Magazine Article Writing - How to Persuade, Entertain, and Educate Your Readers at the Same Time

Persuade, entertain, and educate your readers -- this is your main goal if you're writing articles for magazines. Here's how you can make that happen:

1. Educate your readers. Ensure that you have in-depth knowledge on the topics that you're discussing. It's best if you have relevant first-hand experience so you can offer your readers with valuable, quality information. Don't forget to do your research so you can obtain ample information and supporting data. Make sure that you do not leave any stone unturned. If you're not an expert on the subject matter, interview some people who are. Doing this will make your articles sound more powerful.

2. Persuade your readers. If your main goal is to get your readers to believe in something, you've got to develop high level persuasion skills. It will help if you effectively present an argument to prove your point. It's also not a bad idea if you present testimonials or opinions of other people who are experts on the subject matter or who have had first-hand experience.

Magazine Article Writing - How to Persuade, Entertain, and Educate Your Readers at the Same Time

3. Entertain your readers. A lot of people are reading magazines simply because they would like to be entertained. Don't let them down. Start by writing your articles using friendly, conversational tone. Offer related stories, examples, and real-life experiences. Inject humor and visuals whenever you see fit. Don't forget to make your articles easy on the eyes. Present each of your idea using very short paragraphs. Use subheadings and bullet list whenever possible. If your articles run for more than 2 pages, I suggest that you highlight the most important information that you're giving out so your readers will easily find them.

Magazine Article Writing - How to Persuade, Entertain, and Educate Your Readers at the Same Time
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Author: Sean Mize. Sean teaches a unique perspective on growing your online information business using 4 key principles: 1) purpose and mindset 2) expert positioning 3) target market activation and penetration and 4) maximizing sales per buyer.

Sean's training is specifically geared towards advanced marketers who are already making money online and want to increase their market share through innovative and cutting edge methods.

You can find out more about Sean Mize here: Sean Mize's Website

Article Writing - How to Outline Your Article

Article Writing - How to Outline Your Article

Once you have determined the subject matter and the title of your article, you can begin to outline your article, so that you have a firm foundation on which to write.

A note on this progression of steps: I personally write my title first, and use it as a kind of ruler, looking back at it to ensure that my article content is remaining consistent with my title. However, some authors will write their article first, then craft a title that is consistent with their article content. Either method is OK, although I like the accountability that is created when I craft my title first. I also do not physically write out an outline, as I can easily do that in my mind, and you should be able to do it easily after writing 20-30 articles. If you have never written any articles, I recommend writing an outline first; this will help you keep focused and not run out of direction when writing your article.

Article Writing - How to Outline Your Article

Once you have your topic, you will create an outline that will use as a framework the following parts:

1) Introductory paragraph or sentence(s)

2) 3 Supporting ideas to your article topic

3) Conclusion paragraph or sentence(s)

As an example, using the list building article example from before:

One of the sample titles we created was:

The Top 5 Ways to List Build With Precision, Starting With Your Very First Article

So my outline would look like this:

1) Introductory paragraph or sentence(s)

2) 5 supporting ideas to your article topic

a) To list build with precision, you must have a tightly-targeted demographics to which you are directing your efforts.

b) To list build with precision, you must coordinate the topic of your advertising mechanism with the topic of your squeeze page, and the topic of your squeeze page with the content of your email campaign.

c) To list build with precision, you must continually send your subscribers useful information.

d) To list build with precision, you must continually survey your subscribers or ask them what types of information or products they are currently in need of.

e) list build with precision, you must never forget the primary purpose of your list.

3) Conclusion paragraph or sentence(s)

As another example, using one of the time management titles:

Discover the Secrets of Time Management - Free Up 2 Additional Productive Hours Daily

1) Introductory paragraph or sentence(s)

2) 3 Supporting ideas to your article topic

a) Secret 1: Track Your Time Use Daily

b) Secret 2: Create a Goals List

c) Secret 3: Measure Everything You Do Against Goals List Daily

3) Conclusion paragraph or sentence(s)

There is no reason to write an outline that is any more in-depth than these examples. Remember, you are only writing a 400-700 word article about one tightly-themed idea. The purpose of your article is to deliver useful content to the reader, while also giving the reader a reason and an incentive to click through to your website or webpage after reading the article.

Article Writing - How to Outline Your Article
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Author: Sean Mize. Sean teaches a unique perspective on growing your online information business using 4 key principles: 1) purpose and mindset 2) expert positioning 3) target market activation and penetration and 4) maximizing sales per buyer.

Sean's training is specifically geared towards advanced marketers who are already making money online and want to increase their market share through innovative and cutting edge methods.

