Now you are ready to produce the first rough draft of a magazine article.
Lessons eight requires the submission of both a rough and a final draft of a full lenght feature story. (See last paragraph on this page). Each draft should be typed and submitted according to the journalism course standards.
The body of your story should be nothing more than an extended explanation of your lead. Mark Twain once said that you are simply trying to do three things for your reader: 1) tell him, 2) tell him again, and 3) tell him what you told him.
The lead serves to tell, the body to tell again in detail, and the conclusion to re cap what you have already told twice already.
The body of the article, whenever appropriate, should use the following techniques: 1) anecdotes, 2) quotations, and 3) action/narrative. The strong emphasis of your story should be on people, for these three methods are dynamic means of accomplishing that end.
The kiss of death (as far as most editors are concerned) is the use of too many facts and lengthy descriptions. Too quickly the article begins to sound like a college freshman's research paper.
Once you have established the main idea/theme/angle for your story, stay with it. Don't wander off on tangents. Make certain each paragraph refers to and is an explanation of the lead.
The conclusion should give the reader the feeling of completeness. It is a wrap up element, and sometimes contains the solution. Another common formula for article writing is: 1) establish a problem, 2) discuss its cause effect in human terms, and 3) present any/all (major) (possible) solutions. This is a technique that many magazines, such as Readers Digest, frequently use.
Remember, that most common non fiction article is a how to story: 1) recipes, 2) weight loss, 3) self improvement.
Another common kind is the profile or character analysis. This should feature one aspect of the person, and not read like a biography. A third common kind is the problematic piece. The formula for this is described above.
Once you have finished your first rough draft, submit it to your instructor for evaluation. After it has been critiqued, you will be ready to polish, re write and submit the final draft to your professor for grading. We shall repeat the process for lesson nine.