Writing for Publication


Let's Get Published!

 

 

There's writing...and then there's writing for an audience.  What changes in your writing process when you know you have readers? Well, we're going to find out! Over the course of the next few weeks, we'll be working on submitting a few of our pieces for publication. Additionally, we'll be putting together our own publication, a digital magazine in which students will be responsible for not just compiling and organizing student contributions, but students will also be responsible for photography, layout, design, distribution, and publicizing our digital magazine. To help us better understand the world of publishing, we will be using virtual tools to connect with authors and editors in hopes of better understanding all that goes into getting a work published.

 

So, let's get started!

We'll start our study of publication by putting together a digital magazine.  We'll be using LucidPress to design our work. But before we can begin putting together our own magazine, we need to decide what kind of publication we are interested in putting out. To do that, we'll take a look at a few different types of publications in order to analyze their style, organization, and content. We'll look at both digital and print publications in order to figure who our intended audience will be and the rhetorical and design choices we need to make in order to read that audience. 


Our first step...

Let's split into groups. Each group will analyze a different publication using our AUDIENCE CHECKLIST.  Then, we'll come back together to share what works and what doesn't in the publication that we analyzed.  We'll be looking more closely at:

 

 

 

Audience Analysis

It is important to understand the characteristics of our intended audience.  This will help us select the best style, format, and information/arguments to include in our digital magazine. Having knowledge of a specific audience allows the writer to understand the social situation in which he or she writes. It allows the writer to come up with a strategy to adapt the writing to best suit an audience. Analyzing the audience of a particular work helps us select the best words, stories, tone, style, and delivery to use when writing to that specific group of people.

 

TITLE OF YOUR MAGAZINE:

 

A

Analysis- Who is the audience?

  • Describe the intended audience of your magazine. How do you know this is the audience?





U

Understanding- What is the audience's knowledge of the subject?

  • Based on who the magazine is geared toward, what is assumed that the audience already knows about writing?







D

Demographics- What are the groups the audience fits into?

  • What is the age of the audience?

  • What is the educational background?

  • What is the gender?

  • What interests connect them?

  • What beliefs connect them?







I

Interest- Why are they reading the magazine?





E

Environment- Where is this magazine viewed? Online? In school?





N

Needs- What are the audience's needs associated with the magazine’s topics?

  • Is there specific information the magazine needs to share or educate the reader about?





C

Customization- What specific needs/interests does the magazine address relating to the specific audience?

  • How do the publishers and writers adapt the magazine to their specific audience (examples include word choice, format of the writing, use of graphics, etc.)?







E

Expectations- What does the audience expect to learn from the magazine?






 


Time to brainstorm...

Let's share what worked and what didn't in the publications we analyzed.


Sharing our ideas...

What ideas do you have for our publication? Login to your district email account and add your suggestions to our "IDEAS" page and sign up for the role that interests you most on our production team.