I love the annual blog review that happens around the new year. It’s a great time to look at everything I’ve written during the year and see if any trends developed.
I’ve noticed during the past few years that many of my most popular posts stay the same, sprinkled in with new ones from the current year. This year was no exception.
Four of my seven most viewed posts of 2017 were written in 2013. These four posts have consistently been on the top post lists each year, most likely because of the practical advice they provide.
As I see these posts appear on each year’s list, I can’t help but be happy that I wrote them and that they’re still helping others.
Here are my seven most popular posts of 2017.
1. How to Write a Professional Bio
I wrote this post in 2013 to assist students in my public relations writing class with an assignment. It has been the most popular post on this site since, with most readers finding the post through search.
2. 15 Ways to Tick Your Professors Off
I write a version of this post (with help from my professor friends) at the beginning of each academic year. While the title may seem negative, it’s my hope that students will use the post’s contents to set themselves up for classroom success.
3. 12 Tips for Finding Story Ideas
I also wrote this post in 2013 to help media writing students identify story ideas. I still use it for that class each fall. It consists of such basic, helpful information that many of my adviser and journalism professor friends also use it.
The great thing about the story ideas post is that I can use it as handout and discussion point each time I teach a writing class. It keeps me from spending an entire class lecture or two discussing news values and finding ideas. In a different way, I find this post just as helpful as my readers do.
4. Why You Should Read Every Day
I also wrote this post in 2013 to remind myself of the benefits of reading and to justify my crazy reading habit. After focusing in on the benefits of pleasure of reading, I’ve read more than 100 books a year.
5. 31 Practical Tips to Improve Your Writing Overnight
I also wrote this post to help students in my writing classes. It contains macro advice like read and write daily, but also consists of micro advice like “just use said.” My hope in writing this post was that it literally would do what the headline claims—help student media writers improve their writing overnight.
6. Determining News Value
Another great, practical, timeless post from 2013, I wrote this one to help students in my mass communications courses separate what is news from what is not. I often use this post as a course handout.
7. Why Every Student Journalist Should Watch The Hunting Ground
I wrote this post after experiencing a disconnect between the likelihood that students would experience sexual assault while in college (One-in-five women is sexually assaulted during their four years at university.) and student journalists’ understanding of how large an issue sexual assault is at universities.
The Hunting Ground documentary, directed by Kirby Dick and produced by Amy Ziering, tells the story of sexual assault crimes and cover-ups on U.S. college campuses. Many of the stories are told by the survivors of those sexual assaults, helping put the issue in context for student journalists.
There they are, the seven most popular posts on this site in 2017. I hope you enjoyed them when you first read them or are enjoying them now.
Happy New Year!
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