You can find out more about Sean Mize here: Sean Mize's Website

How To Write Better Editorial Articles

Writing an editorial article may be one of the most satisfying forms of writing, especially for journalists trained to be objective at all costs. An editorial article can be about anything and from any standpoint. As long as you have an opinion and can support it with facts, you have the makings of an interesting piece.

We all have opinions, right? Yet not all of us are editorial writers and not all editorials are worth reading. What exactly makes an editorial article good -- and how do you write one?

KNOW YOUR THESIS

How To Write Better Editorial Articles

Too many people begin writing their topic with only a vague sense of opinion, never honing, or refining, that opinion into something sharp and distinctive. Be sure to have a solid grasp of what you're arguing and why you're arguing. Think about your topic and why you've chosen it first. What elements of the argument call to you? What angers or pleases you about this issue? Keep these things in mind as you begin to write.

MINE THE DATA

An editorial is only as good as its facts. Sure, you may think the death penalty is wrong and worthy of outlaw, but without backing it up with data, you have nothing but a half-formed opinion. Get the backstory, understand your argument inside-out. Research every aspect of your topic and cite as many facts as possible; generalities are the death of interesting editorials.

CONSIDER THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED

Don't pigeonhole yourself into writing from majority's opinion just because you can make easy arguments. Think long and hard about your position on the chosen issue and write from the standpoint that makes the most sense to you. Never, ever, ever compromise your beliefs for the sake of a byline.

AVOID HYPERBOLE

Sure, exaggerating slightly is expected during a heated face-to-face, but hyperbole has no place in a well-written editorial. You can rarely back up statements such as "always" and "never" with factual data, so stay away from them unless the hyperbole has a definite, and obvious, literary purpose. Typically, including these words will make your editorial prone to justifiable, and often fatal, criticism.

UNDERSTAND THE OPPOSITION

The only way to create a fully formed editorial with tons of depth and poignancy is to understand what the other side is arguing. Research opposing viewpoints with the same voracious energy as the ones with which you line up. Take the time to understand what the other side is arguing and why; after all, you can only combat a particular argument if you know exactly what that argument is.

How To Write Better Editorial Articles
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Brian Konradt writes articles on english grammar and literacy for http://www.LousyWriter.com and http://www.LiteracyNews.com

How To Write A Summary Of An Article

Are you looking for how to write a summary of an article? If so then this article is for you. Writing article summaries can be made incredibly easy if you have a template to follow. When I write articles for my business, I always make sure to include the main keyword phrase that I am trying to rank high for.

When writing your article summary, you want to wrap up exactly what it is that your article is about. Your article summary should be no more than 2-4 sentences long. Any longer than that and people will think that they're reading some of your entire article. The summary is supposed to be a short blurb about what your article is about - so keep that in mind.

You don't have to hire a freelancer to learn how to write a summary of an article. You can do it yourself. First of all it shouldn't be that long to begin with because people are fast readers, and are not interested in reading a long article especially when they're on the go.

How To Write A Summary Of An Article

So when writing your article, don't make it too long - and the same thing goes for your summary. Your summary should include your main keyword phrase so that you can rank high for whatever keyword term that you're targeting. Make sure that your article has a keyword density of about 2-3%, as this is a good number to strive for.

Hopefully you learned some insightful tips on how to write a summary of an article.

Good luck with writing your article summary.

How To Write A Summary Of An Article
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How To Start Writing An Article

The hardest thing you'll ever have to do is to 'start'. When you want to travel, the hardest part is to just 'go ahead and go'. But once you start, everything follows. The same goes with writing. I don't know about you, but when I write, the first sentence in the article gets erased five times before one becomes permanent. But once you get through the first sentence, writing the whole article will be a breeze.

There are actually a lot of ways by which you could begin your article. You could start it with a quotation, a question, an anecdote, or you could go straight to the point. There is no exact formula for starting. You can start your article with any sentence, as long as it suits your purpose.

What's the Purpose of the Article?

How To Start Writing An Article

So think about why you're writing that article. What is your purpose? Is it to entertain, to inspire, to persuade, or simply to inform? If you want to entertain, then a funny anecdote might do well. If you want to inspire, then a famous quote may do. If you want to persuade, then maybe you could start with a question. If you want to inform, then you could go straight to the point.

Let me give you a concrete example. Let's say that your aim is to persuade people to buy your product. I mentioned that if you want to persuade, starting the article with a question might do the trick. Let's say that your product is a water bed. Maybe you could start your article with a question like, "Have you ever had a night when you couldn't sleep because of your lumpy mattress?" or "When was the last time you had a good night's sleep?" This is a good strategy because you're automatically creating a bond with your reader. If your reader answers "yes" to your question, he will be able to relate, and if he is able to relate, then he will be interested.

