Simple Two-Step Formula to Writing Articles – Stolen from Journalists

A simple, two-step formula helps you instantly become an article writer. The formula is ‘Tell and Explain’. Learn how you can use this formula to write legible articles.

Tell and Explain – that is the two-step formula you can start using today. It is as simple as that. Just tell what you have to tell. Then explain it. Soon, you are writing good quality articles.

Explaining Tell & Explain Formula for Writing Articles

This is a modification inverted pyramid style followed by journalists worldwide. In essence, the first part tells your readers what you are going to tell. The second part explains what you are telling.

On the first step, you tell what it is. On the second step, you add details of how and why.

The first step is to introduce an idea or a concept. Then explain its features and benefits. Thus, your readers can find what they are going to get. You can then deliver what you promised.

Go ahead and study any news item you read in today’s newspaper. You can find they use a specific structure for writing the news items.

The headline and the first para (together known as lead or intro) gives you the essence of the story. Reading on, you will discover details. In most cases, the intro gives away the what, who, where, when and how.

It is like a shower of bullets. The lead (or intro) gives you a snippet of the news item without reading the whole story.

This is why this formula is called inverted pyramid style. The base or the heavyweight part comes first. Then comes relevant details. Then comes less relevant details.

FBI cybercrime sting snares 24
At least 24 people in 13 countries are arrested in a US-led sting operation that targeted the trade of stolen bank card data.

The headline tells what the news is. The first sentence gives more details. If interested, you can click on to read the rest of the story. If not interested, you can move on.

Learn this technique and you can instantly become a writer. While this is specifically developed for news writing, article writers too can learn this technique to get their writing on track.