Editor’s dream:

7 attributes of a good article for The Immigrant

1.  The headline makes it clear what the article is about.

2. Information should have relevance for most readers.

3. It is ironic, truthful and tells a dramatic story  with a positive end.

4. It has to have at least one fresh idea.

5. It could have ideas with which the editor may wish to argue.

6.  It should contain accurate facts and figures.

7. It has at least one contact address or phone number for sorting a problem.

Do not think that:

- nothing will be used. You could start thinking like this if you submit articles for a year and nothing had been printed. 

- you are more intelligent than the readers - most of them are very informed people.

- you are less intelligent than the editor. To judge an article is much easier than to find an idea and commit it to paper. 

Step by step

• The majority of newspapers and magazines have a particular audience, including The Immigrant.  Put yourself in the place of an immigrant, and ask yourself what information would be interesting to you when you first arrive in another country.   

• It is best to begin work by finding new ideas and writing them down.  Contact the editor and explain your idea to see if the themes and approaches you have in mind are suitable.  When you have received a positive answer on one of your ideas then start to write.

• To write the first phrase is the hardest part for most journalists and writers. You could begin with a plan of an article, for example. Your fingers will get used to the keyboard and ideas will start to pour out more freely.

• It is often possible to not begin a story from the beginning at all, you could begin from the middle or from a phrase you also wish to finish with.

• Don’t forget that 65 % of readers are people with only basic English. Therefore, try to use words and phrases which are easily understandable by foreigners.

• Try to avoid stating the obvious, for example, "…after spring there will come summer…".  Every one knows it already.

• If this leaves empty spaces, do not worry, it is possible to fill them with mini stories.  For example, ‘Mr. Jones did not like the approach of summer; the greens did not please his eye at all, birds annoyed him with their songs and as usual, his mind was away on French mountains, snowboarding’.  Or possibly, ‘According to statistics, 17 % of men prefer the winter season and its activities, as opposed to lying on a beach’.  Later, Mr. Jones and his opinion could emerge in the text as either belonging to the minority or the majority of people.

Thought before you go to bed:

Although my articles are typed with two fingers only, with the help of the editor and the proof-reader, the story is created with 20 fingers in the end.