Can you help me with my ambition to become a journ

[beautyscientist]

I hope somebody can help me. I have a long standing repressed desire to become a journalist. I am 48 now and have spent my life doing completely other things. And I am engaged in enough other projects that I can't really drop everything and go for it. But in any case, it is more a case of proving to myself that I could have been a journalist if I had chosen to.

I have set myself the goal of getting and successfully completing at least one assignment as a journalist. Although I think I have the inate ability I don't think I have the necessary skills at the moment. To overcome this I am going to spend four hours over the coming weekend writing an article.

At first I was planning to set my own criteria for it. But it is the kind of thing that is rather hard to do for yourself. It would be splendid if someone could come up with an idea for a subject.

If you can think of an article that you would like to read just post it in this thread. It could be just the title, but preferably the outline of what you would find a compelling and interesting read. I think that I can tackle most factual subjects.

Any ideas gratefully received.

(Incidentally I have posted this on the Steve Pavlina forum as well.)

[tuumble]

Hi Beautyscientist! Welcome aboard!

It's a good question. I do quite a bit of what you might call journalistic work but it was mostly self-taught until I took a City & Guilds Media Techniques (Print Journalism) evening course a couple of years ago.

I have written an article on writing news articles which I find is a useful general guide should you want one. As for a topic I will have think and get back to you.

How to Write an Effective Article
Some time back I wrote a piece on how to write articles and news stories. My qualification for doing so is not cast iron but more rubber based but these 'rules' have served me pretty well over many years.

Incidentally, there's a plenty of writing resources on the ecademy.com networking site. If you want to join let me know.

Anyway, here's the article...

How to Write an Effective Article

When writing an article for on-line or print publications, a knowledge of the fundamentals of style and layout will stand you in good stead in making sure your words stand out from the crowd.

If you look at a newspaper report or press release, you will notice that the whole piece is summed up in its opening paragraph. This gives the reader enough information to ascertain whether the topic is interesting enough for them to read further. In addition, you can expect to find five key issues explained during the course of an article: Who? What? When? Where? How?

1. Who?

Following the introductory overview it is common practice to name who is involved in the story. This does not necessarily mean actual names but could relate to a group of people, a political party, residents in a community or even whole nationalities.

2. What?

Next comes the part concerning why the article is being written in the first place. What has happened / is happening to the people involved? Always try and write in a way that enables the reader to feel part of events by making the article relevant to your target audience. This is vital so that you can engage the reader in the story you are trying to tell.

3. When?

The ‘when?’ is particularly important if writing a news report as a newspaper needs its information to be as up to date and accurate as possible. In periodicals which are published less frequently, facts such as precise times become less important so time of day i.e. morning rush hour would be sufficient. The exception to this is when publicising an upcoming event.

4. Where?

If this is a news story on a past event or is concerning something that is going to happen soon, the location is very important. The detail is again dependent on the audience you are writing for so you will need to write accordingly. Remember that statements like, ‘the incident took place opposite the Town Hall on Lutterworth High Street’ will only mean something to people who know the area. If you are writing for a national publication there will be those who won’t even know where Lutterworth is, let alone the Town Hall. In this instance it makes sense to quote the county (Leicestershire) or broader area (East Midlands).

5. How?

With any reported incident there is more to it than just the event itself. If there was a fire, what caused it? If there have been job losses what reasons can be attributed to the company having to make the cuts? There is always a back story so explaining the possible reasons as to what happened will give the reader a better understanding of the story as a whole.

Adding credibility to your story

It is always worth getting supplementary information such as an eye-witness account or quote from someone involved. However, if the article involves legal proceedings you should be absolutely certain that you can a) name them and b) be certain of the facts of the case. The last thing you want is to risk legal action to be taken against you or your publication.

Any article should also be backed-up with relevant statistics to give the story some context. If you can compare it with previous events you will provide a greater understanding of the impact of the story unfolding.

Headline

One aspect of article writing I haven’t discussed so far is the title or headline and I have deliberately left that till last - as should you. By writing your article in full first, you will get a fuller flavour for the story and it will become easier to sum up the piece in a few simple words. Remember that this is your hook to attract people in so don’t rush it - make it the best you can.

Summary

This article, like yours, should end with a summary and a general comment of what the implications are going forward. In addition you can include a call to action to encourage the reader to make a follow-up. This could be a letter to the publication or relevant contact details should they want to know more.

The notes above are merely the basics which can be adapted to any written article. If you follow them you should be able to write more targeted articles for your readers that will keep them engaged to the end of the piece. Good luck!