C O U N C I L O F M I C H I G A N F O U N D A T I O N S 4 4 T H - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

C O U N C I L O F M I C H I G A N F O U N D A T I O N S 4 4 T H A N N U A L C O N F E R E N C E

PERSUASIVE STORYTELLING

Council of Michigan Foundations SOURCING, WRITING, PITCHING

Everyone has a story to tell

Everyone has a story to tell

How do you break through the noise?

What’s your mission?

• Problem
• Solution
• What’s next

Sourcing a story: People, people, people

Know your audience. Visualize them when you conceive your story.

THINK LIKE YOUR READER

What would interest the reader. What would the reader want to know. Make your reader identify or sympathize with the subject matter. Time is precious. Competition is fierce.

Drop the jargon!!!

Friends don’t let friends write like this

“Long timeline for trialing, revising and proving out new models in workforce development and lengthy process to support ongoing operations at scale.”

Sample #1

Rayleen Esparza learned the benefits of tennis firsthand last summer as a 13-year-old from East Los Angeles. Her tennis skills and academic performance earned her a

• nce-in-a-lifetime chance to fly to New York and hit tennis balls

with Serena Williams on the US Open courts. It was part of the Return the Serve campaign, now in its third year through the teamwork of Chase and the charitable foundation of the United States Tennis Association. "It felt amazing getting a hug from the best player in the world," Rayleen said. "I'm going to remember this forever."

Sample #2

This year, the one million Americans who have Parkinson's Disease have reason to look forward with optimism. They may soon get something deceptively simple: a normal, symptom-free day. By the end of 2017, several new drugs could hit the market to manage debilitating aspects of Parkinson's, like tremors and rigidity, through a steady delivery of dopamine. A few treatments in development to help ease the severity of the symptoms include an inhaler that patients can quickly use for pain relief and a breath-strip-like product that could be placed under the tongue to restore motor functions. Such advancements are largely thanks to the Michael J. Fox Foundation, whose aggressive funding of Parkinson's research has pushed many new drugs into development.

Sample #3

In 2010, the FC Harlem boys' soccer team drove from New York City to Chicago to compete in a national championship tournament. It was the first time many of the team members had left the New York area, packed for a trip, or stayed in a hotel. As they explored downtown Chicago, they were noticed in their maroon and gold club jackets with the custom-designed lion and shield logo on their chests. A few of the boys told the organization's executive director, Irv Smalls, that they felt famous, that they felt important. They'd gone to Chicago for the competition, but came home with so much more. Founded in 1991 as Harlem Youth Soccer, the organization has expanded immensely under Smalls' guidance. "Sport is the draw to bring them in, but [our program] is really mentoring," he said. “It's talking about giving back, exposing kids to more opportunities."

BEFORE YOU WRITE

Make sure you know exactly what you want to say.

The “Budget Line”

Reduce the gist of your memo or article to one sentence (for your use only). Journalists call this the “budget line.” Example: “Zika mosquitoes now detected in South Beach.”

• r:

“Romanian villagers object to police investigation

• f vampire slayings”

OUTLINE

Make a list of the main points you want to make in your writing piece.

ORGANIZE

Organize your list, keeping like- minded themes together.

STARTING POINTS

• 1. THE LEAD OR 1ST PARAGRAPH
• 2. THE NUT GRAPH

SEIZE READER’S ATTENTION

THE LEAD SHOULD BE CLEAR: “Hey this is important!” or “Can you believe this?” or “Imagine that!”

The “budget line” can be a helpful first sentence, which you can revise later.

NUT GRAF

What does this story say? WHY SHOULD I CARE?? WHAT DOES THIS MEAN???

The Inverted Pyramid

The first paragraph summarizes the story’s most important facts

This paragraph adds more detail & background

This one has more detail This one more

• Etc. etc.

CLASSIC DECLARATIVE STORY STRUCTURE

Lede: What happened? Quick Context (NUT GRAPH): Why should I care? Good quote: Pithy. Human voice. Facts, support, proof that it’s news.

Freestanding emergency centers have sprouted in recent years across the suburban landscape, taking root in affluent neighborhoods and directly challenging nearby medical clinics and hospitals. As these centers offer another choice for people tired of deflating wait times at hospital emergency rooms, their escalating numbers are sending ripples across the health-care field. Advocates say they provide consumers with an unprecedented level of care while critics argue they do little to help rural Americans siphon away skilled emergency physicians and too often stick patients with overinflated bills. “The idea of delivering fast, quick, high-quality emergency care ... is very innovative," said Dr. Jeremiah Schuur, lead author of a study published last month by Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. "Depending on your viewpoint, they offer competition or a duplication of services.” Researchers with Brigham and Women's Hospital found the number of stand-alone emergency departments grew from 222 in 2009 to 360 across 30 states as of March 2015. The most are in Texas, which in 2009 adopted a law that allowed private, for-profit ventures to provide the kind of emergency services that hospitals do.

