3 Steps to Write a Professional Article like a Journalist

I laid down my empty sheet of paper, grabbed a pencil and began my drafting process. Little did I know that writing a proper, concise, and professional article required more than just that.

It is more than plugging in words and constructing paragraphs that made sense. Writing a professional article is all about the audience, and how engaged they are to your content.

I learned it the hard way while attaining my degree in journalism at the American University in Dubai. After months and months of trial and error, I managed to come across a system that practically transformed my journalistic performance; The inverted pyramid.

This pyramid, in all divinity, leads the reader along the blueprint of the audience’s brain throughout their reading process. It engineers paragraphs to perfectly fit the audience’s mentality while reading.

To follow the inverted pyramid style for professional journalistic writing, all one has to do is follow 3 simple steps.

1. Start with the conclusion and answer the 5 W’s

2. Proceed with the crucial details

3. End the article with the “extras”

Before getting into the good stuff, there are some journalistic terms one needs to be aware of.

3 of the most vital journalistic terms

Now that you’re familiar with those terms, you can now begin drafting according to the following steps.

1. Start with your conclusion and answer the five W’s

A journalist’s lead should practically hold the most vital information of the overall news story. The lead should give the reader an overview of the article he/she is about to read.

This section is usually less than 25 words long, and answers the five W’s.

What are the 5 W’s?

1. What; What happened

2. Where; Where did it happen

3. Why; Why did it happen

4. When; When did it happen

5. Who; Who did it happen to, and was involved in the story

In Addition to the above list, The journalist can answer “How”.

Now why is a journalist summarizing a very detailed and exciting news story in a stingy 25 worded paragraph?

Readers are impatient; they like to read the first few lines of an article and choose to proceed accordingly.

A Semrush Blog about addressing shorter attention spans with improved SEO revealed that the average human attention span has dropped from 12 seconds to 8 seconds. This interval ranks the human with a lower attention span, from that a goldfish’s- which lasts for 9 seconds!

Also, I’m betting on the fact that you didn’t even move past the first few lines of that blog post- How would you expect your reader to scroll past the lead?

The answer is simple; Give them a hook. Ask them mind boggling questions, or throw out a statement.

As a journalist, the audience’s attention span is one of the most fundamental factors that determine the structure of an article. Hard news articles are often rushed, urgent, and scream for attention. Feature articles are often wordy, detailed, descriptive, and read by an audience who is patient and looking for a mental debate that occupies their time.

A good example of a lead paragraph is this BBC News article, that talks about the spiral Covid-19 situation in Brazil.

Notice how the lead answers four of the five W’s. “What” happened; “Brazil has recorded more than 4,000 Covid-related deaths”, “When it happened”; in 24 hours, “Where it happened”; Brazil, and “Why it happened”; as a more contagious variant fuels a surge in cases.

2. Proceed with all the crucial details in the body

The body should contain information ranked from most important to least important, picking up from the lead.

The body contains the story, the argument, quotes, facts, statistics, testimonials, the background, images, videos, links and hyperlinks related to the story. All evidence to the story itself should be presented in this paragraph.

In other words, a journalist’s credibility is established in this paragraph.

That is because the quality of sources; where they’re from and how they’re related to the topic present a reflection of how truthful and balanced the journalist is.

Those sources also reflect how far the journalist had gone to access this unbiased information from the subject of interest.

3. Conclude the article with the Extras

As all crucial information had been presented in the lead and body, you should therefore keep all extra information in the tail.

It is important to note that the tail restates your lead, in other words and with further comments on potential developments in the future.

Now that you know how to structure your professional article using the inverted pyramid, there is one aspect to journalist you are obligated to know; the qualities of a journalist.

Thus regardless of how professionally structured your article may be, the content of your work may throw your organizational efforts under the bus.

steps to write in the inverted pyramid

First and foremost, you need to have a clear objective of what message your article is going to deliver.

Working with an objective in mind allows you to determine which angle your topic will be addressed from.

Second, choose your concise angle. The more narrow and concise, the better. Remember, readers have a short attention span. They have no time to read their day into one article. They need to know what happened, in that very moment they started reading. In this video, it is demonstrated that Impact, proximity, timeliness, conflict, and your audience are the five most important factors that help you identify your angle.

Third, you need to gather sources relevant to your particular topic. Mind that, you should pick out your sources carefully, and those who are credible only. Not anyone who merely knows about a topic is credible. Go the extra mile, work hard to reach a difficult source.

Fourth, separate your personal preferences from the article you are writing.

When writing an article, you have to embody the mind of a completely unbiased, unemotional, egalitarian and balanced person. This will make your work more balanced, unbiased and credible.

Therefore, when working with sources who might be supportive of a certain cause of message, try to get someone else on the line who adapts contrary beliefs- and vice versa.

Fifth, shamelessness is key.

Be shameless, be bold, speak up, ask bold questions that are relevant to the story. You are embarking the path of a journalist, which is to deliver the voice of the people across media platforms; people owe you information. You are responsible over receiving this information and delivering it to the world. You are the medium to people’s knowledge, do not be afraid to step out of your comfort zone- break barriers of safety and ask your question.

For instance, CNN released a press conference with US president Joe Biden, where a reporter boldly asks whether Biden’s current immigrant reforms deliver the same message of that of the previous administration by Donald Trump.

President Biden was left astounded by the reporter’s bold yet objective approach, and in return took a moment to collect his response.

In conclusion, signing up to become a journalist does not come easy- but does have it’s special ins and outs that make the person so distinguished amongst others.

The inverted pyramid is one of the most commonly used structures, and can be adapted with uttermost flexibility to create every journalist’s professional article.

Objectivity and balance are key, and don’t slack when it comes to seeking information and testimonials.

Other than that, you’re now ready to take on the media industry with your work.