Writing To Inform And Persuade
- These text types test whether you can combine information with opinion or analysis.
- They require structure, voice, and audience awareness.
Articles
Definition
Article
A piece of writing that informs, entertains, or persuades readers about a topic, often published in magazines, newspapers, or online.
- Purpose, Audience & Register
- Purpose: Inform, engage, or persuade readers on a specific topic.
- Audience: General public, specific interest groups, or magazine readers.
- Register: Semi-formal to informal, depending on publication and audience.
- Layout & Conventions
- Engaging headline that captures attention.
- Byline with author name.
- Introduction that hooks the reader.
- Body paragraphs with subheadings (optional but common).
- Conclusion that leaves an impression or call to action.
Key Features
- Tone: Personal, engaging, conversational but controlled.
- Vocabulary: Varied sentence structures, rhetorical questions, direct address to reader ("you"), descriptive language.
- Articles are not essays.
- Essays analyse and argue formally.
- Articles inform and engage with personality.
- If your article sounds like an academic essay, you're doing it wrong.
How to Write an Article
- Hook immediately: Start with an anecdote, question, statistic, or bold statement.
- Bad: "In this article I will discuss social media."
- Good: "At 3am last Tuesday, I checked my phone for the fifteenth time. Sound familiar?"
- Use paragraphs strategically: Keep them short (3-5 sentences). Long blocks of text lose readers.
- Show personality: Your voice should be present. Use "I" where appropriate, address the reader as "you."
- Balance information and opinion: Give facts, but don't be afraid to take a stance or share perspective.
- End memorably: Don't just summarise. Leave readers thinking, questioning, or motivated.
- Good articles do X, not Y:
- Do engage the reader directly, not lecture from a distance.
- Good: "We've all been there: staring at a blank page, deadline looming."
- Bad: "Students often experience difficulty beginning assignments."
- Do vary sentence length for rhythm, not use monotonous structures.
- Good: "Climate change is here. It's real. And it's affecting your future right now."
- Bad: "Climate change is a serious issue that affects everyone and we need to address it because it is important."
- Do use specific examples and details, not vague generalisations.
- Good: "Last month, the school cafeteria threw away 47 kilograms of untouched food."
- Bad: "A lot of food gets wasted at school."
- Do match tone to audience and publication, not write the same way for every article.
- For teen magazine: "Let's be honest: exam stress is brutal."
- For school newsletter: "Many students report feeling overwhelmed during examination periods."
- Do engage the reader directly, not lecture from a distance.
News Reports
Definition
News report
A factual account of a recent event, written objectively for newspapers or news websites.
- Purpose, Audience & Register
- Purpose: Inform readers about current events quickly and accurately.
- Audience: General public seeking information.
- Register: Formal, neutral, objective.
- Layout & Conventions
- Headline: short, factual, attention-grabbing.
- Lead paragraph: answers who, what, when, where, why, how.
- Body paragraphs: most important information first (inverted pyramid structure).
- Quotes from witnesses, officials, or experts.
- Concluding paragraph with context or future implications.
- The inverted pyramid means you put the most crucial information at the top.
- Readers should get the essential facts in the first paragraph.
- Details follow in order of decreasing importance.