Police report

• At 5:23 p.m. Tuesday Poplarville Police officers Davis and Jones responded, to a

report about a disturbance on the 300 block of Green St. They found several people arguing and shouting. A woman was crying.

• The officers found two men lying on the pavement. One appeared to be bleeding

from the head. The other appeared to have wounds to his torso and arms.

• A witness named Patricia S. Benson reported the men had argued over a parking
• place. She said the first man -- identified by police as Gregory D. Simpson, 37 --

pulled a handgun from his jacket and threatened the other man, identified as Robert C. Taylor, 31.

• Ms. Benson said Mr. Taylor retrieved a shotgun from the trunk of his car and fired

at Mr. Simpson. Mr. Simpson was wounded but managed to fire 2 or 3 shots at or near Mr. Taylor.

• Mr. Simpson and Mr. Taylor were transported to the Municipal Hospital. Mr.

Simpson was declared dead shortly after arriving.

• The deceased worked for Emory Towing. Mr. Taylor is employed as

chief of staff for Poplarville Mayor Barbara Cartwright. He has been charged with second-degree murder and is being held in the Poplarville Jail awaiting arraignment. His attorney, Rebecca Jones, said he will plead not guilty.

The Inverted Pyramid

The first paragraph summarizes the story’s most important facts

This paragraph adds more detail & background

This one has more detail This one more

• Etc. etc.

Pigs escape disaster

Three little pigs survived a fierce attack from a lone wolf Sunday after barricading themselves in a sturdy brick house.

HEY MARTHA!

(STARTLING FACTS OR STARTLING ACCOUNT)

A North Carolina man was freed from jail Wednesday after a judge tossed his conviction in a double-murder case tried 21 years ago by the prosecutor who was later disbarred for lying and misconduct in the Duke University lacrosse rape case.

MAROTINU DE SUS, Romania — Before Toma Petre's relatives pulled his body from the grave, ripped out his heart, burned it to ashes, mixed it with water and drank it, he hadn't been in the news much. That's often the way here with vampires. Quiet lives, active deaths. Villagers here aren't up in arms about the undead — they're pretty common — but they are outraged that the police are involved in a simple vampire slaying. After all, vampire slaying is an accepted, though hidden, bit of national heritage, even if illegal. "What did we do?" pleaded Flora Marinescu, Petre's sister and the wife of the man accused of re-killing him. "If they're right, he was already

• dead. If we're right, we killed a vampire and saved three lives. ... Is that

so wrong?"

Anecdotal

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — When Dequan Jackson had his only brush with the law, at 13, he tried to do everything right. Charged with battery for banging into a teacher while horsing around in a hallway, he pleaded guilty with the promise that after one year of successful probation, the conviction would be reduced to a misdemeanor. He worked 40 hours in a food bank. He met with an anger management counselor. He kept to an 8 p.m. curfew except when returning from football practice or church. And he kept out of trouble. But Dequan and his mother were unable to meet one final condition: payment of $200 in court and public defender fees. For that reason alone, his probation was extended for what turned out to be 14 more months. Dequan’s experience is hardly an isolated one. The ways that fines and fees can entrap low-income people in the adult courts have received enormous attention in the past year or two. But the systematic imposition

• f costs on juvenile offenders, with equally pernicious effects on the

poorest of them, is far less known.

SCENE SETTER

POWELLTON, W.Va. — Deep in the belly of an Appalachian mountain, a powerful machine bored into the earth, its whirring teeth clawing out a stream of glistening coal. Men followed inside the Maple Eagle No. 1 mine, their torches cutting through the dank air. One guided the machine with a PlayStation-like controller; others bolted supports in the freshly cut roof. They were angry. The coal industry that made West Virginia prosperous has been devastated. Every day, it seemed, another mine laid off workers or closed entirely. Friends were forfeiting their cars, homes and futures. For these men, this season’s presidential campaign boils down to a single choice. “I’m for Trump,” said Dwayne Riston, 27, his face smeared in

• dust. “Way I see it, if he wins, we might at least stand a chance of surviving.”

Few places in America offer such a simple electoral calculus as the rolling, tree-studded hills of West Virginia.

