Tag: journalism

Online learning: how to launch your own blog course for City Academy

My latest course for City Academy has just finished.

This was a six-week online course, based around the concept of developing and launching your own blog.

We covered some key ideas, including:

  • Identifying your audience and niche
  • Generating ideas
  • Writing structure and identifying the ‘hook’
  • Editing and headlines
  • Blog strategy [see graphic pictured above]; pitching
  • Launching your blog

Here’s some of the feedback from the students who took the course.

“I learnt the importance of self editing. I now know the first draft is not the press-send draft.”

“I’m now thinking about more ways to use topical content as well as evergreen.”

“I’m a lot more aware now of the importance of defining my niche and understanding my audience.”

“I realise now how important it is to have a clear take-away idea to round off the post and encourage interaction.”

Read more about my teaching here.

Plus find details of other writing courses from City Academy here.

Sign up for my new online travel writing course with City Academy

Have you always wanted to break into travel writing? Or want to expand your freelance portfolio post lockdown?

I am leading a new online travel writing course in collaboration with City Academy.

The course runs for six weeks online from May 25 and is scheduled for a Tuesday evening.

Here’s what to expect:

  • Learn to generate the kind of ideas editors want
  • Identify appropriate story angles
  • Learn how to pitch commissioning editors with your ideas
  • Plan, structure and write a draft story
  • Explore networking opportunities with the travel industry and build profile
  • Establish a community of editors and start earning money

Sign up here. And read more about my teaching here.

Plus find details of other writing courses from City Academy here.

Media masterclass: How to tell a story and engage your readers

I’m running a new online course from March 1st in collaboration with Journalism.co.uk.

We will cover how to tell a story and the importance of human interest to that.

We will also look at the importance of knowing your reader and work on drafting a sample feature for you to pitch — to ultimately sell and make money.

This course will be taught online to keep it flexible for working media specialists and student journalists currently based at home.

If you’re looking to refresh existing skills, or develop some new ones as a freelancer, this how-to course, based on my insider tips from 20 years as a working journalist, could be the new-year resolution you were looking for.

You can find out more about the course by reading my guest blog for the site, in which my key point is:

Journalism is complex but the secret to good storytelling remains simple: engage your reader.

Read the full post here.

And sign up for the course: How to tell a story and engage readers.

Why my op-ed travel feature seemed to touch a nerve with dog owners

It has recorded 191 comments by the time I write this.

Some supportive, some hostile. Many are knee-jerk reactions and include some venting of personal bias.

But I’ve enjoyed reading them all.

After all, it’s great as a writer to have a dialogue with readers — even if they are insulting you.

What did surprise me, however, was one of my regular travel features that has never attracted animated such debate.

I’d clearly touched a nerve.

So it is that my op-ed feature for Telegraph Travel, playing up a pantomime take on the way some dog owners will sneer at young children while letting their pets run amuck, will probably be my most read story of the year.

Here’s a sample:

The thing that grates most of all for me, personally, is not the dogs — many are well behaved and offer valuable companionship — but the vitriol that some dog owners heap upon families who dare to take small children out for lunch.

The hysterical hypocrisy of dog owners can be quite staggering, sneering at kids while taking the high-handed view that waiters and fellow diners should all pander to every whim of their prized, pampered pooch.

Read the full feature here and join the debate. All comments are welcome — no, really.