When it comes to public writing, there is a broad category of genres, such as letters to the editors, newspaper reports, opinion pieces, memoirs, magazine features, and so much more. Despite their differences, all of them share certain common features which aim to make their work accessible to the public.
One of the best things about writing for the public is that, even if you are new to the content, there are several ways you can write your content and still effectively appeal to a diverse crowd. If you are curious to know what these ways are, here are a few tips written below that can help you out.
Knowing Your Audience
Knowing the audience you are writing for will help you understand the tone you need to use in your work.
In that case, there are certain things you need to consider, such as what your audience already knows and how your piece is going to benefit their knowledge. Moreover, your choice of genre will determine the way you address to your audience; for example, if you are writing a speech, engaging with your audience directly by using second-person plurals like ‘you’ is the best course of action.
Research Beforehand
For some forms of writing, you do not have to provide factual information, but having appropriate and factual information can be relied upon when it comes to writing to a larger crowd.
This approach can help you make an authentic argument, discuss your views more effectively or provide context to the reading if necessary. However, make sure that you have not written long passages about the information you have collected – most people do not like reading public news that look like research papers, so it would be best to keep your content precise and to the point without overboarding your readers with extensive information.
Focus on Your Version of Perfection
Most times, we tend to freeze up thinking that people might not be into what we have written, so we focus too much on making things perfect for others.
In that pursuit, we end up writing things that do not follow up on what we want. In reality, there will always be someone who will not appreciate our work, which is why it is important to focus on writing according to what we think is perfect. This way, you will at least be satisfied with your work.
Learning From Professionals
If you are still confused about how to move forward with your writing, there are many professional writers who are constantly writing for the public, such as Michael Owhoko, who can help you become a better writer.
As a Nigerian journalist, media, and public relations practitioner, Michael Owhoko is one of the very few writers who has written on a wide range of genres for the public. Most of his work can be owed to his experience as a former spokesman for Gaslink Nigeria Limited and Communications representative/advisor for Addax Petroleum Nigeria Limited.
He initially started out writing for a weekly newspaper, The Metropolitan, where he was recruited as a Staff Reporter. He later worked as an Energy Editor at the Daily Times of Nigeria.
After his work began to get a lot of recognition, he was invited by the Managing Director of Gaslink Nigeria Limited to join them as Head of the Public Relations Department. He took on many roles during his time there and even won an award of merit for his outstanding contribution to the completion and commissioning of the Ikeja 1B Gas Distribution Project.
After that, he started working in many different places, including the Nigerian Gas Association as Publicity Secretary, and was even sponsored by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) as a delegate for their Summit – making him one of the prime examples of an individual who knows precisely how to write exceptional pieces to the public.