If not all, then many would like to try yourself in journalism. But is it possible without special education and many years of practice? What you need to know to become a shark pen? We will tell you how to write an article in a newspaper, magazine or blog, if you have no experience, but there is a desire to learn.
9 tips on how to write an article
Find an idea
To get an idea, you need to delve into the subject of interest or the industry - subscribe to successful blogs, study similar publications of colleagues, analyze local and world news. You can remain passive - the brain will still catch the necessary information.
When the habit of following the news is formed, you should learn to fix the scenario in which something went wrong. Why do events happen this way? Who is involved in this? What could be next? Here are the questions that form great ideas for writing an article to a magazine.
Gather facts
If you already have an idea for an article, it's time to look for actual confirmation. You need to be sure that the event is not a fake and not a fiction of the yellow press. To do this, it is enough to receive confirmation in three unrelated sources.
It is good if at this stage work is done with an editor who can polish ideas or direct thoughts in a different direction. Having experience, the editor will tell you how to organize work further and what to look for. This is necessary in order to look at your own article from a different angle and find opposite points of view.
Work with the dictionary
Cliche, pretentious expressions and lexical stamps should be avoided. But to pour on author's neologisms is also not an option. Held by journalists, telling how to write an article in a newspaper, emphasize that you need to read a lot of classics. At the same time, the practice of writing your own texts is important. So in two or three years, the newcomer will become a professional journalist.
Do not pull
Sometimes, trying to write a good article in a journal, you can overdo it and “wrap the text,” that is, stretching the robot over it for too long. To do this, it is enough to write more than three days. On the fourth, all interest and excitement to the idea will usually disappear. As a result, the article may be uninteresting and strained. To avoid this, you need to try to keep within 2-3 days.
Introduce reader
To easily and quickly write an article, you can submit your reader or audience as a whole. What is the age of these people? How do they look? If these images appear before your eyes, you will definitely find a balance in expressions, general presentation, manner.
To make a comparison
If you tell how much a country allocates money for medicine, readers may react ambiguously: the figure will seem huge to someone, but to someone, on the contrary, insignificant. But if to compare with indicators in other countries, the picture will become clearly visible. It is important to indicate the sources of information. If the subject of articles allows, you can make a chart, infographic or table. In the diagrams, numbers and facts are perceived and remembered more easily.
To make a plan
How to write an article? To make a plan. But before that, you need to highlight the most important facts and write down the secondary ones. They should be logical, consistent and well defined. These facts will subsequently become points of the plan.
It is important to concentrate all material that is similar in meaning in one paragraph of the plan, and not to scatter over the text. Pointing out the details, do not forget about their task - to outline the overall picture. Otherwise they may distract from the main idea.
Making a plan sometimes seems like a long and difficult process, but a structured outline is a half-finished article.
Write a draft
When the plan is ready, you can safely begin a draft, describing each item. The more complex the plan, the faster the work will be ready. Experienced journalists write good stuff in an hour, while newcomers may need a few days.
On the psychological side, the availability of a draft helps to avoid the "clean slate" syndrome, when the author, fearing to start incorrectly or not knowing why, leaves the work not done at all.
At this stage, it is important not to stop there. If for some part there are not enough facts or it is difficult to formulate a thought, you can leave everything as it is, returning to it after the overall picture is visible.
When it’s still possible to finish the draft, it’s worth checking whether there are any questions left to the author after reading the questions. If they occur, it means that the topic is not fully disclosed.
Edit
When the draft is completed, it should be put aside for some time and distracted, in order to then read the article just written as if for the first time. Now you should edit the work to the ideal, saving each previous version. Sometimes the initial version is better than the corrected one.
Starting editing, you can take it for a rule to reduce the text by 10%. At the same time, do not delete whole sentences or paragraphs, but eliminate only extra words. They often do not make any sense, but only make the sentences heavier.
Some secrets you need to know before writing an article.
- I want to read the publication if it starts with an interesting story or a capacious quote. The main thing in this business is not to overdo it.
- All paragraphs should be short, as the author has only a few seconds to interest the reader.
- A good text is one that is divided into chapters, headings, subtitles. A clear structure is definitely a trump card.
- The passive form of the verb should be used in moderation, and it is better to avoid it altogether. Such verbs, along with adverbs and adjectives, “clutter” the text, inhibit the rhythm. The opinion is being co-ordinated, as if the author is not sure of his sayings.
- Complex sentences is better to break into two simple ones. The reader is always grateful for this.
How to write an article: 10 rules in one line
- In one sentence - no more than one thought.
- Writing is understandable and short.
- Use verbs in one tense.
- Avoid unnecessary details and details.
- Use terms in extreme need.
- Quote interesting sayings.
- Briefly tell the background of events.
- Difficult situations lead analogs.
- Clearly answer specific questions.
- Give arguments to theses.
You have just completed a theoretical course of a young fighter called "How to write an article." Now it is time to move on to practice, that is, to start writing. Save our publication in order to use the cheat sheet at the right moment, and feel free to start creating your first robots.
