by L.C.

Created on: August 29, 2009

As the name implies, factual articles rely on facts to deliver information on a subject. Facts can come in a variety of forms: statistics, first-person accounts, quotes from a professional in the field or even your own experiences. When writing a factual article it is important to have a good mix of subjective and objective information. That is to say, some of your facts should be purely statistical and touch the readers' logical side, while other parts should speak to their emotional side and be subjective in nature.

This is where you can incorporate yourself in a factual article. Say, for example, you're writing a piece about how to study before an exam. You might want to write that studies have proven you'll do better on your exam if you space out your study periods, take frequent breaks and eat a good meal before sitting your exam. You can quote doctors and experiments done to prove this point. You might also want to include your own experiences as a student. Talk about how you used to cram at the last minute whenever you had an exam, but by pacing yourself and taking breaks you actually managed to get better grades.

This can help readers not only accept your authority but become interested in what you have to say, because it isn't just cold hard facts anymore, but also experiences that others have gone through. This can be done for any article. If you haven't experienced something yourself, you can even draw on the memories of your friends, family members or coworkers to add some subjective information.

Of course, as it is a factual article, you don't want the entire article to be about you. Save this for autobiographical pieces and your profile. However, adding a bit of humanity to your article can go a long way towards making the subject more approachable and relatable. A technique I like to use is putting my experience at the beginning of the article, to introduce the topic to readers. For example, if I'm writing about how to train a cat to stay off the counters, I would start off by telling my audience about my cat, who loved to jump on the counters whenever I turned my back. I would then say that I fortunately found out how to fix this, and I would go on to explain how to stop the pesky behaviour. The following section of the article would be filled with facts, advice from professionals and statistics.

That doesn't mean the rest of the article would be purely objective. I might say, for example, "Dr. Hamilton advises using apple spray to keep your cats off the counter, and I've personally found this to be a great idea." This combination of objective and subjective will make a far better read than just a string of facts. Overall, try to keep a careful mix of your own experiences and solid facts, so as not to write your entire article about "me, me, me". By doing this you can be guaranteed to write a better, more rounded article, and your readers will appreciate the effort.

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