#nut graf

[jessicalanglois]

Momentary Delight on Dealine

How good does it feel when you are somewhere between outline and first draft of a feature story, and the nut graf—once a hazy blob of key quotes and research floating in your brain—magically materializes from your fingertips into a few clean sentences on your computer screen?

Like you had no idea exactly what this was all about, why the heck we are talking about this NOW, and why anyone should care... until that moment.

Pretty darn good, that's how. Well worth ingesting all that nail polish to get to this point. That is, until you realize you still have to write the rest of the article. Anyway.

[laturley]

Cracking the Nut Graf - The Best Writing Tool Invented

First crack the Nut Graf. What's the Nut Graf?

Breakdown:

what was: 

what's new:

what's now: 

Then decide which of the 5Ws is most important:

Who

What

When

Where 

Why

(How)

Is it a News story or a Feature? If news structure accordingly: 

Lead - what's going to hook your reader?

Expound - what details do you need to explain your hook?

Quote - can you validate it with a quote?

Details - what other fluffy language, details, points can you add? 

Is it a feature? Structure as so:

Beginning 

Middle

End

But always remember: 

1.) Cut through the bullshit

2.) Get to the fucking point

[drxpr-blog]

The nut graf

And so yet another release has come across the desk that lacks the basic advanced parts of press releasage.

Let’s assume we have all the info and spelling correct. The two basic advanced parts of the release need to be:

Sell the reader on the benefits, not the features

Have a nut graf. What is the nut graf? It’s the part of the story or release that tells the reader why they care, give a crap and puts things into context. In news writing, the nut graf proves the point. In release writing, it gives the release structure and it communicates to the audience — journalists — that there’s a point to investing the time in reading your release. Example of a nut graf for a trade industry audience:

The widget’s release marks the third time in six months that the Johnson Smith Control Company has released a product that can cut manufacturing costs for its customers. The increased viscosity of Widget3000 can result in 30 percent widget replacements on the production line.

The first sentence of the paragraph provides the context and sets up the specific details of the second. If you wrote the release without context or why-we-care, it would likely wander — and so would your target audience’s attention.