Writing a Magazine Article

You are writing an article for a magazine. Think about the features of articles from creative writing tasks in your English lessons. Here are some tips to make your copy pop.

  • Start with an intriguing headline that stands out for your reader. It needs to refer clearly to your YouTube star.
  • You need to have an informative and engaging strapline that compels readers to read on. This is where you introduce your YouTube star explaining why they are worth interviewing in the first place.
  • Include a couple of introductory paragraphs. Here you can describe how you meet up with your YouTuber and your first impressions of them.
  • You need to use the correct language register as if you are a journalist writing about an original YouTuber (the one you have created before half term).
  • Your language register must be appropriate to you target audience, so consider using an informal, chatty tone to engage your reader.
  • Using literary devices such as rhetorical devices, repetition, alliteration, superlatives will help make your article more engaging.
  • Check the basic SPaG - capital Letters, paragraphing, punctuation accuracy and spelling accuracy are vital in a print publication.
Look at this before and after of a students first draft article.
YouTube Interview
Journalist- Today we’re interviewing YouTube star MrBeast
MrBeast- Hello!
Journalist- You’ve done videos for a while now. When did you start on YouTube?
MrBeast- I started sometime in 2012. I was actually a Minecraft gaming channel to start with. I didn’t really get noticed, though, until when I started doing challenge videos. That was about 3 years ago now.

Journalist- You had a different channel name too?

 WWW: The article follows some of the conventions required as it has questions and answers with some information about a YouTube star.
EBI: The article is written as if it is a radio script and will be spoken. This is a magazine article and so needs redrafting. There is also no article title and standfirst to introduce the interview at the start.

 Here is the redrafted copy. Use it to make improvements to your own work.

Beastly Brilliance
Watch out for the latest YouTube sensation who is racking up the subscribers faster than I can build a house on Minecraft. MrBeast is taking the internet over with his gaming channel that has literally exploded TNT style.
Meeting the man behind the voiceover is an exciting prospect and when we arrive in his studio we are greeted by a savy business-orientated 22-year-old. We asked him some questions about his global success with his Minecraft Gaming Channel Beast6000.
After working on the videos for a while, when did you first realise you had something special enough for YouTube to take notice?
I started late in 2012 as a pure Minecraft gaming channel, until I started doing my famous challenge videos. That was about 3 years ago now and I have never loooked back.


Here is an example of the final product you are working towards:

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