Article vs Column


Article

An article discusses current or recent news of either general interest (i.e. daily newspapers) or of a specific topic (i.e. political or trade news magazines, club newsletters, or technology news websites).

A news article can include accounts of eye witnesses to the happening event.

It can contain photographs, accounts, statistics, graphs, recollections, interviews, polls, debates on the topic, etc.

Headlines can be used to focus the reader’s attention on a particular (or main) part of the article.

The writer can also give facts and detailed information following answers to general questions like who, what, when, where, why and how.

Quoted references can also be helpful.

References to people can also be made through written accounts of interviews and debates confirming the factuality of the writer’s information and the reliability of his source.

The writer can use redirection to ensure that the reader keeps reading the article and to draw her attention to other articles.

While a good conclusion is an important ingredient for newspaper articles,

the immediacy of a deadline environment means that copy editing often takes the form of deleting everything past an arbitrary point in the story corresponding to the dictates of available space on a page.

Therefore, newspaper reporters are trained to write in inverted pyramid style, with all the most important information in the first paragraph or two.


Column


A column is written weekly, monthly or bi-monthly, and must be focused on one particular topic.

You have to be consistent in what you write, maintain the same tone of voice, and stay focused on the issue at hand.

If you’re writing a column for the writing parent, don’t delve into issues of parenting in general.

You’re readers will probably be parents who write, and they will be more interested in learning how to find time for their writing, rather than how to take care of their children.

When you decide to write a column, make sure that the topic you choose is of interest to readers and will keep them coming back for more, week after week.

If your topic is boring or uninteresting, chances are you’ll have no readers, and the editor will soon wrap up your column with a short goodbye note.