Workshop on Writing Short, Engaging Articles for Journalists

We all know that audiences aren't keen on spending too much time reading news articles—something that can be frustrating for journalists who pour hours into crafting stories. This workshop was designed to help journalists learn how to grab and hold their audience’s attention by writing shorter, more concise articles that still reflect their creative styles. The training was built using ADDIE and Merrill's First Principles to ensure a well-rounded, effective approach.

Over 60 professional journalists and college students joined the workshop, and here’s what we focused on:

• Understanding why and when to write short

• Identifying the goal, audience, and essential elements (and what can be left out) when writing short

• Learning two key steps to trim unnecessary content

To keep the workshop interactive and engaging, I shared some of my own experiences and used techniques from Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction, such as:

• Learning Guidance: I provided real-world articles for participants to analyze and learn from.

• Elicit Performance: I encouraged participants to evaluate their own work and get feedback from both their peers and me.

• Enhance Retention: To help participants apply what they’d learned, I used Menti.com polls to ask them how they planned to implement the training. I then shared a PDF of their responses to reinforce key takeaways after the session.