Top 5 Reasons to Consider List Articles As A Genre Dawn Mitchell Spartanburg Writing Project Summer Institute, 2011

“20 Quick Family Getaways. A Roundup of Hot DVDS for Children This Holiday Season. Eight Books to Carry You Through the Snow Days. Seven Reasons to Be Thankful in the Thanksgiving Season. 5 Video Games Worth Sore Thumbs. You know these kinds of articles; they’re very, very common. In them, writers present readers with a list of possibilities inside a particular category of possibilities.” - Katie Wood Ray in Study Driven, page 230

*1 – What You Think Counts! *A list article begins with the writer’s opinion – what you think counts. *The writer chooses which items to include in his/her list article. *Tone is naturally informative and persuasive.

*2 - They Are Everywhere! *List articles are very prevalent in today’s publications. This makes mentor texts accessible in a wide variety of topics and interests. *List articles have a very familiar structure, making them fairly easy to try your hand at.

*3 – Length / Depth Can Vary *List articles can be short and sweet – think one page or side bars in your favorite magazine that enhance a feature article or the overall theme of the publication. *List articles can be the feature article – think actual articles that use the list article structure that have extensive information and additional features for each component of the list article.

*4 – Research and Revision Are Real! *To inform the reader, real-world research is required. Think – websites, prices, options, all the additional information that a reader would need to understand the inclusion of the particular item on the list. *Once a topic is chosen, writers have to create and then cull their list. This requires revision that has a real purpose.

*5 – Leads and Looks Matter! *Catchy leads really work in this genre and can make or break the reader’s decision to buy in and actually read the list. *Layout and looks matter – the reader can use the list numbers and headings to skim and scan and choose which ones to read. Use of graphics and images matter in this genre and make list articles visually appealing.

*Now That We’ve Read Some List Articles – Let’s Write One! *How To Write A List Article in Ten Easy Steps *How To Write A List Article in Ten Easy Steps