Essentials for Magazine Writing

Hours: 24 / Access Length: 180 Days / Delivery: Online, Self-Paced

Course Overview:

Do you enjoy writing and learning about new things?  Have you ever wondered if you could actually make money writing magazine articles?  The magazine business is thriving and growing even in the digital age, and the demand for well-written articles remains high.  This course will prepare you to enter the world of nonfiction magazine writing by walking you through the process, step-by-step.  By the end of the course, you will be ready to submit your first article for publication.

Students will:

• Use market guides and online listings to identify the topics that are currently in demand.
• Use a variety of methods to generate ideas for your article.
• Determine the topic and purpose for your article.
• Develop a brief outline for your article.
• Explore a variety of magazines in the demand areas.
• Identify a target magazine(s) on which to focus your article.
• Closely read and evaluate several editions of the magazine.
• Identify the magazine’s submission guidelines.
• Research the editors to find the right one for your article.
• Identify characteristics of the readers for the magazine.
• Evaluate examples of query letters.
• Identify key components of a query letter.
• Write query letters for the article.
• Research your topic using reliable and relevant resources.
• Interview an expert on the topic.
• Develop an outline for your article.
• Identify ways to “hook” your reader.
• Write an article.
• Revise and edit your article using a variety of sources.
• Submit the article for publication.
• Identify ways to improve your pitch.

Course Outline:

Lesson 1:  Know the Market

In Lesson 1, you'll learn how to use market guides and online listings to find current trends and topics of interest in the most popular magazines.  Knowing the market will help you to identify a topic for your article that will sell. 

Lesson 2:  Choose a Topic

In Lesson 2, you'll use a variety of sources to help you decide on a topic for an article, which can often be the hardest part of the process. 

Lesson 3:  Know the Magazine

In Lesson 3, you will explore magazines that align with your chosen topic.  The idea is to select a few magazines that will be interested in your article, then find out everything you can about the magazine and its editors.  This will give you a huge advantage and demonstrate that you are working as a professional.

Lesson 4:  Sell Your Idea

In Lesson 4, you will learn how to present your idea to an editor.  This has been described as the most important step in the process, as it will determine whether or not you should proceed with actually writing your article.  You will learn this important step by closely evaluating examples of successful query letters, and following a proven formula for writing and submitting your own query letters. 

Lesson 5:  Research and Interview

In Lesson 5, you'll learn how to research your topic thoroughly, including conducting a personal interview, in order to gather accurate and interesting material for your article.  You'll also experiment with different ways to organize the materials so that they can be easily retrieved for future use.  

Lesson 6:  Writing Techniques

In Lesson 6, you'll begin to write your article, finally!  You will explore the entire writing process including: organizing all of the material you have collected; writing a great lead to hook your reader; wrapping it up effectively; and revising. Also in this lesson, you'll see examples of what not to do when crafting your article. 

Lesson 7:  Submitting Your Article

In Lesson 7, you'll learn how to write a cover letter that will accompany your article submission to the magazine editor.

All necessary course materials are included.

System Requirements:

Internet Connectivity Requirements:

• Cable, Fiber, DSL, or LEO Satellite (i.e. Starlink) internet with speeds of at least 10mb/sec download and 5mb/sec upload are recommended for the best experience.

NOTE: While cellular hotspots may allow access to our courses, users may experience connectivity issues by trying to access our learning management system.  This is due to the potential high download and upload latency of cellular connections.   Therefore, it is not recommended that students use a cellular hotspot as their primary way of accessing their courses.

Hardware Requirements:

• CPU: 1 GHz or higher
• RAM: 4 GB or higher
• Resolution: 1280 x 720 or higher.  1920x1080 resolution is recommended for the best experience.
• Speakers / Headphones
• Microphone for Webinar or Live Online sessions.

Operating System Requirements:

• Windows 7 or higher.
• Mac OSX 10 or higher.
• Latest Chrome OS
• Latest Linux Distributions
  

NOTE: While we understand that our courses can be viewed on Android and iPhone devices, we do not recommend the use of these devices for our courses. The size of these devices do not provide a good learning environment for students taking online or live online based courses.

Web Browser Requirements:

• Latest Google Chrome is recommended for the best experience.
• Latest Mozilla FireFox
• Latest Microsoft Edge
• Latest Apple Safari

Basic Software Requirements (These are recommendations of software to use):

• Office suite software (Microsoft Office, OpenOffice, or LibreOffice)
• PDF reader program (Adobe Reader, FoxIt)
• Courses may require other software that is described in the above course outline.