Write an article within an hour!
For many aspiring writers, it may seem almost impossible to churn out an entire essay of content revolving around a topic they’re not familiar with. Worse, many don’t know how to structure or arrange their content to make it interesting and exciting for their reader.
In this short 5-minute article, we’re going to explore a simple article writing template that will help you quickly draft out your next article simply by following each sub-section.
As a copywriting agency, we’ve studied the successful articles from online and traditional media, and identified the common structure writers always relied on to come up with this template.
They’ve been proven to work time and again, and will do the same for you.
Page Title / Headline
A headline’s role is to capture the attention of the reader within a few minutes. This means helping the reader know they are on the right page they’re looking for. It should contain phrases or words that convey this message to the reader.
E.g. if the article is about “Article Writing” the title could be as simple as “Article Writing Singapore” indicating it is about article writing techniques for a Singapore audience.
If possible, the writer could integrate different writing techniques to make the headline catchier and more interesting for the reader. This does mean having a better understanding about the audience and who the article is meant to interest.
E.g. Slash Hours Writing Articles With This Singapore Article Generating Template.
Intro Content
With the headline down capturing attention, the first paragraph now has to take centre stage. Being responsible for perhaps the most important role of the entire article – presenting a general overview of the article so readers are intrigued to want to read on.
Naturally, depending on the topic, the main buzzword should appear within the intro as it helps readers to quickly confirm they’re at the right place.
After all, if you’re reading an article about article writing template, you would probably want to confirm this article is about that particular topic quickly, wouldn’t you?
That being said, depending on the type of article, seasoned writers may want to experiment with different types of article openings to see which works best.
Core Content (usually 3-5 sub-sections)
Next, we come to the section or sections with the main bulk of the article’s content. Most topics whould have about 3-5 main points which writers can dive deeper into. Similar to a debate, this is where each point is briefly discussed with supporting facts or ideas. And should the point be worth researching deeper into, it might branch out into a separate article altogether.
That said, chunks of paragraphs aren’t the only way to present an article as it becomes jarring for readers. Instead writers usually use popular content presentation techniques to break the monotony of text like so:
- Lists or bullets to highlight a series of ideas or opinions
- Examples or references to related articles to build up a story
- Table or other forms of media to add visuals to the article
Regardless of the technique selected, it is important to separate the article into different sub-sections with their own respective sub-headings. For simplicity sake, writers should have each sub-heading emphasising only ONE major point with its content area elaborating on that point.
In short, if there are 5 main points to cover in a given topic, the article’s Core Content area would see at least 5 short paragraphs, with each one covering ONE new idea.
The Concluding Section
Without a doubt, these are general guidelines and the content structure could change quite drastically, especially when an article is written for a different format. However, regardless of format, every good article still needs a proper conclusion.
Even the cliff hangers in an article series aren’t spared. Proper thought and consideration is key to pumping your readers up, desperately waiting for the next article to arrive.
Thankfully, it doesn’t have to be difficult.
In fact, with strong content throughout the article, a short section with a sub-heading to close the article is oftentimes all you need
Simply provide a quick recap plus a takeaway so your reader feels they’ve learnt something new. In some cases, you might want to mention other aspects of the topic worth venturing into next.
Additional Point: The Summary
As most articles are generally written for the online medium, many of these platforms have a summary function. This meta description function serves as a sort of “teaser” when the article is shared across different social media platforms.
As such, after drafting an article, a simple way to get your summary out, is to pull the key points out while you’re doing your spell and grammar check.
On average, the summary is about 160 characters with the key focus on creating a general “teaser” about the article.
If possible, the main topic should appear within the summary to help readers quickly identify what the article is going to be about.
Take Your Article Writing to the Next Level
So, with this overview, you should now have a better understanding of how to structure your next article. In fact, you may have noticed we deliberately broke this article into the various key sections using the very model we presented to you.
We hope this gives you a better understanding of what is expected within each section and the content to cover.
Because, once you’re familiar with article writing, you may also consider exploring other types of article writing formats such as web page writing, blog post writing, and perhaps even sales letter writing one day.
Each of them has several fundamental differences in their overall structure and content. But at the end of the day, they all draw their base structure from here…
Article Writing!
A topic you are now familiar with.
P.S. This article took about 37 minutes to plan, write and edit.
