A good story has a beginning, a middle and an end. A structure too often neglected in today's 'communications', though one found throughout history and in pretty much every culture on the planet. A structure that's more than likely hard-wired into our brains by now.

A good beginning is, to paraphrase the famous Buddhist saying, the single step that begins the journey of a thousand miles. It is the hook - what makes the reader start reading. 'People like stories' would be a good example. The middle carries the reader along, imparting knowledge, insights, ideas - whatever the writer wants to convey. It's the journey; keep it moving. The middle, above all, should be about more than mere information. A list of lists, a display of raw data, is a trudge through an industrial estate. Make the journey interesting, purposeful and lively, and the reader will be happy to come along.

And the end? Well, every journey has a destination. You started out knowing where you planned to take the reader: have they arrived? Good. That's the end.