I will touch base with these three articles in my presentation next week:
Writing for Magazines:
http://www.dailywritingtips.com/writing-for-magazines/
20 Steps to write a good article:
http://www.thepenmagazine.net/20-steps-to-write-a-good-article/
Writing Tips: Writing for an audience.
http://www.cws.illinois.edu/workshop/writers/tips/audience/
Jordan Loomis
Jordan, Thanks for the links!
ReplyDeleteOn the Daily Writing Tips website, I most enjoyed the last paragraph about "extra credit" on how to use extra information in a side panel or otherwise. Oftentimes when interviewing, I get ahold of a really cool fun fact but it doesn't fit nicely into the story! On The Pen Magazine site - I wondered about #10 because it states that people of all ages must be able to understand your claims, aims, and sentences easily. Alot of magazines I read use today's jargon and in my eyes, successfully! I think it makes it relatable to their target audience. Case in point- I read SELF magazine, and they use the word selfies sometimes. I get it, most English-speaking girls my age get it, but a 65-year old reader might not. Does that make it bad writing? Or would it be worse to spell out "capture a photo of yourself doing...". Also #19 states to make text scientific and contributing. I can write some pretty stimulating and thought-provoking articles, but I don't know that they necessarily contribute to the greater good. Sometimes I like just reading junk articles about random things! Sure facts are great, but sometimes people's opinion and two-cents is more interesting. In the Writing for an Audience link, it says "Remember your purpose" and states that sometimes your most important reader is you! This is so true. But this also goes back to earlier comment, about people of all ages. It is really hard for me to reach some demographics and age ranges because my writing is full of me. I'll be curious to see your successful examples; putting these tips into action!
Great articles! I'm interested to see what else you'll say in your presentation. I've always had a far off dream of being a traveling journalist and writing for National Geographic. However, I'm worried that the "magazine field' is quickly becoming a dying business. Does anyone else think about that?
ReplyDeleteI hadn't ever categorized magazine stories into the four categories mentioned in the "Writing for Magazines" article. But after I thought about it, I really couldn't think of a single story I've read that doesn't fit under one of those. I liked the tip about the importance of having a strong start to your story. I think that is the most important part! You HAVE to catch the attention of your reader with your headline and lead paragraph. Nothing else you write will matter if they don't even get past the first sentence. I also think that the photos that go along with the article and the way it is laid out on the page make a huge difference (although that is often probably not up to the writer). All of the elements need to work together!
There were three tips that really stuck out to me in "20 Steps to Write a Good Article." #2, "make a serious and detailed research on the topic" is very important. Even though it is really tempting to start writing as soon as you get a great story idea, I think it is critical to know all you can before you do. You don't want to print any misinformation, miss recent updates on the topic, or miss current conversations that are happening. Leaving out all irrelevant information, tip #7, is also great advice. Give your readers what they want and need to hear about the topic. Nothing more. Facts and figures that don't matter to the purpose of your story will bore readers. Finally, I think tip #20, having it revised and looked over by multiple trusted individuals, is a vital step! It can be easy to make mistakes and you don't want to make another one by assuming your article is great as it is. Always have someone check it out.
I like how the final article focused on the importance of the audience. Knowing the purpose of your article and who you want to reach is extremely important. Have a clear target audience in mind when writing an article and think about how they would want the information to be presented.
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ReplyDeleteI like in the Daily Writing Tips article how it describes article writing for a magazine as "telling a story" that informs the reader, solves a problem, persuade them and entertains your target audience. This is a more informal writing approach than the journalistic article writing I'm used to but I like that as it allows to let your personality show through in your writing. I also like the "extra credit" section because I often discard information left over from an article or somehow try to awkwardly fit it in to a piece that doesn't really fit. However the sidebar suggestion where you could put in these extra quotes or bits of information is a great way to use 100% of your information.
ReplyDeleteThe "20 steps to write a good article" link was helpful but there were a couple of points that I didn't entirely agree with. No.7 about "leaving out all irrelevant information" is justified to a certain extent, but I believe that rule depends on what or who the article is about. For example I find in articles written about celebrities, it's the weird, unusual and irrelevant facts about the person I find the most interesting and it stands out the most to me. In some weird way I think having fun facts like that thrown into an article about a celebrity helps people connect with them on a human level and helps us to remember that they are not godly because they are celebrities, they are just normal people. Anyway, I've digressed with that particular point but back to the article, I also agree with Carly on No.10 about using language so that "people of all ages can understand your claims, aims and sentences easily". Sometimes the very topic of the article is only going to make sense to a certain age group while also connecting more to them as a target audience. I personally would find this more effective instead of trying to appeal to every demographic by dumbing down the language for everyone to follow, but sacrificing the interest of my target audiences. Such topics like hashtagging or snapchatting might not make sense to a 50 year old woman, but my target audience based in the range of 16-25 will instantly know about what forms of media and technology I am referring to.
The writers workshop article was direct and simple to follow. It basically and simply listed the do's and don't you must consider when writing an article. I can definitely adhere to the "writing to impress" tip, as I can often get caught up in trying to eloquently put a point across, that my purpose gets distorted in the process. Simple is the way to go. Keep it direct and explain it simply as more of your target audience will follow and understand you, rather than them being impressed by how intelligent you sound but having no idea what you are actually talking about.
Nice links Jordan! Looking forward to your presentation next week.
These were really good articles, thank you for sharing. I’m also excited to see what you will show us in your presentation! When I was in high school, I did a lot of writing stories for our high school yearbook and some writing for the newspaper. I’m currently a copywriting intern for Advisors Excel and doing a lot of writing and editing. Not very many of the writing or editing pieces I do are for our company magazine, so it is interesting to see the “rules” of different publications, such as magazines.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the link to “20 Steps To Write a Good Article.” The tip that stuck out to me the most was No. 5- Make your plan! College has helped me SO much to learn how important it is to have a plan when doing any kind of project. Especially being in the mass media and/or graphic design field. I have done projects last minute before and it does nothing but leave you stressed out when your deadline is approaching and most likely does not end up well. I also liked No. 7- Leave out all irrelevant information. It is extremely important, but I find this one difficult sometimes, because you may feel that certain information is necessary, and when it comes back from review, your piece may be full of red marks! I also agree with Sophie when she says it depends on who or what the article is about. Overall, this list was extremely helpful.
The final article was aimed at the importance of the audience, and this is important in so many ways. If you don’t consider your subject, tone, diction, sentence structure and degree of argumentation, then you will totally lose the audience that you were hoping to grasp.
Again, great links, Jordan!