For this research post I want to focus on a specific convention of a magazine: The feature article. This is the main topic of the magazine. So, I will be talking about the general conventions and conventions for a food magazine specifically. After I have an example of two feature articles and I’ll be comparing them with the conventions. So, let’s get into the general feature article conventions of a magazine.
General Conventions:
When creating a feature article in a magazine, it consists of a title, introduction, details, and a conclusion. For the title or headline, it should use keywords that will relate to what the article is about while drawing attention. This then helps to persuade the reader to learn more by reading the article. The next step is to have an introduction. This paragraph should outline the subject or theme of the article. Sometimes the introduction will contain information that is relevant to the topic or important to know before reading the article.
The middle section of an article should be the details. This is where all the information about the topic should be as well as visuals, data, and direct quotes. The use of visuals can help with describing information from the paragraphs and showing opinions on the topic. When displaying images in a magazine, there should also be captions for the image. The captions are useful for providing specifics like names, places, and dates. Lastly, the conclusion should reference the main point of the article and sometimes a solution to the problem. Throughout the whole article, it should maintain an informative tone. Depending on the topic, conversational or first-person narratives may be used to create a more informal or personal tone. Most articles focus on facts and information, but sometimes writers might choose specific words or phrases to create a more emotional appeal.
Food Conventions:
These conventions stay the same for most genres, but some of the structures will be different. For this case, a food magazine will focus on topics relating to food, restaurants, and sometimes health related to food. The details for food should be used for more visuals such as food photography, quotes, and interviews. These help in showing opinions and details about what the paragraphs are talking about. The tone is usually informative, in some cases. When writing a review, it should have a more opinionated tone since they are reviewing, which involves them showing their perspective on it.
Example #1:
The first example is a magazine from “Better Homes & Gardens” about healthy recipes to help with diabetes. The feature article is a little different from the general conventions, but it all ties back to fulfilling its purpose of informing readers. The reason it is mainly different is that it is “Q&A”. This means that the structure of the article will contain quotes of questions that people have about diabetes, and the paragraphs will be responses to the questions which are answered by experts on this topic.
So, in terms of heading, it is “Q&A” with the questions as subheadings. The paragraphs go into detail instead of just answering the questions by providing reasoning and even expert opinions. Also, they use animated images to relate to the issue. An example of this is on the far-right side there is an animated jar that says insulin, and next to it is a pill that is half red and half white. This image relates to the topic of diabetes since insulin is the medication for diabetes and sometimes other medication is required as well. It can also relate to the question next to it that says, “How do I talk to my doctor about the right medications? What’s the deal with weight loss drugs?”.
This article also uses a direct quote from Toby Smithson, a registered dietitian, where he states, “There’s not a one-size-fits-all when it comes to medication for managing type 2 diabetes”. This quote helps in supporting the answer to the questions by providing a quote from an expert on the issue of diabetes.
Overall, the article discusses solutions to questions as well as informing readers about diabetes, mostly Type 2. The tone also maintains informational and neutral throughout the article. This helps in seeing the straight facts on the question asked and even what experts think.
Example #2:
The second example is a magazine from Harvard Health Publishing that discusses “The Power of Food”. This feature article focuses on inflammation and food's role. The heading for this article is, “What is Food’s Role in Inflammation?” with a sub-headline below saying, “Why choosing the right foods is key to keeping body systems from overreacting”. They also contain a heading that says, “What to eat (and avoid) to fight Inflammation” and sub-headings that follow that say, “Eat More” and “Limit or Avoid”. In these sub-headings, it states foods that are good for or bad as well as bolding the type of food. For example, under the “Eat More” section it has vegetables bolded and in parentheses it states types of vegetables that the reader should eat more of. For paragraphs, the paragraphs were broken up through indents and focused on inflammation.
This article also uses bullet points to sum up points so that they are concise and thought-out. These bullet points on the left side of the page discuss three categories of food that are bad and can cause inflammation. For example, the first bullet point talks about red meat and other processed meats and how they can “boost the production of pro-inflammatory compounds” and that it has also been “linked with increased risk of heart disease and cancer”.
For images and captions, the writer uses images of real food. A good example of this being shown is the hot dog on the lower left side of the page. Slightly up and to the right there is a caption for this photo stating, “A hot dog is an inflammatory food. The meat is processed, and the bun and some toppings likely have added sugar, all of which can trigger inflammation”. This caption helps to understand why the hot dog image is there. They also display other images that can cause inflammation, such as cereals and energy drinks. However, they also show photos of fruits and vegetables that are helpful in not having inflammation.
Overall, the writer creates a sort of conversational tone with the readers while still informing and maintaining a neutral tone. They inform about the negative foods or the ones that can cause inflammation first and then talk about the foods that will help in having less inflammation. This shows both sides so that the article does not have a bias to one side more than the other.
Between these two examples, the second example utilizes more conventions of a general feature article than the first example. The reason for that is because the first example is a Q&A, which differs from a typical feature article in a magazine. Although it differs, it can help in gaining more attention from readers since these might be questions, they have, and it allows them to find out the answers from experts and scientific data. The first example does use some conventions such as headings, sub-headings, paragraphs, direct quotes, and images, but they create them to look different from the normalized feature article. Through learning about the conventions of a feature article, I learned what should always be in there but also how I can make it my own. Both examples show what I need to have, but the first example helps show how to make it my own while still following the conventions.
Sources:
