Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Topic: Publishing Freelance Articles



Question: What must you do in order to publish articles?

Answer: Read the magazines for which you plan to write, but read them as a writer, noting the style and characteristics of the articles. Note that the table of contents deals with subjects, not topics or ideas. For example, an idea is the Presidency. Subject: “Is the Presidency Too Powerful?” Idea: Science. Subject: “Is Science Creating Dangerous mew Bacteria?”

Quote: “One of my discoveries as a teacher is that too many students in article-writing classes have not read articles. They may have glanced at magazines from time to time but they never really studied the content for style.” ML Stein. February 1976.

Comment: Recurring advice for publishing: study your market. Study the market for which you plan to write. I made that mistake with my first article submitted to an editor. I read many articles in the journal for which I wanted to write, but I did not study them as a writer. For example, I did not realize that I needed to establish what had already been published on my topic. The article was returned by the editor who said she would publish it if I established what was already published on the topic at the beginning of the article. I should have known that, but I had not read the articles as if I were going to write one. RayS.

Title: The Writer’s Digest Guide to Good Writing. Thomas Clark, ed., et al. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books, 1994.

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