Tips on the craft of article creation and post production. Post useful how-to's or examples of professional publications that we should try to mimic.

News articles should have the following general format:

Title: The title should be brief (usually 8 words or less), and always omits all articles and unnecessary prepositions. (i.e. not "The President of France Visits a Third World Nation" but "President of France Visits Third World Nation" or "French President Visits Third World Nation"). Be sure to get the main point of the article across; people should be able to tell what the news is by reading only the title.

Opening Paragraph: To be honest, many people don't like to read articles. If they read beyond the title, they will read the first paragraph. The first paragraph should be the article in summary, omitting any long-winded background. Hit the three or four most important points of the article in a concise paragraph so that the one paragraph contains all the news.

Body: The second paragraph of the article begins the body. If there is backstory or other information related to the news item, this is usually discussed first before providing all the details of the news item. Quotes don't usually appear until the body; use quotes and evidence persuasively to convey your news.

Final Paragraph: The final paragraph, like any conclusion, should bring closure to your article. Perhaps link it back to the issues of the day, or comment on a point of human interest. It can sometimes be difficult to write this paragraph, but it is your job as an author to bring the audience smoothly to the end.

Focus. If you want a very professional publication, you're going to need a focus. Every news paper I've read, seen, or corrected had a main focus, or a driving point.
Try to have each issue revolve around a certain subject of Mapping/Modding???

That's a very good comment, Pyro. If you have a mapping article about mobile grids, for example, Temple Siege would probably be a fitting map of the week, with some screenshots of its spells which utilize mobile grids in action.

Oh my god... You just made me jizz on the computer with that comment. Mobile Grids in The Observer?!?! Sign Me up!!! I'd Write that! (Just kidding about the jizz.)
But I'd write an Article. When do you need it by, and what are the specifications?


Then again... Temple Siege uses only 1 mobile grid that I can think of....

Temple Siege wouldn't be the best example really.

Ok, So Trash the TS thing. Focuses in the Zine?

If we're going for a map of the week, we'd want something popular or otherwise excellent, probably not something no one has heard of before. I couldn't think of anything else off of the top of my head, and TS no doubt uses mobile grids effectively, if my understanding of them is correct which it definitely might not be.

TS uses only 1 Mobile grid, and that's for the Mutant's Level 3 Spell. (Lurkers)

LM L3.
LM L2 in 1.5.

I was thinking of all the spell effects, but they don't need a grid now that I think of it. Point taken, you really only need one example for it to fit but there's probably a much better fitting map.

Quote from FaZ-

LM L3.
LM L2 in 1.5.

Those neither require nor use mobile grids.

Really anything from lethal illusion

Don't use strictly academic language, especially on columns. You're not writing an essay, the goals here are both informing and entertaining, so don't let it get too dry, but at the same time, you're still writing about news (probably). Save all the real creative language for fiction. Columns can and should be a little more on the informal side, since they're more like editorials, so throw some voice and intonation in there.

On punctuation: Stuff between commas, like this, should be able to be omitted without messing up the sentence; semicolons should be used to separate clauses that could be their own sentences but just don't quite make it.

http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Style-Fourth-William-Strunk/dp/020530902X
Strunk and White's Elements of Style. It's good.

The 1918 edition has fallen out of copyright and can be read here.