Alicia Velázquez Image Analysis, Introduction to Contemporary Architecture Groups M11 (English) + M16 UEM December 2010
WRITING AN ARTICLE M anual 1. CREATE AN O U TLINE Them e – What are you going to write about? What is your position in respect to this theme? Content – Gather your information: reportage (site visit, interview/s, photographs), books, articles. Struc ture – This is a tool to help you organize the content you have, or plan to have for your article, as well as to define and locate the main arguments you will unfold along the piece. Use it as the BACKBONE of your article. You can work with a structure in different formats: mindmap or graphically, an outline of loose paragraphs with headlines, using post-its… Find your own tool/s to work and re-work the structure of your text. This skeleton will also help you to set the order of arguments and information, as well as the flow of the article. It will also help you to locate any “weak” parts where you need to search for additional references (support texts, authors, projects, architects). PARTS Your article should include a headline, introduction, body, conclusion and resource box. H eadline – A lot of information in just one phrase. You will need to work and rework this to summarize your intention, critical position, and to make it catchy. Introduc tion –Your introduction needs to give a clear glimpse of what the rest of the article is about. Body - discuss all the solutions to the problem you outlined in the introduction. Break up each point into separate paragraphs. This will give structure to the text and will make it easier to read. Depending on the concept you want to give to the body text, you may want to create a sub-heading for each point. Conclusion - this should include a brief summary of the main argument of your article (and a potential call for the reader to take action). Resourc es – It is important to include this section, if you haven't included it already within the body of the article. There is a universal format for resource citations. Their content can vary depending on the type of source and may include: • Book: author(s), book title, publisher, date of publication, and page number(s) if appropriate. • Journal: author(s), article title, journal title, date of publication, and page number(s). • Newspaper: author(s), article title, name of newspaper, section title and page number(s) if desired, date of publication. • Web site: author(s), article and publication title where appropriate, as well as a URL, and a date when the site was accessed. A citation number, used in some citation systems, is a number or symbol added inline and usually in superscript, to refer readers to a footnote or endnote that cites the source.
2. D EFINE AND SHAPE YO U R ARTICLE F orm - The manner you structure the text, as well as the language and the type of words you use are setting the TONE of your article. It is as important as the content, as they communicate together your message to the reader (i.e. it is serious, informal, critical, complex, light and easy, cluttered…). Write firstly in an informal style, like you would explain your topic to a friend. Don't worry too much about correcting mistakes or how it sounds at this point. This may interrupt the flow of thoughts you want to write about. You can always correct them later. You may work in the style to give to your text once the content and structure are clear. An article is not written in one go, and it is not done in a linear manner. You will need to go back and forth from structure to content, rearranging parts and rewriting over and over in order to accomplish a final piece.
3. TAKE A BREAK After you have written the article, come back to it after several hours, a day or several days. This will enable you to take a fresh look at it, find new mistakes or even want to rewrite a paragraph or two to make it flow better.
4. F O R MAT YO U R ARTICLE > REWRITE your article as often as needed to accommodate the requested length. Pieces under 990 words or over 1010 will not be accepted. > IMAGES: select and organize all the relevant images to your article. Give a preference of order and size to the set, according to the flow of the text. You will need to have this clear, and clearly visualized and organized, in order to work out the final magazine piece with the rest of the students.
5. CH ECK YO U R ARTICLE > Check for faulty information. Double-check your facts. Don’t give personal or “universal” assumptions as facts. > Delete any unnecessary or contradictory information (unless you are doing a “point-counterpoint” piece). > Eliminate anything that is just taking up space. Don't fill your work with fluff. If you need to do more research, go ahead and do it. > After writing your article, run it through a SPELL CHECKER first, then read it through a few times to check for spelling mistakes the spell checker may have missed and to correct the grammar and punctuation. > Read it aloud to yourself to make sure the text FLOWS smoothly. Make sure it flows well by clearly identifying the issue, providing a main argument, and concluding with your clearly identified position. > Get someone else to read it over. Often they will find the mistakes that you missed.
References u sed for this manual: http://www.wikihow.com/Write-Articles http://e-articles.info/e/a/title/Tips-on-How-To-Write-a-Good-Article/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citation