Writing an Article

The two main goals of Stop the Press are to inform and inspire its readers. I have always intended for Stop the Press to be a collection of thorough and coherent ideas in the hopes that one day it might be an acclaimed source for aspiring writers on Fiction Press.

Therefore, it is strongly suggested that all works submitted to this newsletter be researched, articulate, entertaining and reflected some evidence of higher order thinking. I will briefly outline what I mean for each of the areas.


Research

The last thing you would want to do is to just start writing with the hopes that everything will turn out right. This technique may be well suited to exploring ideas. However, it is not appropriate for an informative piece. To be informative, you should have some information at your disposal.

Research for a topic should occur at many levels. Firstly, it might be necessary to gather general information about the topic. A preliminary search is bound to come up with an idea that you can base your article on. Don’t limit yourself by writing about the first thing that comes to mind when you read the topic. It’s better to write about something that you are interested in learning about.

The research process can consist of anything, depending on what you want to write about. It could be tearing books from the shelves of your local library, or it could be sitting down to eat lunch. The best thing for research (and for planning your article later on) is to keep some pen and paper handy for anything that might come up. Be alert. Inspiration lurks in some pretty surprising places.


Articulation

The harsh truth is that if you haven’t taken the time to read your submission, it’s probably not worth anybody else’s time either.

The best way to write an attractive article is to plan for it first. This plan should contain one sentence on what your topic is about. This way, if you ever get lost while writing the article, you can go back to your plan and center yourself. It’s also a good idea to list the things you want to address in your article so that you don’t forget them when you start writing. Please try to have an introduction and a conclusion for your ideas.

An article is not articulate if it contains spelling errors. Spell-check is conveniently located at the top of the page.


Entertainment

Yes. This extremely dry guide to writing is telling you that you should engage your reader not only critically, but also with a sense of wit. I understand that not every writer can do humor, but I am sure you are all creative enough to be entertaining.

Entertainment can come in many forms because everyone is amused by different things. In the newsletter, you can create interest from the way you’ve interpreted the topic, from your writing style, or even from the quirky facts that form the foundation of your submission. 


Higher Order Thinking

By this, I don’t mean contemplating the meaning of life. All I want is for you to think about why you are writing what you are writing. This way, you can make conscious judgments and form ideas about the material you’ve gathered from your research (because, of course, you have done some research). Remember, the goal of Stop the Press is to inform and inspire readers, not dumb them down.


By following the guidelines above, you can ensure that you will write a quality Stop the Press submission. If that was all a little bit verbose, I have included a checklist for you to follow with your submissions.

Research
Do you understand this month’s theme?
Is there something that you’ve found to be interesting, or that you understand particularly well?

Articulation
Do you know what you are writing about? Do you have a plan?
Does your article go off on tangents or have bits of completely irrelevant information strewn throughout? If it does, consider revising.
Does your article have an introduction and a conclusion?
Has it been spell checked and read over? 

Entertainment
Have you found any sort of entertainment value in your article other than that it’s written by you?
Are you pretty confident that other people will enjoy reading it?

Higher Order Thinking
Other than on a whim, can you explain why you chose to write this article?
Is your argument/statement/question flawed? I know it’s a silly question, but many people forget to ask themselves this. If it is, please revise it.