How to have greater impact at the start – and end – of your articles!

✍️ For many writers, our first port of call to gather information and even shape stories is through answering the 5 W questions – Who, What, When, Where, and Why.

And, if you’re a bit adventurous, you might include the two H questions – How and How much.

🗞️ But this ‘news writing style’ is often too predictable for other forms of writing, such as features, human interest stories, speeches, scripts, op eds etc.

So what other ways are there to get greater impact at the start – and end – of your articles?

An analysis of the first paragraphs from over 90 of the most compelling feature articles from The Atlantic, Fast Company, and NYT Opinion Editorials showed the following – and in turn - how the masters of feature writing begin their articles:

✒️ Story—a full plot arc with at least one character and a beginning, middle, and end.

✒️ Unexpected Statement—a bold, sometimes controversial statement that is followed up with context and supporting evidence.

✒️ Event + Context—a description of something that happened in the world, followed by what it means and why it matters.

✒️ Expert—a series of presumably factual statements of the world without supporting evidence.

✒️ First-Person Narration—the writer is telling their own personal story as if speaking out loud.

✒️ Provocative Question—similar to Unexpected Statement, but in the form of a question that is followed up with a discussion of the answer.

✒️ Quote—an interesting statement or question made by an authoritative or otherwise relevant third-party source.

✒️ Embedded Journalist—where the writer references themselves as part of the story, but the piece is mainly about someone or something else.

✒️ Thought Experiment—a statement where the reader is asked to imagine or consider a scenario that is not real.

✒️ Cinematic—a detail-rich description of a person in a particular place, usually without any action.

✒️ Symbolic Object—a focus on a particular object which relates to the main topic in an important way.

✒️ Observation—a softer version of Expert and Unexpected Statement, where the writer describes what they’ve seen or believe and allows that may not reflect everyone’s views or experiences.

✒️ Character Profile—the description of a particular person, usually the main subject of the article.

To find out more valuable insights, and see some great examples click here.

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📷 Image by Firmbee from Pixabay