Emily Biggs2 Fitzhugh HouseMilton RoadSouthamptonSO15 2HY

Community PractitionerTen Alps CreativeONE New Oxford StreetLondonWC1A 1NUPolly Moffat

4/1/2012

Dear Polly Moffat,

Every year two million women in the UK are diagnosed with infertility. No explanation,

symptoms or cure; simply a dark label with an attached stigma that pains the lives of one in

five couples. It’s alarmingly difficult to seek emotional guidance through the NHS, and this is

an issue that I feel needs to be tackled furiously. “Infertility is one of the hardest obstacles

that people face in life – everyone is aware of it, yet until faced with it personally, no one can

prepare you for the heartache and trauma; the worst aspect being the sheer lack of support

from professionals.” This is the headlining view of Karen, a charity co-founder who aided me

greatly with my research.

My name is Emily Biggs, a multi-published freelance writer and I’m writing to propose an in-

depth and thoroughly researched article into the emotional effects and journeys of an infertile

woman. This article is informative, thought-provoking and unique in its conviction and

honesty when dealing with interviewees suffering with the condition. Readers of Community

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Practitioner online will find my article refreshing and touching, as well as educative on a

subject that is yet to be explored within your feature article archive. The USP of my article is

the alternative perspective on the subject and how real life patients have gained strength (or

lack of) through people of various positions within the health sector.

The article covers all areas of infertility, each illustrated with views from professional GP’s

and personal case studies. I’ve undertaken in-depth interviews with a range of women at

various stages of treatment, and have gained knowledge and understanding into their needs

and views. From these I selected two women (Karen and infertility patient, Gemma) to

explore further within the article, each giving me information from opposite ends of the

fertility spectrum. For balance, Dr Paul Adley of Bidford Health Centre, West Midlands has

provided me with thoughtful and relatable professional advice, binding my article together.

With views such as: “The NHS support service is abysmal” and “I have received next to no

support from health professionals during my struggle” this article won’t fail to raise some

eyebrows.

The article’s main focus is to provide an understanding into the emotional effects of

infertility, as well as the physical. After conducting a survey, I found that most readers of

Community Practitioner felt that a lack of emotional content meant their reading required

using parts of their brain they would usually reserve for work. Essentially, they want more

material that they can read for relaxation and emotional escapism. This article fulfills this

desire, leaving the reader feeling an emotion they probably didn’t know they possessed. This

feeling is my main combatant against screen reading, the main threat to online publication.

Boredom and a lack of audience engagement prove to be the downfall of many health

articles. I’m satisfied that the reader won’t be tempted to click away from the page with my

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proposals of multimedia capability (which I will discuss below) and a writing style which

flows well, is punchy, and full of intriguing opinions and advice. The main readership will no

doubt be women struggling with fertility issues, and this article will offer guidance that’s

honest. The benefit of online presence also allows readers to re-connect and ‘track’ their

progress against the article, as well as sharing advice and experiences with other online

readers through interactivity and user generated content. Online presence also entitles you to

change certain information instantly should something occur in the news, and to update

content according to reader feedback.

I strongly believe that multimedia capability is vital to a website’s success. Currently,

Community Practitioner doesn’t use this to full benefit. I therefore propose that should your

team incorporate my ideas into the web page, you would attract a much wider readership. The

easiest method of transforming web pages is to include photographic images. These are easy

to incorporate, and allows the team to be more creative in their work. An image of a young

couple (perhaps resembling Gemma and partner) will help the reader to visualize faces whilst

reading the article. This helps the reader to sympathize better with the subjects as the brain is

free to create images and stories. The brain will also react to an image of a couple cuddling a

young infant by contrasting this with the image of the couple without infant. These two

situations are easy to re-create and are effective because the majority of your readership work

in professions that are based on face to face contact – these are people who’ll react to

emotional images. Alternatively, the use of graphs would highlight particular elements of the

article efficiently. A graph with, for example a statistic on fertility rates in 2012 compared to

10 years ago will provide additional information that encourages an emotion of shock in the

brain.

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Existing feature articles allow readers to ‘like’ the story via Facebook and Twitter. I propose

that the team push this social networking strategy further by facilitating further functions. The

main benefit being the ability to spread awareness of subjects to readers on a global level.

I’ve found that my most successful articles have been those with options for the reader to

communicate back to me. Fertility is a condition that affects women around the world, so

education and awareness needs to be spread far and wide. This can be done in various ways

that are free, quick to create and incredibly effective for a wider readership. This article

should have links to fertility and IVF forums, so that readers with a fertility-specific purpose

can access the feature; and also links to networking sites Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and

Pinterest. Multiple sites mean that global audiences with different lifestyles and networking

site preferences may all access the feature.

However, the main tactic to encourage reader participation is a comment box function. After

reading the article, the reader should be able to share their thoughts on the feature/topics

discussed with others. This would help your readership in particular as women dealing with

fertility issues can share their experiences, and fellow readers may source advice, comfort

and re-assurance by reading similar stories. From this, a community can be started from one

article, and more readers will be attracted to the website, and therefore the publication in

general.

Upon receipt of my letter, I would be grateful to receive a response regarding the success of

my application. You can contact me via telephone, reply letter, email or online via Facebook,

Twitter or through my blog. Find these details below. I feel my article truly deserves a place

within CP because the subject is relevant to millions of people across the globe, and no

feature in the online archive covers similar ideas.

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I look forward to hearing from you soon,

Emily Biggs

Telephone (daytime) – 07506 737992

Email – emi.i@hotmail.co.uk

Facebook – Emily.G.Biggs

Twitter – EmiBiggs1

Blog – www.emilybiggs.tumblr.com

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