Allan Sloan of Fortune magazine channels legendary Forbes editor James Walker Michaels: 'How to write a column'

Sloan is Fortune magazine's senior editor at large and his "Deals" column appears regularly in the Washington Post Business section.

Michaels (above) died on October 2, 2007.

This past Tuesday, October 9, 2007, Sloan wrote in the Post, "To this day, I write my columns using the structure I learned to write one-page Forbes stories for Jim."

I emailed Sloan asking for the structure he alluded to and he was kind enough to respond with the family jewels.

Summarized, they are:

1) Start with something "reasonably grabby"

2) Try to drop an allusion to it into the piece one or twice

3) End with something that ties back to the way you started

4) Write conversationally

Thanks, Allan.

Gretchen Morgenson, the superb New York Times business columnist and reporter, also worked for Michaels at Forbes and wrote an appreciation which appeared in that paper on October 7, 2007.