Page 139 - Complete IELTS Bands 5 - 6.5

COl Track 13 COl Track 16
sheep Jeep Lecturer But how can you get involved? How can you
begin to wnte articles which will be published on sites like
climb cnme
these?
vent went
Well. first you must have something Interesting to say,
something you want to communicate with readers. Assum1ng
COl Track 14
you have th1s. 1t's Important in an article to attract people's
Abi A couple of years ago, I went on holiday With a friend to attention and gain the1r interest. so put the ma1n facts first.
Windsor. Um. the reason why we chose W1ndsor IS that answering these questions: Who? Why? When? How? and
I've got an aunt who lives there. She's been living there for Where?
20 years now. And, well, I've always enJoyed travelling ...
Get those basic facts down to start w1th and get people
I've always wanted to go to the UK. At the time. my friend
interested. Then fill in the details in the rest of the article: the
and I had JUSt fin1shed our exams at school and we were
best model is really shaped like a pyramid. You put the most
wa1t1ng to go to univers1ty. It was the summer break, and
important facts at the top of the art1cle and lots of smaller
she inv1ted us to v1sit her. so we dec1ded to go.
details down below.
Unit 4 Remember. you want people to keep read1ng. so you need to
hold your readers' interest. A really good techn1que for doing
COl Track 15 that 1s to put 1n quotations from people who are part of the
story - what they really sa1d. You know the sort of th1ng. um,
Lecturer Today, I'm going to be talk1ng about amateur
'Tanya, mother of two. sa1d: "It all happened so qu1ckly that we
journalism; in other words, journalism practised by
didn't have time to react."' Quotations bring the article alive.
ord1nary people. not profess1onal journalists. For people
like you, who want to get some real wnting experience, Once you've written your article, go over 1t aga1n to make sure
this can be a good way to get started, and later I'll be that any figures you quote are correct. Make sure that Tanya
offering you some pract1cal t1ps to help you. really has two children and not one or three. Then, after that,
once you've got your 1deas down. rewrite your article. making
Amateur journalists are providing more and more news.
sure that your paragraphs don't contain more than three
I think the ma1n cause of th1s change has been the
sentences - people like them to be bnef and to the po1nt, and
Internet. Nowadays. anyone close to an important event
this will help to hold their attention.
can wnte a report and email it to a newspaper. or they
can take a photo With a digital camera or use their mobile And another thing to bear 1n m1nd : if they're reading online,
phone to make a v1deo film of what's happen1ng. people will soon stop read1ng your piece and start read1ng
something else, so keep the whole article bnef Don't put in a
Also. amateur journalism 1sn't JUSt for people who are in
conclusion - just let your article end w1thout 11.
the nght place at the right t1me. People can now wnte
reports and articles about th1ngs wh1ch a b1g organisation Another good p1ece of adv1ce 1s to remember that old cliche
might not be interested 1n and post their ideas on their wh1ch we've all heard - thot a picture 1s worth a thousand
website or blog. This means that all sorts of people can words. It's true, so 1f you can. mclude a picture. It'll attract
express their v1ews. more attention and illustrate what you've been say1ng.
Also. 1n the past, 1f you wanted to make your opinions Finally. you need to wnte a headline - something eye-catching
known. one of the few ways of do1ng this was to send which will get people to JUSt sk1m the article to start with.
a letter to a newspaper. but normally newspapers only and then. if it's well wntten, they'll read it more carefully
pnnt a few of the thousands of letters they rece1ve each afterwards.
day. Now. people can wnte about the th1ngs which are
really important to them and the people around them COl Track 17
and they put 1t 1n a blog. As a result. amateur Journalists Elena Well. I th1nk 1t helps people 1n quite a lot of ways,
often wnte about something which is a local issue. and by for Instance to get 1nformat1on or to book a1r tickets.
'local issue·. I mean something happen1ng 1n the school It helps people to study and to do research for thelf
1n the1r area or the traffic in their town, but not something homework and their studies or even to get adv1ce about
necessarily of national or mternat10nal 1nterest. how to study.
Amateur journalism IS a grow1ng phenonemon. There are
now maJor online newspapers. Ohmynews 1n South Korea.
for example, has a large number of readers, and for th1s
reason, they can attract advertising and get 1ncome from
th1s. And, as a result. it's become a profitable bus1ness.
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