Hello and welcome. Now what I wanted to go over was articles and more specifically the question related to articles in English language paper two question number five. Now a number of you guys who tune in to these lessons are currently near 11 okay and you're going to be sitting in your exams in summer 2022 so of course you know that you should be anticipating writing out an article for the upcoming exams okay. So when it comes to articles firstly remember that even if it's a newspaper article even if it's a magazine even if it's an online article the layout is exactly the same. In fact I want to contend that there's literally seven steps when it comes to writing a really strong article be it for a newspaper, a magazine, an online article whatever it is okay and as you can see behind me are basically set out the seven steps in crafting the perfect article for the question number five in English language paper two. So let's go over it okay. These are the seven components that should go into any article that you write be it for a newspaper for a magazine and so on okay. So firstly when it comes to writing your article response of question number five always begin with a headline. Now how you tackle a headline do not spend more than you know a minute two minutes maximum on coming up your headline. When you do get a question or a statement okay because remember that you're always going to be given a statement question okay. You're told for example you know people who travel are you know a waste in their time it's a foolish waste of time okay that's one of the part of the questions that I did that travel is expensive it's damaging in a so foolish waste of time. Now the keywords would be travel damaging expensive so in order to write your headline literally take the keywords turn them into a rhetorical question is traveling expensive that's the easiest way to craft a headline and make sure that your headline is no more than five words long and right at the center of your page. After you've written your headline always follow up with an opening paragraph for your article your opening paragraph is setting out whether you agree or you're disagreeing with the statement that you were given okay. Going back to the example that I'm using the idea that traveling it's foolish it's expensive and it's a waste of time. Now in your opening paragraph because this is an article this is a newspaper article this is not an essay do not begin your opening paragraph with in this article I will write about travel no that's boring that does not fulfill the secondary purpose of any type of article be it newspaper magazine which is to entertain. Remember that the primary purpose of an article is to inform the secondary purpose is to entertain so when you're opening your paragraph my suggestion is when you open your discussion and show which perspective you're going to take whether you agree or you disagree so I'm going to disagree with the idea that travels foolish you then maybe craft the opposite perspective okay so you begin by showing the opposite viewpoint then you say that you disagree for example you can begin your opening paragraph by stating there are many people who believe that traveling is damaging expensive a foolish race of time and what's the point of traveling when we can watch it all on YouTube clips and on TikTok channels right however I disagree I think traveling is enriching traveling is powerful and traveling is an necessity for all of us that is my opening paragraph where I've set out my argument however I've done so in a way that's entertaining and it's engaging for my reader now the third step once you have crafted your headline you have opened your paragraph you now need to include your first subheading a subheading is basically a mini headline and it goes on the left hand side well so your headline is right at the center subheading is left however a subheading is still between four to five words long okay your first subheading should be hinting at your arguments to come okay your perspective so for instance when you're leading an article with your perspective going back to my example of travel being really essential my subheading would be travel is important something very brief okay the reason why you need to include a subheading in an article is because again going back to the secondary purpose of making your article entertaining when you are including a subheading firstly it makes it easier for you readers to read through the article remember that in a magazine in a newspaper article both online and in print when you're reading a newspaper there's always lots of different subheading so that your eyes can glide over it really easily so you need to illustrate that understanding for any article that you write after you are done with your subheading where you show that okay I'm now going to present my arguments the fourth step is present your arguments I would suggest writing between two to three paragraphs for your perspective give reason number one reason number two reason number three I would also state for an article you must okay this is another really important element of writing articles you must include an anecdote you must include a statistic you must include examples to color your argument and to make it more convincing for your readers an anecdote is when you give a really specific example of a person for example Sally Smith who went last year to Thailand and had an amazing time and travel enriched her life okay that's one of my arguments okay so this is one of the arguments that would present okay that's an anecdote a statistic is a number that you make up on the spot because of course examiners and expect that you know lots on this subject so for instance you can state Cambridge University found that 75% of people who've travelled have less prejudices okay they have less stereotypes that's why travelling is important the other thing could be examples for instance you could talk about you know travelling doesn't necessarily have to be expensive because you have Ryan A you have easy jet you have jet 2.com which are all budget airlines that make travelling accessible that would go into my arguments supporting my perspective so make sure in your arguments you include anecdote statistics and examples however your argument and your article is not complete because you need to include another subheading that's step number five where you present counter points why people would disagree with you okay you can't just present your perspective in your article you have to also show that you have considered why the people who disagree with you and in your subheading you hint at that again keep your subheading brief 45 words you could maybe lead with travel is expensive or travel is foolish that would be a subheading and then you then add one to two paragraphs and one to two reasons why people would disagree with you this is what we call counter arguments again in your counter arguments make up an anecdote make up a statistic makes up some examples for instance going back to the example of travel now even if I've argued that travel is important I need to present why people would disagree with me for instance I would say there's those people who believe that travel can be quite dangerous especially if you're a young vulnerable person going abroad by yourself okay and then I could make up an anecdote for instance again John Doe again of the made up name when he went on his gap here to Italy was almost kidnapped okay that's my first counter argument why some people say no no travel is dangerous then another thing could be say you know another counter argument would be people you know travel isn't always cheap for everybody even budget airlines for example if you're a mother or five and you're a single mom who doesn't necessarily make very much money even budget airline travel can still be quite expensive and then maybe I can make up a statistic you know 68% of working families in the UK can earn your afford one holiday a year for example right again that's totally made up I'll say you know gov. that UK found this once more examiners don't expect you to be an expert in this subject they just want to see that you understand that with articles you need to balance your argument and to support your arguments you should always include anecdotes examples and statistics and of course even in your writing style include stuff like rhetorical questions you know metaphor make vary your sentence lengths have shorter and longer sentences to change the pace and so on okay making the article entertaining once you have considered your counter arguments however so you've got your two paragraphs you've got your three paragraphs for your perspective or for your arguments okay so you've got your three paragraphs for your arguments then once you have added and balanced two arguments for your counter points okay so that people would disagree with you still end with a closing paragraph where you say okay even if I have considered this perspective I still think traveling is really important so you just close by resetting and don't close by saying in conclusion okay that's not entertaining you still say that being said travel is so important and then you reassert travels important because it opens your mind travels important because it breaks up a notany routine all of that stuff okay have a closing paragraph to tie off your article okay so that's really it in terms of the seven steps in crafting the perfect article be it newspaper be magazine four question number five in English language paper two thank you so much listening