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YOUR WRITING: A TRAVEL ARTICLE

DRAFTING AND EDITING

Choose a type of a travel article you are going to write.

When drafting and revising your article, keep asking yourself two questions:

•What do my readers need to know?

•What do I want my readers to think?

PERSONALISING:

Prepare to discuss with your groupmates:

a)your idea(s) of writing an article in the given genre

b)the steps you need to take to collect the material for your article

c)the resources you are going to use

s) the structure of your article e) a possible headline

1. FIRST DRAFT

Based on what you have learnt about the genre text, produce the first draft of your article. Take into account:

•the content, structure, language and style typical for the genre

•topical vocabulary and contextual grammar structures

•the tips from experts

2. SECOND DRAFT

SELF-EDITING:

•Read your first draft from the beginning to the end and backwards to check its internal logic and coherence. Pay attention to proper paragraphing, transitions, text and sentence connectors.

•Check your review against the checklist you produced for the genre text.

•Proofread your work: revise your text to make sure it is accurate in vocabulary, grammar, and punctuation.

•Make sure the text is in conformity with the requirements and norms listed in the Style Guidebook.

•Produce the second draft.

3. THIRD DRAFT

PEER REVIEW:

•Swap the second draft of your review with your groupmate to edit each other’s work.

•Use the Peer Review Sheet or the Peer Feedback Form, as instructed by the teacher

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•Based on the peer review, produce the third draft of your article.

•Send the draft to your teacher for grading and feedback.

4. CLEAN COPY

Analyse the feedback from the teacher and introduce necessary changes to your draft. Produce the clean copy of your article.

FURTHER RESOURCES:

1.More tips on writing travel articles: subsection A3 of Supplementary Section A

2.How to make travel brochures: http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Travel-Brochure.

3.Travel blogs: https://www.wanderlust.co.uk/content/the-top-travel-blogs-you-must- read/

4.The New York Times travel section: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/travel/ ireland-irish-coast-budget.html

5.Personal Travel Blog: https://talesofabackpacker.com/visiting-the-cliffs-of-moher- from-galway/

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SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS FOR UNIT 4

SUPPLEMENTARY SECTION A: ADDITIONAL TEXTS

A1

PAIR WORK

Text A

4 BIGGEST ERRORS MADE BY TRAVEL WRITERS

Travel writing is a dream job that can pay your way around the world. But beware of

beginners’ errors, warns travel writing tutor Jonathan Lorie...

1. Boring us all

The error:

Forgetting to give anyone a reason to read your story. It’s easy to assume that because you had a great time, your trip will interest anyone else in the world. This may not be the case. Especially if your story lacks a sense of place, purpose or plot. It needs to be a story, not a self-indulgence, and the good old-fashioned elements remain the same, whether you’re writing travel, thrillers or TV scripts.

Solution: _________________________________________________________________

2. Talking about yourself

The error:

Thinking that your personal opinions, dazzling life story or incredible adventures are more interesting than the places you’re writing about. This might work if you are as famous or fascinating as Bill Bryson, say, but otherwise it’s safer to assume that people read travel stories to learn about places they might like to visit themselves. It’s not your adventure that counts – it’s theirs.

Solution: ________________________________________________________________

3. Telling your story from A to Z

The error:

Telling us what happened from day one to day seven in a straight sequence with no regard to how interesting or otherwise each moment really is. This is why train journey stories get so dull, because we can predict the route and the next five stops and we’ve got to get through them all to reach the end.

Solution _________________________________________________________________

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4. Writing ‘fancy’

Don’t write something readers will need a dictionary to understand

The error:

Filling your story with garbage words because you’re freaking out that someone else may read it. Words you’d never naturally use, like ‘boasts’, or words so fancy they need a lot of space on the page and patience from the reader. Was the sea really ‘cerulean’? Was that what you thought, on the beach? What kind of blue is it, anyway, and how long should I spend working all this out? I’m meant to be watching your story, not your verbiage.

Solution: ________________________________________________________________

Text B

HOW TO WRITE EFFECTIVE TRAVEL ARTICLES

Write in the first person, past tense (or present if the action really justifies it), and make your story a personal account, interwoven with facts, description and observation.

