Writing for Publication - Why Practice is Important

The most important thing about FEED’s magazine is that we want each article to be reflective of the person who writes it; in other words, we want to have a variety of voices and opinions in every issue. The better the copy you provide us with, the less we’ll have to change it and the more original the magazine will be. This stuff can be pretty boring, but we’re asking you to do it for a good reason.



If you take a little bit of time to focus not just on what you write, but also the way you write, the finished product will be one hundred times better, and will:

· Demonstrate care and consideration for your reader; if you can’t be bothered to write with care, don’t expect anyone to bother about reading what you’ve written

· A careless error in a CV or a cover letter or another professional piece of writing will ensure it ends up in the bin. Really.

· Looking like you only rely on the spellchecker will give the impression that you only make a half-arsed effort for everything that you do

· Write with your reader in mind: just because something makes perfect sense to you does not mean that it will make perfect sense to them. Always keep the reader in mind and focus on the clarity of the words you choose

· Someone will always proofread your article before it’s printed, but always make sure that it’s been proofed FIRST by you as well. If something looks too tricky for us to edit before a deadline it may remain unpublished. Also, if you appear to be expecting a subeditor to do most of the hard work for you they may discard your article altogether. They’re there to improve your work, not to do the majority of it for you.