In writing Task 2 in Cambridge B2 First or Cambridge C1 Advanced, one of the choices is writing an article. However, what are the differences between writing an article and the other options such as a report, a proposal or a letter?
Here are five that will help you improve your article writing.
1/ Identify Your Reader
An article is like a direct conversation with the reader. The exam question might tell you who your readers are. For example, the students at a school, or the people living in a town or people who are interested in sports. Everything you write must speak to that reader and engage their interest right from the first sentence.
For example:
You see this announcement in an English-language magazine for teenagers.
A great way to spend your free time!
Tell us about a leisure time activity you really enjoy
- How did you get started?
- Why do you enjoy it so much?
We will publish the most interesting articles in next month’s issue.
Write your article.
In this question it is obvious that the article is for an English language magazine for teenagers. Remember to read the question carefully, and it should be clear who will read your article.
How does this affect the content of your article?
Your readers are learning also English, so maybe give them some new vocabulary to learn. They are teenagers, so you should write about something that will interest them more than older people.
2/ Grab the Reader’s Attention
If you’re anywhere on the internet these days, you’ll be bombarded with articles with headlines that pull the reader in. It’s called “click baiting” and all the writer is trying to do is make you open the page to read their article. You need to think like a journalist when you’re writing your article.
Look at the heading and the first line of this article. How did I get your attention?*
Read the first suggestion at the end of this article and start looking at headlines and first paragraphs when you read any article in a magazine or website. What kind of language do they use? The title doesn’t need to sound FANTASTIC, but it needs to sound enthusiastic so people will make the effort to click on it and read the article. The first paragraph needs to keep the reader reading, so don’t give away all your information too soon.
In the above example, what title would you use?
I like reading, which doesn’t seem very exciting, but let me give you some suggestions.
I Get taken To Other Worlds – for science fiction stories
There’s a Killer On the Loose! – for thrillers
I’m Going to Make A Fortune! – for reading about investments
What interests do you have? What titles can you think of?
3/ Be Interesting
For an article to work, it has to be engaging enough to read all the way through. Remember how bored the examiner must be after reading fifty exam papers. Make it easier for them to get a good impression about your writing by entertaining them. Add humour, real life or made up examples, or make up quotes.
The first thing to remember here is your article doesn’t need to be perfect, but it needs to be entertaining. If you keep your ideas simple using good English, you should get a good score. Using complicated ideas often results in confusing English and a lower score. It’s an English test, not an ideas test!
Also remember that you are speaking to teenagers who may not know about everything, so explain it to them…….. in an interesting way of course.
4/ Make Your Article Easy to Read
Use subheadings to break up the text and make clear paragraphs. Write in a semi-informal, conversational style. And make sure there is organisation to your ideas. The planning stage is vital for this. Spend 5-10 minutes brainstorming ideas and choose the best three or four. Think what your subheadings might be and then write a short introduction that lets the reader know what to expect.
To be semi-formal, add contractions such as I’d or can’t and add some phrasal verbs if you can. Keep these phrasal verbs simple, though, otherwise they will not seem natural. Do not use any slang, that is far too informal.
Keep in mind that you want the reader to keep reading, so don’t tell them exactly what they will read. This is not an essay! In an essay you usually restate the question, explain how you will answer it and maybe say why it’s important. In an article, that will kill the reader’s interest.
5/ Write a Good Ending
In an essay you sum up the points that have gone before and draw a conclusion from that. But in an article, it’s better to give the reader something to think about, perhaps by asking them another question or giving them a call to action. Often, the best endings link back to the starting point in some way.
Possible endings for this article include:
Look at your internet browsing history from the last day. Which articles got your attention? Can you see how they did it?
So, now you know how to write an article, why don’t you write one giving advice on something you know about?
Here are some common errors students make when writing articles.
The language is too formal and more suited to essays. Avoid words like: to sum up, some people say, nevertheless, on one hand etc.
They don’t use quotes or examples
They either use not enough, or too many, questions. The questions, called rhetorical questions because they don’t require an answer, shouldn’t be more than one per paragraph. Good examples are:
Have you ever ……..?
What do you think about ……..?
Are you one of those people who thinks that ……?
What would life be like if ……?
Will the future bring us ….. ?
* A title which makes the subject immediately clear. For some reason, people like reading lists and a direct, rhetorical question in the first paragraph to make them want to find out the answer.