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. The best service articles provide information, which result in action or behavior change on the part of readers. Often the information gleaned from the article is the sole reason for a reader's use of the article. By providing information, you are offering readers the best advice you can find on the subject. This is done in a readable fashion, but at the same time in the clearest way possible because you are explaining how something works or how something is done. Service feature articles take one or more of these three fundamental reporting and writing approaches:1. Writerasexpert perspective: Individuals who are experts on a subject write howto articles. As writers, they are able to communicate their expertise to persons who want to know about the subject. Merrill Lynch, the financial services firm, has published numerous editions of its 30page booklet, How to Read a Financial Report, since it was first published in 1973. The firm's expertise adds credibility and authority to the effort.You can often write as an expert from your own personal experiences, thus combining the best elements of a personal experience feature with a service howto feature. Eugenie McGuire is a freelance multimedia programmer and freelance writer based near San Diego. She specializes in writing about horses and other agricultural animals and produces a large amount of howto feature material based on her own expertise and experience. "I personally find that if I haven't done it, I cannot write effectively about it," McGuire (1998, personal communication) explains. "For me the practice of actions is a requirement to get the words on paper correctly. My articles start out as blowbyblow descriptions of the action, almost as if I was looking at a movie of the thing and describing it to someone who was blind. The articles get refined from that point but still retain the firstperson feel." For the Page 334publications that she has written for, such as Southern California Riding Magazine and The Hoofprint, she believes this works well. But she cautions, "I'm not sure this would be suitable for more mainstream features."2. Someoneelseasexpert perspective: This is the more common approach to howto service articles. This approach requires you as the writer to find one or more experts on a topic and relate in detail to readers how he or she does the activity. Finding these experts is relatively easy there are hundreds of them in your own community at colleges and universities, government offices, and in private business. In this story, your task is equal to that of the reporterasexpert approach by which you must take the approach of the expert and tell readers how he or she does it. Many times, these articles are primarily for enjoyment and not necessarily to be used by the reader to improve his or her lifestyle.3. Writer as source or generator of informational graphics devices: As the primary organizer for a service article, the writer has the responsibility to gather information for creation of lists, boxes, short sidebars, informational graphics such as "exploded diagrams," calendars, recipes, stepbystep instructions, and so forth. Writers rarely put these in final form for publication, but editors depend on them to produce the raw information for these elements either on the writer's authority or on the authority of expert sources found by the writer.Choosing the Best Service Article SubjectsPossibly because there are so many subjects and sources available for howto, lists, and other service articles, some experts feel howto articles are one of the easiest ways to break into print. Feature writers Schoenfeld and Diegmueller (1982) made that point when discussing service features. Subjects that readers want to learn about tend to make the best service articles. These are daytoday "howtolive better" subjects of a rather routine and practical nature. These include subjects on personal health care, fashion, car and home repair/care, home and office decoration, gardening, food preparation, money and finance, shopping, and a variety of arts and crafts subjects. Readers often depend on their hometown newspapers and regu Page 335larly read magazines and newsletters for advice on living better. Town & Country's Fiori (1992) said "readers want intelligent choices and solid judgments delivered in a compelling way" (p. 80).Minneapolis feature writer Steve Perlstein (1993, personal communication) believes howto articles are important forms of service features that should be mastered by all feature writers:There are few better ways to sell a piece to a magazine than to offer a title and topic like "10 Ways to Get Your Kids to Eat Their Veggies" or "How to Make a Killing on Health Care Stocks." Editors love this stuff. These ideas can come from virtually any slice of life you run across [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]