Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Elements of a Good Article

Headline
Catches the readers attention

Lead
The lead sentence catches the readers attention and relates to the topic.

The introductory paragraph tells the most important facts and answers the questions:
  • who
  • what
  • where
  • when
  • why
  • how
Body
Inverted Pyramid:
Basic facts are covered first and reemphasized often to help get them encoded into memory.

Structure types:
  • chronological — the article may be a narrative of some sort.
  • cause and effect — the reasons and results of an event or process is examined.
  • classification — items in an article are grouped to help aid understanding
  • compare and contrast— two or more items are examined side-by-side to see their similarities and differences
  • list — A simple item-by-item run-down of pieces of information.
  • question and answer —such as an interview with a celebrity or expert+

Conclusion
  • final quote
  • descriptive scene
  • play on the title or lead
  • summary statement

2 comments:

spectrum said...

I can really appreciate the points you have made here. Many people struggle with the basics and because of this don't get started at all.

I'm trying to lay some foundations on my blog (just started) at
http://howtowriteeasy.blogspot.com as well as having some fun!

Quality information on your blog.

Regards

Roopas said...

Hi,
I really liked your blog.
I have got sufficient information on the Art of writing.
I am a newbie in the internet marketing, an English teacher in India, worked in NZ for 3 yrs.
I love writing articles on leadership, education, English language skills etc. Currently I am intersted in Internet marketing and learning some strategies. Nice to find your Artistic profile. Here is my blog:

Swaroopam- http://learnandearn.roopas.blogspot.com