Two Key Questions Every Story Should Answer: Review
- What happened?
- Why do I care?
This article emphasized the need for relevance. Use rhetoric and language that is relevant to your audience to allow for the most clarity. Consider relevance when cultivating a story so that it matters to the audience and is actually read.
Relevance is bigger than just “selling-out” for readership or money. Utilizing relevance maximizes impact. I am a person who cares a lot about a lot. I can be impassioned about almost any cause and interested in almost any knowledge. But it’s important as a writer to understand that that is not the mindset of all readers. Research about an audience plays a role in the same way that research for my article will. If I want someone to care about something that I care about, I have to figure out how it affects them — or figure out a way to place the reader in the shoes of the story.