Articles for Magazines and Newspapers

Articles for Magazines and Newspapers

A little bit of info…

Articles tend to be written for newspapers and magazines. You may be asked to write an article for your English language GCSE on 29th May 2012, and if you are worried about the idea of this task it will be crystal clear by the time you have finished watching Dredheza and Jemima’s PowerPoint. This PowerPoint will guarantee your success.

In this information session we are going to make everything that you need to know clear and easy to understand.

YOU WILL NEED TO BE CLEAR ABOUT:

• The articles purpose
• The articles audience
• And the required format

Purpose:

• You will normally be told in the question the purpose of the article.
• Usually newspaper/magazine articles are written to inform, persuade or entertain.
• To achieve these aims, most articles will be written in a lively style and contain interesting facts and opinions.
• If you’re feeling ambitious you can even put forward your own opinion, BUT you must argue your opinion convincingly and clearly if you want good marks.

Audience:

• You will usually be given the target audience that your article is for in the question (e.g. young children, teenage girls/boys, the elderly etc…)
• The question with tell you the type of publication for the article and the intended audience.
• The style and tone of your article is very important as an article written for a school magazine would be very different from that of an article written for a national/local newspaper.

Format:

• The format of an article is quite straightforward.
• An article usually needs a main heading that makes it clear to the reader straight away what your article is about.
• Always use paragraphs! They will give structure to your article.
• If necessary write in columns, like they do in real newspaper articles. I think it gets you extra marks (but check with miss North)!!!!
• You can use subheadings to break up writing into clear sections.

What makes a good article?

An effective article is carefully written, it interests the readers, informs them, makes them think and causes them to react. This can be achieved in a number of ways:

• Choose a subject that in interesting to you, because if its interesting to you, the chances are you will write a better article. Talk about current affairs.
• Choose your topic carefully and be selective. If you are writing an article for a travel magazine you can’t cover everything so think carefully about what to include as you have a time limit in the exam and you don’t want to feel like you missed something out.
• Use style and devices that make your article lively. This will depend on your audience. If your writing for a teen magazine you may wish to be informal and chatty.

Be organised!

Organise your material with a purposeful way with:

• A catchy heading.
• An introduction that immediately draws the readers attention, perhaps use a question.
• Three or four central paragraphs (they don’t have to be really long).
• A short but effective conclusion, don’t repeat anything you have said previously in the article, YOU WON’T EARN ANY EXTRA MARKS!

GOOD LUCK!!!! By Raximova Qunduzoy