NOTES

Directed Writing Article

Article is by far, the least complicated essay in terms of format as it has only 2
components:

1. title

2. writers name

Additional tips:

1. Imagine what an article in a newspaper or magazine would look like in terms of

layout and you will roughly have an idea of how to position the title as well as the by-
line.

Typically, the title is written at the top of the page in the centre with capital
letters and underlined.
For example,

The Title of This Article

The by-line can be written either right after the title of the article or at the end of the
article on the right.

For example,

The Title of This Article

Written by Adrian Ng

(essay)

or

The Title of This Article

(essay)

Written by

Adrian Ng
 NOTES

2. Much like a speech, an article often revolves around a particular aspect of a topic,
be it the causes, effects, advantages etc. As such, an article should start off with a
general overview of the topic before going into the main aspect being discussed. Again,
newspaper and magazine articles are great examples of how we should go about
structuring the content of an article.

3. Another trick that we can learn from newspaper and magazine articles is the use
of interesting titles. In real life publication, this is used to capture readers attention. In
an exam, this can help to bring up ones overall language marks.

For example,

You recently attended a leadership camp organised by your school. At the camp, one
of your friends was chosen as best camper. You have been asked to write
an article about your friend for your school magazine. (SPM 2008)

Standard title Best Camper

Interesting title Today Camper, Tomorrow Leader

*While the aim is to be interesting, titles should still be relevant to the topic of the
essay and not just blindly dramatic.