When I was a young reporter at U.S. News & World Report magazine in the early 1990s, I remember the editors there would often joke about magazine-style writing – essentially a formula for how to set up an article and write it from end-to-end. There were four parts to it:
- Function
- Understanding
- Clarity
- Kicker
And yes, as an acronym, it spelled F-U-C-K. (So, it was rather easy to remember.) To a great extent, the top magazines and newspapers still follow this basic approach, although there are exceptions these days. The reason the formula is still in place today is that it generally works to engage a reader from the beginning through the end of an article, regardless of the topic.
Why is this important to know? If you’re going to spend the time writing blog posts for your company, wouldn’t you want at least some insights into the way professionals do it? That’s not to say you can’t develop your own style over time. But like a writing mentor once told me: “You can’t break the rules of writing until you know what they are.”
Indeed, we see a number of blogs that are written by businesses that fail to have the impact they’d probably seek. And much of the reason is, these businesses just “write” in a stream-of-consciousness kind of way (which is fine if you’re James Joyce) but it doesn’t quite work if you’re trying to have a greater emotional impact, attempting to be a thought leader, or if you’re just trying to relay practical or helpful information.
Structure matters. And that’s true regardless of what topic you’re writing about. Hence, let’s go through our model above, which can be used for almost any type or style of business blogging you do.
Function: Setting Up What You’re Going to Talk About
You can also call this the “introduction,” but it doesn’t make for as colorful an acronym. What you want to do in this section is set up what you’re going to talk about in the piece itself. In other words, it should introduce the function or purpose of the piece itself. It can be a personal story, or something illustrative of what you intend to discuss. A lot of writers lead with observations here. Maybe it’s a particular observation about something in your industry or a problem someone has that illustrates how your company can provide a relevant solution.
Understanding: The Main Takeaway
After you’ve set up the function or purpose, you might notice that professional writers get to the heart of what they want you to take away from the article quickly – usually by the second or third paragraph. In journalism, this is known as the “nut graph” –basically short for nutshell. This is the section that can stand on its own, and would likely serve as the main description or understanding of what your article is really about. Those who may not be as familiar with this style may ask why writers would put this so high in the article itself? And the reason is simple: Readers want to know quickly if this article is, well, worth reading. By putting the “Understanding” section up high up after the functional introduction, the writers can ensure that those interested in the topic will continue to down the page.
Clarity: Where You Expand on the Understanding / Main Point
So, you’ve set up the function / introduction and you’ve let people know what it’s about (Understanding). Now comes the time when you have to expand on your main point, going into detail with more examples or flushing this out further for your readers. This is where you seek “clarity” in the sense that you can provide the proof that backs your primary thesis. In the article body, maybe these are the main bullet points you want to highlight in a practical piece or the evidence of what’s happening in your industry in, say, a thought-leadership post.
Kicker: Closing It Out
Once you provide the backing or support for your main thesis, all that’s left is the conclusion – or in journalism, what’s known as the “kicker.” This is the wrap-up statement of the piece, a way to sum it all up. Many writers often end their articles with a killer quote of some kind from a source – one that encapsulates the entire article. It’s become a kind of a cliché because it’s an easy, almost lazy way to end something you write. As a business blogger, you don’t necessarily need that for your posts though you can certainly use it. Instead, you can just wrap up the main points in tidy fashion, and maybe throw in a playful or memorable little ending.
For example, with this blog post, you might notice I followed the same approach as what we were outlining in the piece itself:
- Function: My U.S. News & World Report Magazine setup story.
- Understanding: Structure matters when it comes to writing a blog on any topic.
- Clarity: Expanding on the F-U-C-K Framework
- Kicker: What I’m doing right now.
We hope that’s been helpful. Just remember our little framework – how could you now forget it? 😉 – and we think you’ll be on your way to better writing, and greater impact for your content.
