[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
. Imagine that you're telling the reader a story or giving the reader some Page 353BEST SOURCES FOR SERVICE ARTICLESThere are a number of individuals who will be your best sources for service articles. Here is a list of major categories:HowTo ArticlesBuilders/contractorsCraftsmen and womenCarpenters/electriciansMechanicsGardeners/horticulturistsArtistsChefs and culinary expertsTechniciansConsumer advocatesAuthors of booksScientistsInventorsLists and ListingsStatisticiansHistoriansMuseum curatorsReference librariansCensus dataGovernment studiesArt of Living ArticlesPhysiciansMinistersPsychologists/counselorsLawyersFinancial advisorsPsychiatristsChronological Case HistoriesPhysiciansSocial workersPsychiatristsPsychologistsPoliceTeachersHistoriansSociologistsnew information. This is especially true of serviceoriented and/or howto articles. Here, it's essential that you get the interest of the reader with the lead, then hold his interest by transmitting information in an easy, accessible style. For most of us, that means, again, writing the way you speak.Just about everyone can speak to another person and transmit a thought. That's really all nonfiction, feature writing is. There's nothing mysterious, nothing magical about it. It's just transmit Page 354ting a thought. Then another. And another. Until finally, you've written an article that transmits many thoughts in a logical sequence."Talking" to another person on paper should give your article a conversational tone. Unless you're writing a formal paper or treatise, you want that conversational tone in all your feature writing. That means speaking (on paper) clearly, using common language, and just being you. For instance, most of us speak in contractions. We say "You're going," not ''You are going." So write that way. Your sentences will flow a lot better.Most of us speak in the vernacular. It's true that we all have several different vocabularies, and that our writing and speaking vocabularies are not the same. Still, good writers don't differ much in the way they write and the way they speak. An easy, conversational tone is always the end resultand with it, a well written article. It always amazes me when someone I know as a regular guy writes something in a pompous, affected style that is totally unlike his natural manner and normal speech pattern. Somehow, when some people sit down at the computer, they feel that they have to become more formal or stodgy or achieve a socalled higher tone than they usually operate in as a person.Wrong. Just the opposite is true. Good writers are who they are all the time. They don't take on a different personality when they sit down to write. Instead, they extend their own personality right into the words and sentences and paragraphs they're writing. They never step out of character. Good nonfiction writers also write to one person at a time, no matter what the circulation of their publication. Each month, Popular Mechanics staffers write for over 9 million readers one at a time. Especially in nonfiction, service, howto and the like, you've got to talk to that one person out there reading your stuff. When you reach him, you've reached them all. Use the word "you" a lot. Not the word "I." You should do this. You shouldn't do that. You should buy this. But don't buy that. Sometimes the "you" is implied. But it should always be there. Be yourself. Be natural. Relax. Write the way you speak. Then you'll be a good writer. (Oldham, 1993, personal communication) Page 35513 Personal Experience ArticlesInsightful writing is one goal of personal experience feature writing. A personal experience article allows you to do much more than the usual feature article because you, as a writer, can become highly involved in the storytelling. Most beginning writers have been encouraged to take themselves out of the story to depersonalize the article as much as possible. However, personal experience feature writing offers something unique in journalismthe chance to become part of a personalized story.Readers got the personal view when GQ magazine food and wine critic Alan Richman (1998) went to dinner in New York with actress Sharon Stone. He not only wrote about the internationally known actress, but also wrote about his impressions of watching her dine, the food and wine, and the complete experience of the evening
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]