Six tips for a stronger article

My professional writing career began when I was in my early twenties with a cookbook called French Tarts. It went on to include writing more than 10 word processing handbooks. I soon realised that everything was written to a formula. There are rules, or guidelines, that help us write everything: poem; restaurant review; memoir; novel; thesis; short story; interview; features article; travel article; yes, everything.
 
I spent three years working out that SPICE was the formula that would help you to write life story. I learned the formula for writing articles thanks to a decade or two as a freelancer writer and commissioning editor for a range of publications.
 
What follows is my ‘secret recipe’ for writing a simple features article of 750-1000 words. I hope it helps. 

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1. Drill down with the focus of your article - can you describe it in ONE SENTENCE?
2. Think series (can you drill it down so much that you could create a series?). So, if you are writing about culture shock, say, your series could be:
   • Culture Shock for Mothers
   • Culture Shock for Fathers
   • Culture Shock for Westerners
   • Culture Shock for Asians
   • Culture Shock for Pre-Schoolers
   • Culture Shock for Teens
   • and so on.
3. Use subheads - subheadings can be used to SIGNPOST the topics within the text, make the piece look more professional and help you to stay über-focused within each subsection. It is good to have 3 subheads. So you have the following:
   1. Title
   2. Leader
   3. Opening Paragraph (no subhead above it)
   4. Subhead with subsection one
   5. Subhead with subsection two
   6. subhead with subsection three (if space allows)
   7. Concluding subhead and conclusion
   8. Sidebar
4. Remember the RULE OF THREE. You need THREE sources, they can be you, an expert and a quote from a book OR you and two other case studies OR you, a case study and an expert
5. Remember to add sidebars of further reading
6. Remember the WWWs - Who, Where, What, When, Why, How. Does your article answer these questions?

Jo Parfitt