Imagine you have some opinions about a particular topic, and you want to make such an opinion known to people, how will you do just that? It is often said that information can be told to people, but some also argue that "relating information to others vocally is not as effective as reading a written text." The format and methods of writing are customary to different individuals.
It is of no surprise that some individuals tend to present their opinions in the form of an article, which is usually made available for people to read.
What is an article?
Any copy that includes but not limited to writing a piece of news either to publish on a newspaper or to be read on social media is classified as an article.
What is article writing?
Article writing is an act of putting into writing the beautiful, rich inspirations of the muse. Even though the muse seems like a source of inspiration to many individuals, it is truly a great source of information to writers, as it embodies a great deal of knowledge unknown to humans.
We all know that different writings have their different format and arrangement. This knowledge will go a long way in making us understand the fact that writing different article types is customary to the type of articles to be written and the writer's general experience in life.
It is true for article writing that every article has an objective, and we will gladly go through some of these objectives.
Objectives of article writing
Every writer has a reason or two to make his article count on the pages of the platform he chooses. To give meaning to the topics of interest and bring it to the limelight, the following objectives of writing articles should be considered:
- The urge to provide information on a particular topic of interest
- The suggestion of ideas, be it in a formal environment or in an informal gathering
- Passing a piece of advice to the readers, which are your audience
- To narrate an event in the form of short stories
- To describe a person, location, and even technical development amongst others.
Types of article writings
Article writing is a process of putting down your thoughts about a particular topic of interest. The way you put down your thoughts would be determined by the type of message you would like to pass to your audience. To help you write an article, we’ve narrowed down the various types of articles to four, and these are:
- Expository
- Persuasive
- Descriptive, and
- Narrative
Expository article writing
Do you know that all of your actions were first intended? You are reading this because you intend to know the types of article writing as was listed above.
Similarly, you can only write an article successfully by knowing and thinking about what message you intend to pass to your audience.
Expository article writing is the most common type of article writing that there is. This type of article writing can be defined as subject-oriented. It allows you to focus on passing down information without the influence of your opinion. This type of article writing is mostly used in academics and formal writings where an individual would like to educate others on a particular topic of choice.
Most of the textbooks we read are expository kind of writing, the news stories we read, excluding the opinion or editorial pieces.
Objectives of the expository type of article writing include:
- To explain an ongoing process
- To provide facts and figures on a particular topic of choice
- To provide a sequential, logical order on how to do something.
The only accurate way to write an expository article is to avoid the word that denotes your opinion on a particular topic.
Persuasive article writing
Have you ever been in a situation where you have to convince someone or a group to accept or do something? If yes, did you successfully convince your audience? If yes, you have simply achieved a badge in the field of persuasion.
Persuasive writing convinces or logically brainwashes your audience with reasonable facts that something is true or false. This type of writing is different from the above-explained expository writing type, as it tends to focus more on the writer’s opinions. The writer’s point of view is to be presented to the audience in a persuasive form which could convince the audience to accept the writer’s point of view.
Objectives of persuasive writing
Objectives of persuasive type of writing have been discussed above but just to list them out for your convenience, they are as follows:
- To deliver a convincing argument to the audience
- To deliver the point of view of the writer directly to the minds of the audience
- To provide a justifiable reason to accept an opinion.
The power of the mind is in the hands of a persuasive article writer.
Descriptive article writing
Specificity is the major key to delivering an excellent descriptive article to your audience. It would surprise you to know that all we have done so far is to describe the article writing.
This kind of article writing deals with in-depth knowledge of the topic to be described.
Descriptive kind of writing can be muse induced, as it is somewhat poetic in nature. The description of an event, a place, a thing, and even an individual is the application of the descriptive art.
Objectives of the descriptive type of article writing
The primary objective of this writing is to visualize what the writer thinks, hears, and sees, tastes, smells, and even feels. It is just like saying, "to be in the shoes of the writer."
Narrative article writing
When stories are to be told, you will have to be a genius in the art of narrative writing.
Objectives
To deliver a useful article (story/tale) to your audience.
Article writing format sample
Writing an article is more of thinking and preparing than just putting down your points. It takes the best out of you to think about what you’d like to say to your audience, and how to say it avoiding the misinterpretation.
To do this, your message should be organized in an orderly manner. Listed below are the straightforward steps to follow for a proper format on how to write your article.
- Title of article: the title of your article should be written boldly and should be clear to your readers;
- Writing the name of the writer after the title is customary to different individuals, as many writers tend to write the name after the whole article;
- The body of your article should be filled with reasonable facts. This is where you give a proper explanation of the title in question;
- The conclusion and inference is the final step.
Article writing tips
- Have a purpose to write an article. This will also help is figuring out the type of article you’d need to choose
- Identify a target audience before writing an article as your writing will move in such a direction to address the audience
- Get your data and information organized after collecting them to make sure your writing is well supported. This is useful for almost any type of writing and, especially, for persuasive and expository.
Rules of writing an article
The art of writing has rules, but it is customary to the type of article and the individual writing the article. Most of the rules have been discussed alongside the various types of article writing above. It would be an abuse of the persuasive writing to brainwash you that there is a particular rule to writing an article, of which you know is customary to different individuals.
How to start writing an article
This is a part of writing that comes with lots of reasoning. Let us see some of the tips on how to write an article.
The first thing you do is follow the writing tips listed above, which are:
- Having a purpose of writing
- Having a target audience
- Getting your data and information
- Using proper grammar, spelling, and proper punctuation is of high priority to delivering an excellent article
- Keeping the introduction of the topic interesting, short, and catchy should be a major objective of a good writer
Writing a news article template and newspaper article template
It is mostly the author’s choice how to structure the news article, and it usually the matter of the article type and main goal of the writing. However, we’d like to provide some general ideas on a template of your future article.
Start with a lead. This is what or whom your article will be about. Try to include as much of the catchy and important info at the beginning. Your readers want to be in the know and follow the story. It’s also the time to get their attention and make them continue reading.
Background information. Dive a bit deeper and start unraveling your narrative by providing more details to the story.
Opinions and interview. One of the main features of a news article is real people - their thoughts and statements. At this stage you prove your story to be true, to have witnesses, thus making it more credible.
Additional info and predictions. A news article would be incomplete without a reporter’s comments on the future of the story. If you can’t make such assumptions yourself — ask someone close to the matter, and transmit their view.
