market Research/Team Member(s) Name(s). I’d like to talk about what we learned in class next week.
Also for next week, please work with your partner or on your own to revise the eight translated sentences I shared with you in class. Your intended audience is educated Americans.
Please do not post these responses in Canvas because the answers are too simple and similar. It will be difficult for students not to follow others’ examples if they look at what others wrote. Bring a hard copy or your eight (or more) revisions to class with you. We will also talk about these next week (11-8).
I hope we also have time next week to continue talking about the course text on language as well as move on to the next step in our direct response email campaigns.
See you in class!
JBH
2018.10.18
What’s good writing? IELTS descriptors
What’s good advertising?
Cialdini’s Six Principles of Persuasion
https://youtu.be/cFdCzN7RYbw
- Reciprocity
- Scarcity
- Authority: lab coats, M.D.s
- Commitment-consistency
- Liking – KLT: Be human, show human side
- Consensus – social proof: years in business, thousands of customers can’t be wrong.
https://www.getvero.com/resources/weapons-of-persuasion/
AND
https://movableink.com/blog/how-to-leverage-the-6-principles-of-persuasion-in-your-email-marketing/
Gary Halbert
The guru of Direct Response marketers tells all:
https://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com
Hungry crowd story
http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/Boron/TChapter6.htm
More good ads to learn from:
https://swipefile.com/
Unique ads
VW ads – big sales? Do creative ads make a difference?
“Kinda like” Metaphors
Seems like it, but does anyone really know?
Subject lines, openers, & story next time.
Repeat:
I’ll leave you to your own devices during exam week to crank out some writing for a total of at least 1,000-1,500 words (more than that minimum 1,000 words is better).
You can submit one persuasive piece of writing of your choice on whatever topic you like. It might be a blog post, an ad, web page copy, whatever, but I need to see at least 1,000-1,500 words of your writing. If you choose to submit short pieces of writing you may want to submit more than one to go above that minimum word count.
Please have it posted to Canvas by midnight Oct. 27th. Give helpful feedback and suggestions (150-200+words of "value added" comments) to two classmates on their writing before class time Week 9.
Please bring hard copies of your writing to be scored when we meet Nov. 1. Your writing should be typed, pages stapled together, 12 point Times New Roman font, double spaced, with your name, class day and time clearly legible at the top left side of the page. Include a title. The basics usually expected on a college paper can be found here.
See you in class,
JBH
2018.10.11 8:25 AM
This week, we talked more about writing an email or other types of persuasive writing. We looked at some of the features of a formula known as AIDA, which stands for attention, interest, desire, and action.
We talked about each of these elements, examined some swiped ads to see if we could find them, and will continue to explore and use them to write something that’s persuasive or ad-like.
(Lecture Notes)
- Go over AIDA – talk about it briefly.
- Show quick video about AIDA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjdgS1WRnGE
- Other explanation http://blog.undergroundelephant.com/aida-email-marketing-strategy/
- Find a couple examples
B. Interest (including offer, story, etc.) Weave a story or provide an interesting, attractive explanation about how what you are offering solves the problem.
C. Desire for solution/what is being offered (Rub salt in the wound. Emphasize how difficult things are now before problem is solved).
D. ACTION -- get reader to do something, ideally not just agree with whatever you are saying: click this link, press here, call now, put your name in the subscription box.
Jay White’s example of an email ad. –Go over AIDA elements.
Find some examples of each in swiped.co – email examples, etc.
Next week, we will go a little more in-depth on persuasive/ad writing, focusing on subject lines/headlines and maintaining interest.
Homework:
- Find examples of ads including AIDA – post links in Canvas discussion area and write an explanation that details each element and how effective you think they are.
- Write your own message with AIDA elements and post it to Canvas.
I’ll leave you to your own devices during exam week to crank out some writing for a total of at least 1,000-1,500 words (more than that minimum 1,000 words is better).
You can submit one persuasive piece of writing of your choice on whatever topic you like. It might be a blog post, an ad, web page copy, whatever, but I need to see at least 1,000-1,500 words of your writing. If you choose to submit short pieces of writing you may want to submit more than one to go above that minimum word count.
See you next week!
JBH
2018.10.04
We took an email dictated by the zen master of the Internet in class. (Contact the instructor if you missed this.) Then we started writing our own email based on what we heard by telling a story about that lesson or another lesson we have learned in our life that connects to selling/persuading readers to buy or otherwise take some action because we convinced them to do so.
Your email should have an attention-getting subject heading, tell a story that grabs the interest of your reader(s) and makes them interested in what you are offering or suggesting, and ends with a call to action that directs your reader(s) to buy or do something.
Post your email copy to the Canvas discussion area by Monday night. Use the heading "Email 1/Your Name" this time. Please comment with helpful feedback to two classmates before we meet next Thursday (10-11).
When we meet Oct. 11, we will also talk more about the first major assignment requirements. That assignment will offer you a few options, but whichever you choose will be scored for quality based on criteria similar to those linked here.
See you in class!
