Magazine+Article+Design

__**Magazine Article Design**__

To create a magazine article you will need to follow these steps:
 * 1) Choose your topic.
 * 2) Choose a researcher who you can explore in your article and helps to prove your topics' concept.
 * 3) Find documentation on the works this researcher has done and make yourself familiar with it
 * 4) Create a proposal presentation.
 * 5) Create your interview questions
 * 6) Interview your researcher.
 * 7) Write your article.

//__Step One: Choose your topic.__//

When choosing your topic your best choice is to stick with what you know, as in your current major or thematic area of intrigue. Do some research on your topic so if asked anything on it for the most part you may produce a knowledgeable answer.

//__Step Two: Choose your Researcher to be interviewed__//

Here at NJIT there are a plethora of researchers under many fields of study, you do not necessarily have to choose a researcher from NJIT but it usually works out a little easier if they happen to have been a professor you enjoyed having. The best way to help you decide on your researcher is to look up any previous research they have done and familiarize yourself with it. Then it is a matter of getting into contact and asking their permission to perform this interview, if not just start back at the beginning of this step and repeat until you allocate your interviewee.

//__Step Three: Find Documentation__//

Now that you have your okay from that professor or doctor it is time to begin a grander search for their previous works. In order to better help you find documentation on previous work your specific researcher has done it is best to look up their history. To find their history simply search their name along with where they are currently researching. Then check the school library as they will most likely have any journals or books that the researcher developed while working at the school. If none are found at the library you should contact him or her in order to gather up information as there is a strong possibility they would hold on to all of their own works for references.

//__Step Four: Create your proposal presentation to get the go ahead from your professor.__//

Your proposal presentation will need to contain the following items aside from what is mentioned in Oral Presentations:
 * 1) A normal Title page with your name and class section.
 * 2) A project overview slide containing a list of all topics within your presentation.
 * 3) A slide containing your Thematic area and a brief overview of it.
 * 4) A slide on the researcher you are going to do an interview on with a brief background reference.
 * 5) A Topic Slide stating clearly your slide topic and a summary of what that is.
 * 6) A Research Design Slide showing a graph depicting the work to be done divided into sections.
 * 7) A Method Page containing information on your Structured interview along with your Document Based Interview.
 * 8) A problems and solutions page, which contains any foreseeable issues you might have and how you can plan to resolve it.
 * 9) A timeline of projected dates you will have certain areas of your divided work done by.(The divided work was doen in section 6)
 * 10) A slide on your Literature survey which contains a list and brief summary on the works you will read up on before conducting your interview.
 * 11) A Citation slide containing your MLA formatted documents
 * 12) Your template. Make sure your article template has a nice style that is appropriate and with a bit of color to make it look nice.

//__Step Five: Your Interview Questions.__//

Your interview questions should be no greater then 10 questions as if it is too long you will take up to much of your interviewee's time. You will need to divide up your questions into three sections.
 * 1) Overall objective of your research. Designed so that your researcher knows what you are going to talk about in your article.
 * 2) Background Interview Questions. Questions delving into what lead your researcher down the path they are currently on and why they did their specific research.
 * 3) Your Document Based Questions or Literature Specific Questions. This area requires you to have the document you wish to include in your interview present as you will need to ask questions on his or her research as for the most part these journals are filled with complicated concepts that need further explanation.
 * 4) Your Topic Specific Question: revolves around your topic and their writings to gain a bit of insight on their personal point of view.

After your rough draft of interview questions is complete you will need your professor to give them the okay, at which point you would then send the questions to your interviewee and set up a time to meet up and go through with your interview.

//__Step Six: Interview your researcher.(BRING A RECORDING DEVICE)__//

At this point you would already have your interview date ready and the researcher would be clear on what you will ask them and that you will be providing any reference needed to be reviewed in order to get an answer from your document based questions.

The key here is to be patient and polite and make the overall interview easy, do not interrupt the interviewee while he or she is speaking and to only ask follow up questions to a point they made that you are unclear on after they finish their answer. Make constant eye contact with your interviewee unless a diagram or any type of document is presented to you in his or her explanation to your question. Make sure you ask your questions directly that is why you had them made before hand and then if necessary to make your point clear describe or even present a self made diagram that they may check and use to help explain the topic better. After the actual interview is done be grateful and thank that individual because they have done you a great favor.

//__Step Seven: Write The Article.__//

Now that your interview is over you need to write the draft of your article, which should contain several different sections that are cohesively tied together. These sections should be the background of the professor, an area where your topic is discussed along with the questions you asked the professor over the interview. You should also include your document based section along with a detailed explanation as to what it is and its relevance to your topic. Also include a section on the document you read and a brief discussion on it in a separate area. If at all possible show diagrams that will help with the explanation of any difficult concepts that your are describing. Once you have completed your first draft and have added any major editing that was needed send a copy to your researcher so that they may read and correct any factual mistakes that could have occurred. If any errors have occurred make the necessary corrections and send it in for grading.

Sources:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/708/01/ http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/page.cfm?pageid=472 http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/page.cfm?pageid=473

by Alejandro Iparraguirre