The First Line

But asking a question isn't the only way to start an article. If you can make it work, then an anecdote might be perfect for your article. Maybe you could tell a story about a friend of yours who didn't want to buy the bed at first but was persuaded to do so after a bit of prodding. And then give them a punch line. It has to be funny, or at the very least, unexpected. Maybe you could end your anecdote by saying that your friend went to your office, fuming. He kept on glaring at you so you asked him what was wrong. And then he answered, "I got into trouble at work because of your bed". And so you ask him why and he answers that he woke up late because the bed was so comfortable. You'll have showcased how comfortable your bed is and entertained your readers at the same time.

Again, there's no exact formula for starting to write an article, just let your imagination run wild.

How To Start Writing An Article
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Eric Hartwell oversees "The World's Best Homepage" intended to be a user-generated resource where YOUR opinion counts. Anybody can contribute and all are welcomed. Visit us to read, comment upon or share opinions on writing resources and visit his associated site articles for free

How To Write A Performance Appraisal

The appraiser may be any person who observes the employee while performing a job. The appraiser has thorough knowledge about the job content, contents to be appraised, and standards of contents. The appraiser should prepare reports and make judgments without bias. Typical appraisers are supervisors, peers, subordinates, employees themselves, users of service, and consultants.

Supervisors include superiors of the employee, other superiors having knowledge about the work of the employee, and department heads or managers. General practice is that immediate superiors appraise the performance, which in turn is reviewed by the departmental head manager. This is because supervisors are responsible for managing their subordinates and they have the opportunity to observe, direct and control the subordinate continuously. Moreover, they are accountable for the successful performance of their subordinates. On the negative side, immediate supervisors, may emphasis certain aspects of employee performance to the neglect of others. Also, managers have been known to manipulate evaluations to justify their decisions on pay increases and promotions.

Peer appraisal may be reliable if the work group is stable over a reasonably long period of time and performs tasks that require interaction. However, little research has been conducted to determine how peers establish standards for evaluating others or the overall effect of peer appraisal on the group's attitude. The concept of having superiors rated subordinates is being used in most organizations today, especially in developed countries. For instance in most US universities students evaluate a professor's performance in the classroom. Such a novel method can be useful in other organizational settings too, provided the relationships between superiors and subordinates are cordial.

How To Write A Performance Appraisal

If individuals understand the objectives they are expected to achieve and the standards by which they are to be evaluated, they are to a great extent in the best position to appraise their own performance. Employee performance in service organizations relating to behaviors, promptness, speed in doing the job and accuracy, can be better judged by the customers or users of services.

How To Write A Performance Appraisal
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Performance Appraisals provides detailed information on How to Write a Performance Appraisal, Job Performance Appraisals, Performance Appraisal Software, Performance Appraisal Systems and more. Performance Appraisals is affiliated with Manufacturing Performance Management.

Poetic Devices in Poetry

Poetry has emotion, imagery, significance, beauty, dignity, rhythm, sometimes rhyme, a different arrangement which can include inversion, and concreteness in its images.

One way to attain the qualities so essential to making words poetic is through the use of poetry devices. We won't begin to cover all the known poetic devices or terms. Rather we'll discuss and use some of the more commonly known and used ones.

Below are the more commonly used poetic devices and terms. Hopefully, with the examples given, everyone can better understand some of the ways to make poetry, well, more poetic. The examples used are my own poetry and are copyrighted in my name.

Poetic Devices in Poetry

Poetry devices (a major sampling):

alliteration: the repetition of a beginning sound.

Rain reigns roughly through the day.

Raging anger from the sky

Partners prattle of tormented tears

From clouds wondering why

Lightning tears their souls apart.

In the first two lines, the r sound is repeated. In the third line p starts two adjoining words.

allusion: a casual reference to someone or something in history or literature that creates a mental picture.

A Common Woman

No Helen of Troy she,

Taking the world by war,

But a woman in plain paper wrapped

With a heart of love untapped,

She waits, yearning for her destiny

Whether it be a he on a charger white

Or one riding behind a garbage truck.

Perhaps instead a room of students

Lurks in the shadows of her life

Needing her interest to be shown.

Yet other concerns may call

No, no Helen of Troy she,

But a woman set the world to tame

Wherever she may be.

Helen of Troy brings to mind a woman so beautiful that two countries went to war over her.

analogy: the comparison of two things by explaining one to show how it is similar to the other.

Day's Journey

The day dawns as a journey.

First one leaves the station on a train,

Rushing past other places

Without a pause or stop,

Watching faces blur through the window,

No time to say goodbye.