The Kabob

Martini glass

Start with standard inverted pyramid style. Then…. Shift to chronology

• f events

Arrange

1. Children who endured harrowing rescues are returning home to a jarring landscape that even their parents can scarcely grasp: Homes filled with ruined possessions need to be quickly gutted. Scores of damaged schools and daycare centers are closed indefinitely. Parents juggling jobs and cleanup work must also line up caretakers for their kids. 2. In flood-ravaged pockets of south Louisiana, mental scars are already showing on the youngest victims of a disaster that prompted more than

30,000 rescues and left an estimated 40,000 homes damaged. 3. Michelle Parrott's children hear thunder when there is no storm. When rain does fall, they ask their mother if the floodwaters are rising

again. 4. Parrott, her husband and her six children, ages 6 to 17, have slept in cars, a shelter and a hotel room in the week since they had to be rescued by boat. The flooding wrecked their home in Livingston Parish, where three-quarters of the residences are a total loss after more than 2 feet of rain fell in three days.

RHYTHM, FLOW

Mix short and long sentences. Writing is like music. Listen for rhythm, cadence.

RYHTHM, FLOW

The Johnsons fought bitterly over their father’s estate, but in the end they left a handsome sum for Louise. It was only fair. She believed in him years before others did.

Put a limit on long words of three syllables or more

Short ones are best. Really. I’m not kidding. They pack a punch. Try them.

THE RULE OF THREES

One of the foundational rules of writing, speech and music

They come in threes

“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” “Sex, drugs, & rock n' roll” “Truth, justice, and the American way”

Using the rule of threes as an organizational tool

When you look at your outline — combine your points into three themes. Or three bullet points. Or three questions.

Threes are everywhere, really

When Sofia Richie chopped her and visited a doctor’s office recently, Us Weekly was

• there. Not to be outdone, People heralded Mindy McKnight as “the voice for millennial

moms.” And In Touch offered an “adorable” picture of Sarah Wright Olsen’s infant napping next to a plush rabbit. Meet the striving celebrity underclass that has risen to dominate the gossip machine. Third-tier reality show stars, YouTube vloggers and viral news subjects can now all curry coverage just by replenishing their social media accounts with photos of their babies, their butts or both. These quasi-celebrities have crept onto our radar through our supermarket tabloids and Facebook news feeds, and a crop of publications has emerged to cover them, whether sincerely or satirically. The relentless Instagram gossip outpost The Shade Room airs their dirty laundry, the deliciously absurd podcast “Who? Weekly” pokes fun at their claims to fame, and Time Inc.’s shiny new digital celebrity site, Instant.me, hopes to build on their brands. It used to be that the only way a non-recognizable person could land in the pages of the glossy celebrity magazines was to lose 100 pounds, serve as some heartwarming testimony to good-old-fashioned American values, or be murdered.

THE FOG INDEX

A mouthful:

NEW YORK - PDQ Health Association today announced the creation of QDistinct Total Care (Total Care), the industry’s largest national network of patient-focused care programs that shift from the fee-for-service model—which rewards the volume of medical services provided—to one that pays medical professionals for quality care and effectiveness in treating patients while making health care more affordable.

Fog index = 32

Smaller Bites:

CHICAGO - PDQ HealthCare announced today it has created QDistinct Total Care, the largest network of patient-centered healthcare providers. Total Care shifts from payments that are based on services to ones that reward the quality and success of customer care.

Fog index = 12

Words matter:

Fueled by alternative payment structures, technological innovations and the implementation of powerful new database tools, these recently developed ways of delivering care will spread. Consumers will experience changes in healthcare services. In a multitude

• f cases, these are the initial developments in an

extended trajectory.

• Fog index: 19

Simplify:

Get ready for a new healthcare experience. Changing payment models, high-tech advances and the latest in data tools are just the first steps toward new ways of getting care to the public. Fog index: 7

Don’t stop yet

Getting your narrative in circulation

Attracting eyeballs

• Your web site
• Your FB page
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Video
• Mass media

Web Site

• Display
• Photographs
• Compelling headline
• links to other related materials

Social Media

• Use Twitter early and often
• Don’t Tweet the same thing over and over
• Look for related hashtags that are in common

use

• Monitor your retweets and mentions

Mass Media

• This is toughest
• Develop relationships with reporters

and op-ed page editors.

• Know their interests and their beats.

(follow them on Twitter)

• Be selective in what you pitch.
• Use your own narrative as a story idea.

WHEN ALL THE PIECES COME TOGETHER

T H A N K Y O U !