ARTICLE
CONTENT
An
article is usually based on a discussion, a description or a narrative (or it
may involve a combination of more than one of these)
APPROACH
An
article should catch the reader’s attention and make him or her want to read
on. Think about the age group you are writing for and ask yourself how much
they might know about the subject and how you can make it interesting for them.
With a light-hearted (enjoyable, not too serious) topic, humour is often helpful. You can also
make your article more lively and readable by:
· Addressing your readers directly
Questions to engage the reader:
Did you know…?
What would you do if …?
Have you ever...?
What would your life be like if...?
Are you one of those people who...?
Isn't it amazing/ extraordinary/ incredible how/ that...?
Using imperatives
Let me tell you about...
Make an effort to...
Reach out to...
Imagine if/what
Questions to engage the reader:
Did you know…?
What would you do if …?
Have you ever...?
What would your life be like if...?
Are you one of those people who...?
Isn't it amazing/ extraordinary/ incredible how/ that...?
Using imperatives
Let me tell you about...
Make an effort to...
Reach out to...
Imagine if/what
· Using a personal approach
Personally, I
can’t imagine anything worse!
·
Giving
specific examples and quotations
As Mrs X explained, ….. According
to …
GENERAL STRUCTURE
·
Give
your article a heading or headline which makes the subject clear and also
catches the reader’s attention.
·
Divide
the article into paragraphs to help the reader follow the argument.
·
Begin
with an interesting introduction – an example, perhaps, or a question.
·
End
with an overall comment or concluding remark.
HEADINGS
Use
your imagination to make the headline catch the reader’s attention. Here are
some of the ways writers do this:
·
A
dramatic word or phrase:
Freezing!
·
A
summary of the story:
My Lone Walk to
the North Pole.
Rescue from the
rapids
·
A
question:
What’s the big
idea?
Just a normal
day?
·
A
surprising fact:
Seven banks a
day are robbed in LA.
You’re already well
equipped to prevent crime.
USEFUL LANGUAGE
Sequencing
At first / To start with/In the beginning, ...
Then/Next/After that, ...
The next thing that happened was ...
The next thing I knew was ...
Seconds/Minutes later,
Late on/Some time later,
It wasn't until much later that ...
After some time/After what seemed like years, ...
Finally/In the end, ...
At last, ...
Simultaneous events
Meanwhile/In the meantime,
While all this was going on,
In the middle of all this, ...
During all this time, ...
Sudden or unexpected events
Suddenly/All of a sudden, ...
All at once, ...
Out of the blue, ...
Without any warning, ...
Just when I was least expecting it, ...
The next thing I knew was ...
Rapid events
As quick as a flash, ...
In the wink of an eye, ...
In a matter of seconds/minutes, ...
In no time at all, ...
Looking back
In retrospect, ...
When I think back to what happened then, ...
EXAMPLE
You
have been asked to write an article describing your experience of an unusual
type of holiday for a students’ magazine.
FANCY
A DOWN-TO EARTH HOLIDAY?
Are
you fed up with lazing on the beach? Do you want to do something a little
different this year? Well, there are now quite a number of educational holidays
available and I decided to try one of these out.
I’d
always been interested in history so when I saw an advertisement for a week’s
break which included training in archaeology, it seemed ideal.
There
were eight of us in the group, including a retired school teacher, two American
college students and an out-of-work actor. Accommodation was simple but
comfortable and the food was all home-cooked and delicious.
After
some basic training, we were allowed to take part in a dig at a nearby
archaeological site. It was a fascinating process and the high spot for me was
finding a tiny piece of pottery which was later identified as Roman –
‘Beginner’s luck’, according to the teacher!
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