How to write a blog article respecting the basic rules of journalism

The inverted pyramid model - the basic rule to respect when writing news

Now, blogging has passed the times when a blog was synonim to writing about cats, dogs, lost love and funny personal experiences. Nowadays, we’re talking about niched blogs, about professional blogging and how to attract quality visitors. If you want quality visitors, your writing should look professional and respect a few basic rules of journalism. After all, blogging is similar to journalism when talking about bringing the news to our readers or giving them the best articles we can write. So here are a few tips about how to make your articles look professional.

Your title must say “I’m a good article, you have to read me”

Six years ago, when I got my first job (as a reporter), the first thing I was told was: “Your titles suck”. My colleagues explained to me that titles should:

1. be short – This one best applies to printed media, where your titles are limited by layout. To give you an example, for a newspaper, the title of this article should look something like “Basic rules of journalism for blogs”.
2. have impact – Must speak to the reader and invite him to read the article. For example, if I were to put a title like “I don’t like how my articles look like, yuck!”, it would sound really boring and readers aren’t always in the mood to read my lamentations.
3. speak the subject – Titles should say what’s the deal. Maybe it’s not the best example right now, but writing a title like “OMG, that’s so sad” doesn’t compare to “OMG, MJ died today!”. And this is actually an example of an impact title just as well.

When talking about online media or blogs, it’s a bit different. You’re not limited by a layout, your page is not measured in inches, but in lines. So titles aren’t actually required to be short. But it’s good to know that if you can write a good title in few words, you help your readers go faster to the content.

That means you save their time and they’ll be interested in returning to your blog, because they know you combine the best news with the best reading time. That means if people have 30 minutes to read news, they can digest more news in the same ammount of time on your very own blog. And they’ll stick around and won’t go to your competition.

Of course, that wouldn’t necessary apply to “how to” blogs or websites where you publish analysis or interviews. That’s different, because in this case, your readers will stick to how clear you make your point and how accurate and clean is your writing. But don’t forget to respect at least two of the above.

It’s the lead that keeps your readers

The second thing you learn as a reporter is how to start writing your article. The first paragraph is usually called a “lead”. If the title draws attention to your post, it’s the lead that makes your readers click the “read more” link.

And this is where we should introduce the “inverted pyramid” concept. Its first rule, in journalism, is that every news should include and respect the five “W’s”. Actually, that’s the basic rule for writing news. What’s the five “W’s”? It stands for the basic information any news should integrate:

1. “who” – Find out who’s the subject of the story.
2. “what” – Write about the context, what happened, how it happened.
3. “where” – Where did the action took place.
4. “when” – When did it happed?
5. “why” – Find out why and explain to your readers why it had to be like that.

Let’s talk about “the pyramid”

The inverted pyramid means that crucial info should always be at the top and many times, that means a short summary, no longer than one paragraph.

Then comes the body of the article. That means the actual story, where you include once more the 5 “W’s”, but this time you can concentrate on the details. You can actually write about each “W” in different paragraphs. You can add supplemental facts, quotes or any details you might find interesting for your readers.

Still, remember that the body is just as important as the title or the lead. Once more, if the title draws attention and the lead invites the visitor to read your story, the body is usually the place where they give up after learning the news. So it’s really important to keep the reader’s attention to every detail, so he wouldn’t close the browser’s tab/window and stick to your article until it finishes.

The “inverted pyramid” model ends with the conclusion. It’s where you publish the least important information. On the other hand, the best practice is to keep a good line for the conclusion. You can either give the reader a good joke, or give him a subject to meditate on. This is one way to invite your visitor to check out your other articles. It’s the “I’m a bright guy, I write clever stuff” factor.

A few tips

1. Use headings. I’d call them “intertitles”. If you write long articles, headings help you separate the most important ideas.
2. Use paragraphs. No one wants to read a long block of text. They get tired.
3. Use images. They draw attention. Use them on the first page just as well.
4. Use quotes. They make the reading more fluid and it’s easier to follow the ideas.
5. If you’re posting news, try to confirm it from at least two sources. If it’s just a rumour, speak loud: “It’s just a rumour”. Otherwise, your credibility will suffer.
6. Use background information in the conclusion. Some of your readers won’t know who’re you talking about.
7. Name competitors when writing about companies, use figures when talking about economics (sales, profit, etc.)