The Anatomy of a Good Article

Having trouble coming up with articles of good quality? Do you want to improve your compositions? Guess what, I do too. So I took it upon myself to take note of what I think makes an article good and I shall impart them with you. If you are interested, read on.

For the countless articles I have read through out the years, I have observed that all of the articles I liked follow some kind of pattern and that they shared some factors or criteria. Considering all of those, I will try to describe the criteria I consider before I can say that it is a good article and how it is relevant to the basic parts of a written composition.

It is important to note that when I say article, I am pertaining to informal and free written documents such as blogs, features and other interesting publications.

Catchy Title

The title is the first thing a reader can see. Most of the time, the title will determine if the article will be read or it will just be skipped by an audience. Eye-catching title will almost always be clicked and be opened. The title of your article must be enticing enough to catch the attention of the reader and informative enough that a reader may have an idea what the article will be about.

If the creative title you thought about is not in any way related to the article's topic, it is nothing more than a clickbait. And it may be a good way to generate views or clicks, but it's not a good practice and may reduce the amount of your avid readers. Your title must be creative but with a hint of honesty. Don't say "The Secret Life of Taylor Swift" and talk about Katy Perry or some other irrelevant topic in the article. That's not a good practice in my opinion.

Introduction

You've turned heads with your title. The readers are at your door, you have the floor and they are waiting for you to tell your tale, what's next?

Next comes your introduction. Your first paragraph. This is the part where you will, in brief manner, explain what the readers will expect and the part where you will introduce the subject of your writing. In sales term, this will be your pitch to your readers. This is your chance to sell the article you have written to them, you can promise the sun and the moon because this is the part where the reader will decide if he or she will continue to read on or just close the tab at once.

In four or five sentences, you should pique the interest of your readers. You should strive to captivate them with your opening lines. Most of the articles I've read used some entertaining statements or some big and bold statements for their introduction. Others use intricately formulated inquiries for their introductions. In that way, the reader is somehow opening up to the question and would unconsciously look for the answers to the question within the article itself. That is just one way to hook your reader and usher them to the next part.

Body/Content

The body is where the majority of the words will be found. This is the main part of your article. This is why the reader is on this page. This is where you justify your title and your introduction. If it were a news article, all of the details and other relevant information will be found here. Pictures, images and other visual guides may be included here for extra effect.

Since every detail and information will be in the body, your job as a writer is to arrange them in a way that will keep the reader interested. You may want to build into a momentum bit by bit or you could lay out the facts in uniform intensity. It may not be as creative as your introduction but it should never bore anyone that will force them to just close the tab and dismiss your work entirely.

Conclusion

You caught your readers, you hooked them with your introduction, and then you sway them with the rest of the body and now, it is time to put them down easy. Your conclusion is the closing words for your literary piece. You may want to wrap the whole thing with it. You can summarize everything into a paragraph or you can leave your readers with a thought provoking passage that is relevant and will leave an impression to them. It's the icing on the cake so as much as possible, you can be creative with it. If your introduction was your opening pitch, your conclusion is the part where the reader will feel that the article he or she just read was worth every minute of it. It should make them glad to read.

Hey there!

Thank you for reading this one. I hope that there's something in this one that you find useful or helpful. All of the things above are just my opinion on how to write a good article, it's not a standard or anything, but you can use it as a guide and build upon it to create your own unique flavor in writing. Anyhow, good luck and keep writing!

I appreciate you coming here and as always,

Cheers!!!

Sources :

Image 1 : https://www.enago.com/academy/writing-a-good-research-title-things-to-avoid/

Image 2 : https://www.dreamstime.com/photos-images/introduction-writer.html

Image 3 : https://www.pinterest.com/pin/471329917222019409/

Image 4 : https://www.futurelearn.com/info/courses/sport-inclusion/0/steps/41660

Lead image : https://askabiologist.asu.edu/explore/anatomy-of-an-article