On and on the train does speed

Until the line's end one sees,

Another sunset down

Without any lasting memories.

The whole poem creates analogy, the comparison of a day and a train journey.

caesura: the pausing or stopping within a line of poetry caused by needed punctuation.

Living, breathing apathy

Saps energy, will, interest,

Leaving no desire to win.

All that's left are ashes,

Cinders of what might have been.

The punctuation within the lines (in this case, all commas) are the caesura, not the punctuation at the ends of the lines.

enjambement: the continuation of thought from one line of poetry to the next without punctuation needed at the end of the previous line(s).

Looking through the eyes

Of wonder, of delight,

Children view their world

With trust, with hope

That only life will change.

Enjambement is found at the end of lines 1, 3, and 4 because punctuation was not needed in those places.

hyperbole: extreme exaggeration for effect.

Giants standing tall as mountains

Towering over midgets

Bring eyes above the common ground

To heights no longer small.

Arms of tree trunks wrap

In comfort gentle, softness

Unthought of due to size,

Yet welcomed in their strength.

Giants aren't really tall as mountains, nor are arms tree trunks, but the use of the exaggeration helps create the image wanted.

metaphor: the comparison of two unlike things by saying one is the other.

Sunshine, hope aglow,

Streams from heaven's store

Bringing smiles of warming grace

Which lighten heavy loads.

Clouds are ships in full sail

Racing across the sky-blue sea.

Wind fills the cotton canvas

Pushing them further away from me.

In the first stanza, sunshine is compared to hope while in the second, clouds are compared to ships.

metonymy: the substitution of a word for one with which it is closely associated.

Scandals peep from every window,

Hide behind each hedge,

Waiting to pounce on the unwary,

As the White House cringes in dismay.

White House is used in place of the President or the government, and readers understand what is meant without exactly who is being directly addressed.

onomatopoeia: the sound a thing makes

Roaring with the pain

Caused by flashing lightning strikes,

Thunders yells, "Booooom! Craaaashhhh! Yeow!"

Then mumbles, rumbling on its way.

Grrrr, the lion's cry echoes

Through the jungle's den

Causing creatures small

To scurry to their holes.

Roaring, rumbling, cry are not examples of onomatopoeia, but are verb forms. Boooom, craaaashhh, yeow, and grrrrr are examples of onomatapoeia.

oxymoron: the use of contradictory terms (together) for effect.

Freezing heat of hate

Surrounds the heart

Stalling, killing kindness,

Bringing destruction to the start.

Freezing and heat are contradictory, opposites, yet the two together create a mental image.

personification: the giving of human traits to non-human things incapable of having those traits.

Anger frowns and snarls,

Sending bolts of fire from darkest night

That bring no brilliance,

Rather only added blackness of sight.

Frowning and snarling are human traits that anger cannot experience; however using them as traits for anger creates the imagery needed.

simile: the comparison of two unlike things by saying one is like or as the other.

Sunshine, like hope aglow,

Streams from heaven's sky

Bringing smiles of warming grace

On breeze whispers like a sigh.

Clouds are like ships in full sail

Racing across the sky-blue sea.

Wind fills the cotton canvas

Pushing them further away from me.

These two stanzas of poetry and those for metaphor are nearly identical. Both metaphor and simile are comparisons of unlike things, but metaphor states one thing is the other while simile says one is like the other, or as the other.

symbol: something which represents something else besides itself.

The dove, with olive branch in beak,

Glides over all the land

Searching for a place to light.

Storms of war linger on every hand,

Everywhere the hawk does fight.

The dove is a symbol of peace, and the hawk is a symbol of war. Using them in poetry gives an image without having to explain in detail.

Other terms:

elegy: a poem of lament (extreme sorrow, such as caused by death)

free verse: a poem without either a rhyme or a rhythm scheme, although rhyme may be used, just without a pattern.

blank verse: un-rhymed lines of iambic pentameter (ten syllables with all even numbered syllables accented)

imagery: the use of words to create a mental picture

mood: the emotional effect of a poem or a story

Understanding and using these devices and terms can help improve and strengthen poetry. Imagery is essential for vivid poetry, and devices help develop imagery.

Poetic Devices in Poetry
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Vivian Gilbert Zabel taught English, composition, and creative writing for twenty-five years, honing her skills as she studied and taught. She is a author on Writing.Com (http://www.Writing.com/), and her portfolio can be found at http://www.Writing.Com/authors/vzabel. Her books, Hidden Lies and Other Stories and Walking the Earth: Life's Perspectives in Poetry, can be found through Barnes and Noble or Amazon.com.