IBDP English A – Magazine Articles

Magazine Articles

A wide ranging and popular text type, magazine articles differ from news articles in that they are not reporting recent events, but rather discussing events, issues, trends and topics that have a general, contemporary appeal. Increasingly, magazine articles are published online, as producers can reduce costs such as printing and distribution, and collect revenue through both subscriptions and advertising. There are many sub-categories of magazine article, such as the celebrity article, scientific article, interview and so on. Topics of a magazine article are wide, in truth it’s possible to write about anything and publish it as an article; from IB’s point of view, more common topics include fashion, entertainment, food, sport, and lifestyle.

What to Include in your Answer?

The key features you are expected to include in a magazine article are:

• Headline: Bold text that reveals the topic of the article and should provide a hook for the reader.
• Images: Photographs of people and places are common features of magazine articles. They are almost always posed, not natural, and are often as prominent as the copy.
• Layout: Look out for box-outs, bullet points, ears and other kinds of layout features.
• Entertainment: although they might be topical and current, most magazine articles are designed to entertain. Information may be displayed in an appealing way, using pull quotes and subheadings.
• Buzzwords: Being up-to-date, relevant and current means some articles make use of buzzwords and words that are popular at the time of publication.
• Interactive Features: increasingly, articles that would traditionally have been printed in magazines are being published online. In this case, look out for interactive features such as embedded videos, hyperlinks and tabs.
• Embedded interviews: experts on or participants in the topic at hand are often interviewed and quotations are used throughout the article. In the case of celebrity articles, the whole piece could be the write-up of an interview (see below).