The heading is short, to the point, and factual. The first paragraph gives just a bit of background about the company, states the news, and tells you “why’’ the company says it’s doing what it’s doing. The second paragraph gives the next-most-important news. The third fills out the news a bit, and provides a direct quote from the company’s press release.

That’s a pretty good recipe for a breaking-news story, and a novice writer trying to put together a news piece could save a lot of potential flailing around by adopting the format.

Say you’re asked to write a fact sheet for a corporation. A good place to start would be at one of the slicker Fortune 500-company websites, such as General Electric’s, and see what they do. At www.ge.com/factsheet.html you’ll find a two-page fact sheet that’s an excellent model.

GE’s fact sheet begins with a tight two-paragraph ‘’About GE’’ section, then has a complete “financial highlights’’ section, and a listing of awards and honors the company has received. The second page features 20 one-paragraph descriptions of GE’s business segments (linked to the appropriate parts of the website) and, finally, a social responsibility statement.

Although the company you’re describing won’t warrant the exact same treatment (few companies have so many business segments as GE!), this fact sheet is an excellent model of web-friendly writing and design.

Beginning writers often make two mistakes: They think they need to be entirely original, and they think they need to wait for “inspiration.’’ Take it from the pros: for most kinds of writing, originality and inspiration are overrated. There are only a few ways to begin an article, and most often, the right one won’t seem very original. As for inspiration, writers should always bear in mind that old maxim of Thomas Alva Edison: “Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.’’

When getting ready to write, always try to read the type of writing your reader reads. Say your target reader is a financial analyst, chances are they’ll read The Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times. Read a number of issues. If nothing else, you’ll get a feel for the basic tone and style of financial writing. For the writer who wants to get published, read the content your target editor publishes. It will give you a sense of what kind of writing to emulate.


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