The fine art of writing for your e-zine

Stymied. It’s a good word to describe those poor, unfortunate souls who have the knowledge to write a content-rich article but who run from the idea like a quarter horse headed for the finish line. Why do they run? Too often because when they sit down with a blank sheet of paper or a blank computer screen, it all seems too overwhelming to even begin, and so they don’t.

However, even if this describes you, it doesn’t have to forever. If you will follow these simple steps and practice a few times, you will be filling in those dead sections of your e-zine with aplomb.

The Idea

Obviously all articles start with an idea. This should be something in your chosen field or in your area of interest—some area that you can shed light on for others. When you find your idea, write it down immediately. Don’t try to write it into paragraph form, just take a moment and jot down a sentence or two—or even a few words—describing what you would like to write the article about.

For example, the idea for this article might state:

A step-by-step how-to guide to writing articles for people who think they can’t.

The development

This step, I think, is where countless English teachers have completely set up brick walls in the minds of their students for years. The teacher gives a writing assignment, and a student asks, “How am I ever going to write two pages?” To which the teacher responds, “Just write.”

Of course most English teachers don’t set these blocks up intentionally. The problem is almost invariably, you teach what you’re good at. When you’re good at something, it comes naturally, and you don’t have to think about every single little step you’re doing. However, when you teach, you must think about every single step, and this is where the train runs off the track.

If we would teach the following secret to children as far back as elementary school, the fear factor when an adult sits down at a blank computer screen years later would be nearly non-existent.

Here’s the secret. Once you have your idea, break it down into three separate sub-topics. For example:

A step-by-step guide to writing articles for people who think they can’t.

1.Have or find an idea

2.Develop the idea

3.The five-paragraph model

Each sub-topic is then written about and expounded upon by using supportive information. Think of this supporting information like the legs under a table. If you have a table with one leg, obviously it will fall. Two legs will make it wobbly. With three legs the table will be more stable, but with four legs it will easily stand on its own. This is your goal with your article—to make each sub-topic supported by enough legs so that it can stand on its own.

So, under each sub-topic, list three to four supporting information bits. For example:

A step-by-step how-to guide to writing articles for people who think they can’t.

1.Have an idea ·Chose a field or area of interest to write about ·Write the idea down in a few words or one or two sentences ·Example

2.The Development ·English teachers ·Three sub-topics ·Example ·Supportive Information ·Table legs ·Example

3.The five paragraph model ·Eighth graders ·The model ·30-page papers ·A matter of organization

If you’ve been following, you already know where we’re going . . .

The Five-Paragraph Model

Without a doubt this is the skill that should be taught in every English class from second grade on. The sad fact, however, is that too many students have gone completely through school and never so much as heard of it. In fact, when I put all these pieces together for an eighth grade English class I taught, one student asked, “Why hasn’t anyone shown us this before? It makes writing so much simpler.” I have to agree with him—it does, in fact, it makes writing anything simpler.

The five-paragraph model is simply this: Paragraph one is the introduction. It tells in broad strokes what you are going to be discussing. Paragraph two presents your first sub-topic and each supporting leg under it. Paragraph three is the second sub-topic and its legs, and paragraph four is the third sub-topic plus its legs. The final paragraph, number five, is the conclusion in which you simply restate what you have talked about.

Now, if you are thinking in terms of word-count (how many of us spent hours in school counting words to make sure it was long enough? Ugh!), here’s a simple way to do that. Break the word count down into paragraphs. So, if you have to write 250 words, the first paragraph would be 50 words, the second 50 words, and so on. For most of my students, 250 words seemed overwhelming at first, but 50 didn’t. By breaking it down, the task seemed manageable, and they weren’t left looking at a blank piece of paper with no clue what to write.

This technique also words for longer papers. My seniors had to write a 30-page research paper (it was a school requirement). Many if not most of them were understandably panicked by this idea. However, when we broke the paper down in the form of the model, it didn’t seem nearly so intimidating.

The first page was a broad overview. Pages 2-10 were the first point; pages 11-20 were the second point; pages 21-28, the third point; and pages 29-30 were the conclusion. Admittedly even ten pages on a point is a lot, so we broke each of them down again so that each “leg” was more like a sub-topic with legs under it. By the time we finished breaking it down, they were no longer looking at a 30-page monstrosity, they were now looking at 15-20 five paragraph papers. One paragraph at a time didn’t seem nearly so overwhelming as “I have to write a 30-page paper.”

My suggestion for you is to take this model and practice a few times. Don’t focus on the frightening notion of writing an article.

Organize it, then break it down, and write it section by section. I think you will be surprised at how much less intimidating the process of writing becomes. With a little practice, you too will be writing e-zine copy like a pro.