JBH
2018.09.27
1. We began the session by going over chapters 5, 6. and 7 in Writing That Works.
2. We talked briefly about our proposals, and will do more with them later.
3. We started hand-copying another apology letter in class. Finish copying that letter or another apology letter. Take photos of both apology letters you hand copied and upload/attach them both with the subject heading "Apology Copies/Your Name" to the Assignments area of Canvas.
4. For next week , write your own letter of apology (150-300 words). Use elements and ideas mentioned on swiped.co or in Writing That Works. The apology can be for a business or for something more personal, something that really happened or something you made up. Either way, the problem you are apologizing for should be clear from the letter. Please post your letter to the Assignments area of Canvas by Monday night. Use the heading "Apology Writing/Your Name" for this one.
Then, comment on what you notice, like, and suggest to improve on two classmates’ letters in Canvas by class time.
When we meet next week, we will be listening to an expert about writing emails. We will also make clear what our first major assignment will be this semester.
See you then,
JBH
2018.09.20
1. We went over chapters 2, 3 and 4 from Writing That Works. Student groups prepared and presented the highlights plus discussion.
2. 7 Daily Habits of Successful Writers
3. Public Writing Ideas:
We went over some ideas about the benefits of hand-copying sales messages and tried copying an apology letter from United Airlines.
Info was at:
https://copywritematters.com/hand-copied-sales-messages/#comments
&
swiped.co
More great ideas about copywriting for newbies are at:
https://www.copyblogger.com/good-copywriting/
https://www.copyblogger.com/short-guide-to-good-copy/
https://kickofflabs.com/blog/essential-copywriting-tips-for-absolute-beginners/
Sites used in class today:
https://copywritematters.com/hand-copied-sales-messages/#comments
http://swiped.co/file/apology-ad-compilation/
https://moneypantry.com/get-paid-to-write/
https://leavingworkbehind.com/beginner-freelance-writing-make-money/
Next week
1. Students go over highlights of chapters 5, 6, and 7 in the book
2. Students discuss what you hand-copied and what (if anything) you noticed or learned about writing from the experience to Canvas discussion area.
3. Students submit their proposal to Canvas for the kind of writing project they plan to take on for the first project of the semester. Please be as specific as possible. Content writer, direct response ad copy, any niche ideas, adwords, affiliate marketer, blogger, etc. and which subject you would write about within the above categories. You are NOT required to earn money with something you write in this class, but you will need to submit work that would possibly be written for some public audience and could conceivably earn money.
How to Be Ready for Next Week.
1. Read and Prepare to discuss major points of chapters 5, 6, and 7 in the course text.
2. Check your email and log into Canvas
3. Post your thoughts (at least 100 words) to Canvas about how useful/not useful you think hand copying great advertisements is for someone learning to write ads. Why? Please have your post completed by midnight Tuesday (9-25).
4. Post your proposal (at least 100 words) to Canvas to let the class know what type of writing you are planning to do for your writing credit on the first project. Please be as specific as possible and have your post completed by midnight Tuesday (9-25).
5. Before class time 9-27 Reply to at least one classmate's post for items 3 & 4 above. Please post a "value added" response; something more than "Good." or "That's true." It should read like a classroom conversation. Feel free to comment on the post of someone you do not know. I put both my 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. classes into the same discussion area.
Thanks and see you in class!
JBH
2018.09.13
This week in class we started working through David Ogilvy's recommended book on writing, briefly talking over the first few pages.
From there, we moved on to looking at a few basics of simplifying and clarifying a job application cover letter before sharing samples of English in labels and ads for Korean beverages and other products.
For the time being, we will continue to look at improving our written communication as well as at the use of English writing in Korean products as we move toward our first major assignment. For next week, please read ahead in the next three chapters of the book (chapters 2, 3, and 4, and continue watching for examples of interesting English used to promote Korean products. Bring things to class for discussion and read ahead in the book.
Thanks!
JBH
2018.09.06
In our first session of the fall semester, we started off with the question "What is public writing?"
A number of different responses came out, including blogs and journalism, editorials, public service announcements, social networking messages, and advertising. But while we focused on editorials and opinions last semester in Public Writing 1, and moved on to creating our own blogs, this semester will move toward more commercial writing, or at least selling our ideas to others by learning from and improving on what advertising copywriters do and what they say they do.
We began by learning a little about the man who's been called "The Father of Advertising," David Ogilvy. Although he is well-known for his agency's ads, his first love was direct response advertising, as he explained in a video.
But whether students are interested in advertising is not the point, using the techniques of clearly communicating a message -- "selling an idea" -- that Ogilvy and others pioneered is something worth learning.
We took a look at Ogilvy's rules for writing. We are also going to be using the book he recommended good writers read three times, which has been fully updated. Please read the first two chapters and be ready to discuss them when we meet in class next week.
In addition, we are going to get started by looking at language in advertising locally. Let's start off with drinks. Please bring in three photos or samples of advertising or labels for Korean drinks that use English (or Konglish) in interesting ways.
We will take it from there next week. Most weeks, we will be doing some writing, but this week is a start-up week, so no writing ... yet.
See you in class!
JBH
