Template to Outline Your Next Achievement
About This Template
Planning your achievement is done with ease when utilizing the below outline. The Merit team has outlined the content needed for each part of publishing an achievement below. With the exception of the spreadsheet, you will use in conjunction with the story. Use the outline below to guide your story development and the blank spaces to write your title, summary, and so on.
ACHIEVEMENT OUTLINE
SECTION: ACHIEVEMENT LANDING PAGE
ACHIEVEMENT TITLE: Your achievement title will only be used online. It will appear on the landing page for your story. Keep it basic.
BRIEF SUMMARY: Your summary will accompany your title on the achievement landing page. It should briefly introduce your story in 1-2 paragraphs. Everyone visiting the achievement page will see the same text. You should NOT include information about individual students in this text.
SECTION: ONLINE STUDENT STORY
INDIVIDUAL HEADLINE: This will become a personalized headline for each person. It will also be used as the subject line for emails sent to your students. It should include placeholders for the student's name to encourage sharing.
INDIVIDUAL STORY: This will become a personalized story for each student. It should include placeholders for the student's name, hometown and other details such as major or degree to encourage sharing.
SECTION: GROUP PRESS RELEASE
GROUP HEADLINE: This version of your headline will only go to newspapers that are interested in two or more students. It will also be used as the email subject line for those newspapers.
GROUP OPENING: A generic opening for your story that should not be written about any one specific person. Ideally, it should end with a line that says "The following local students..."
GROUP REPEATING: This section will form a list of multiple students who are local to a newspaper. This is the only part of the story where personalized student information can be inserted. The majority of the text here will be placeholder text.
Example Placeholder: (FIRST NAME) (LAST NAME) of (HOMETOWN) (ZIP)
GROUP CLOSING: The closing section will be the same for each newspaper. It should not include placeholder text. Here you should add details about the honors the students earned, flavor text, or quotes from school personnel. Your boilerplate should also appear here.