Different steps of journalistic writing

Concentration is the key to a good article

Your article should include a headline, introduction, body and conclusion .

  The headline should be as catchy as possible because your reader will read this first then decide if he or she will continue reading the rest of the article.

  The introduction brings in the problem you will be discussing in your article or write a short story of your experience with the issue. Then, the body discusses all the solutions to the problem you outlined in the introduction. Break up each point into separate paragraphs and keep them to about 5 lines. You may want to create a sub-heading for each point. This makes it easier to read as most people will scan your article when reading it online.

  The conclusion: this should include a brief summary of your article and a call for the reader to take action. You must not forget to write with style, an informal style, like you would explain your topic to a friend.
Don't worry too much about correcting mistakes or how it sounds. This may interrupt the flow of thoughts you want to write about. You can always correct them later.

 Take a break!!

 After you have written the article, come back to it after several hours, a day or several days. This will enable you to take a fresh look at it, find new mistakes or even want to rewrite a paragraph or two to make it flow better.

 Don't forget to check your article. After writing it, run it through a spell checker first, then read it through a few times to ensure the spell checker has not missed any mistakes and correct the grammar and punctuation. Make sure it flows well by clearly identifying the problem, providing a solution and concluding. Get someone else to read it over. Often they will find the mistakes that you missed, in this case, the teacher.

 Last but not least, format your article. You will need to format your sentence length at 60-65 words per line before submitting it for publication. This will enable people to read it easily. If the sentence length is longer than this the article may be difficult to read.

 Now you now everything about journalistic writing, get to work!!!!

Manon Soucasse & Juliane Damon-Scowcroft