by Glenn Brittany

Created on: June 02, 2008   Last Updated: June 03, 2008

Whether you're just starting out or you have some experience under your belt, here are some tips on how to write an article for a magazine.

Newspaper vs. Magazine Articles
First, let's discuss the difference between newspaper and magazine articles. Newspaper articles are written in the past tense ("he said") while magazine articles are generally written in the present tense ("he says"). Newspaper articles report the facts while magazine articles always have an angle. While both newspaper and magazine articles feauture interviews of sources, magazine articles are persuasive in nature, often in a subtle way.

The Basics
Magazine articles include a head (title), deck (one-sentence or phrase description of the article) and body copy (text), which is broken up by subheads (two- or three-word catchy subtitles that describe what each section of the article is about). Examples of subheads for a green story might include: Green to Gold, Sustainable Success, Green Goes Mainstream, etc. Cutlines (captions) are sentences that describe an image in an article's layout. A magazine article's length is determined by word count (1,500 words equals about four magazine pages; 3,000 words equals about eight magazine pages).

SME stands for subject matter expert. This is someone who is an expert in the field you are writing about. For your story on green practices, processes or products, this might be someone who has written a book on the subject. Sources are people you interview for the article, including SMEs. A source might be a CEO or COO of a company that is "going green."

Most magazine writers use digital recorders to record their interviews. Recording is done for two reasons: 1) factual acuuracy - quotes can be transcribed verbatim without having to guess what your scribbles mean 2) better interviewing - a writer can better listen to the source as he or she answers questions without having to worry about writing down the answers, thus enabling the writer to ask follow-up questions. A good digital recorder is the Olympus VN-2100PC Digital Voice Recorder, which you can purchase on Amazon.com. Whether you use a cell phone or landline, you can pick up your conversation with a flexible wired microphone, the Olympus Telephone Pickup TP7, which you can also purchase on Amazon.com.

Most magazines use some variation of AP style. Purchase "The Associated Press Stylebook" and familiarize yourself with the rules therein. Then, study the publication's style, noting the exceptions to AP style:

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