What we teach
and how we teach it
Four areas of focus
Each programme at Muhywyi is built around a single discipline of journalistic writing. Participants work through structured sessions led by practitioners who have reported in the field, edited for publication, and navigated the pressures of a working newsroom. The content is specific, the feedback is direct.
News writing fundamentals
The inverted pyramid, the five W's, and how to write a lead that earns the second paragraph. Participants work through real briefs - a council meeting report, a local incident, a short profile - and receive line-by-line editorial notes. Sessions run over four weeks, two hours each.
Long-form and feature writing
Feature writing demands a different rhythm. This programme covers scene-setting, source development, narrative arc, and the specific discipline of writing 1,500–3,000 words without losing the reader. Participants pitch, draft, and revise one piece across six sessions with a working editor.
Interview technique and source work
Getting usable quotes is a skill most journalists learn by trial and error. This masterclass shortens that process - covering preparation, question sequencing, handling evasive answers, and turning raw transcripts into tight copy. Includes recorded practice interviews reviewed in group sessions.
Editing and self-editing
Most writers find their own blind spots invisible. This programme trains participants to read their own drafts as a sub-editor would - cutting redundancy, tightening structure, fixing passive constructions, and checking factual claims. Practical exercises use anonymised drafts from real submissions.
How sessions are structured
Good journalistic writing is not about inspiration. It is about knowing what to cut, what to verify, and when the draft is finally ready to send.
Every Muhywyi masterclass follows a consistent pattern: a short presentation of a technique or concept, a timed writing exercise, and a group review of selected outputs. The ratio of doing to listening is roughly three to one. Participants write in every session - there are no passive spectator weeks.
Cohorts are small, capped at twelve per programme. That size allows the lead practitioner to read every draft before the session and give notes that are specific to each participant's actual writing, not generic feedback delivered to a room.
All sessions are delivered live online, with recordings available for seven days afterward. Written feedback is provided within 48 hours of each submission deadline.
- The lead
- The opening sentence or paragraph of a news story. A strong lead carries the most newsworthy information and earns the reader's attention without requiring them to read further to understand what happened.
- The inverted pyramid
- A structural model placing the most important information first, followed by supporting detail, followed by background. Still the dominant structure in hard news writing and the starting point for every news writing programme at Muhywyi.
- Attribution
- The practice of identifying the source of any claim, quote, or figure in a piece of journalism. Correct attribution protects both the publication and the reader. It is also one of the most commonly mishandled elements in early drafts.
- On background
- A term describing information a source provides that can inform the reporter's understanding but cannot be quoted or attributed directly. Managing on-background material correctly is a core source-handling skill covered in the interview technique programme.
- The nut graf
- A paragraph - usually the third or fourth in a feature - that tells the reader why this story matters and why it is being published now. Writing a clear nut graf is one of the most reliable ways to test whether a feature idea is actually ready to be written.