•Many writers start their piece with a strong – but brief – anecdote that introduces the general feeling, tone and point of the trip and story. Something that grabs the reader’s attention and makes them want to read on. Don’t start with the journey to the airport – start with something interesting, not what happened first.

•Try to come up with a narrative thread that will run throughout the piece, linking the beginning and end; a point you are making. The piece should flow, but don’t tell the entire trip chronologically, cherry pick the best bits, anecdotes and descriptions that will tell the story for you.

•Quotes from people you met can bring the piece to life, give the locals a voice and make a point it would take longer to explain yourself. Quote people accurately and identify them, who are they, where did you meet them?

•Avoid cliches. Try to come up with original descriptions that mean something. Our pet hates include: “bustling markets”... “azure/cobalt sea”... “nestling among” ... “hearty fare”

... “a smorgasbord of...”.

Don’t use phrases and words you wouldn’t use in speech (such as “eateries” or “abodes”), and don’t try to be too clever or formal; the best writing sounds natural and has personality. It should sound like you.

•Check your facts! It’s good to work in some interesting nuggets of information, perhaps things you’ve learned from talking to people, or in books or other research, but use reliable sources and double-check they are correct.

•Moments that affected you personally don’t necessarily make interesting reading. Avoid tales of personal mishaps – missed buses, diarrhea, rain – unless pertinent to the story.

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Focus on telling the reader something about the place, about an experience that they might have too if they were to repeat the trip.

A2

HOW TO AVOID COMMON ERRORS MADE BY TRAVEL WRITERS:

SOLUTIONS

A.Choose somewhere interesting to write about and make sure you do just that. Take us there through the vivid pictures you create with your words, make us smell the spices in the marketplace, introduce us to the carpet dealer, show us the sunset from the rooftop bar. You can add a little of your own emotion and expertise, but only if these add to the picture and illuminate the place.

Alternatively, set up your story from the start as a personal journey of some sort, with a clear and compelling reason for why we should care.

B.Write in your natural voice, using the good words you normally use. If something’s difficult to say, it may not be worth saying. If it’s pulling towards fancy phrasing, that may be to hide that it’s empty inside. So check that it’s worth the space on your page.

A safeguard against writing purple prose is to keep your sentences short and clean. Let each contain just a single subject. If you’re using a lot of clauses and punctuation, you may be over-complicating things. Try inserting a full stop. There’s nothing like it for clarity.

C.Liberate yourself from the tyranny of time. Choose the five most interesting moments from your trip and rearrange them into a sequence that makes a great tale. Feel free to lose the boring bits in between. Skip across the tedious stuff with a phrase like ‘Two days later...’ Cut people and events that don’t add much or don’t relate to your theme.

Spend more time with the key episodes and characters, savouring what is special. Maybe start with one of these – in the middle of some action, say, or meeting an amazing person. That way you’ll transform your random real experience into a working story shape.

D.Sift your travel experience for material that could make a strong and simple story - maybe just a slice of the trip, that hangs around a single theme or event, so you’ve got a coherent concept to work with. Then think about the shape this might make, starting with a bang of some sort to grab the reader, a series of varied moments to keep them strung along, and an ending that answers all the questions – did you find the temple in the jungle, see the wild tiger, learn to make sushi like a local?

Many travel stories – and almost all travel articles – have a purpose to their journey, and this can provide a natural direction and shape.

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A3

PRACTISE TRAVEL WRITING

When it comes to travel writing, it’s important to know some of the frameworks and storytelling techniques that will help you write a captivating story. But once you have the knowledge, it’s time to apply it. Here are three exercises that will help improve your creative travel writing!

Exercise 1: Judgements vs Observations

This exercise is designed to help you separate your observations from your judgements/ reactions.

1.Draw a line down the middle of a blank page. On one side, write Observations. On the other, write Reactions.

2.Choose a place to write about, and then under observations, write down everything you see/hear/smell/etc. (or remember seeing/hearing/smelling/etc. if you are thinking of a place you visited in the past.) We are looking for lots of details here!

3.Which is more powerful – observations or reactions?

Example:

Exercise 2: Experiencing Place

In this exercise, the goal is to experience a place more fully and then practice sorting this information to build toward a central truth or theme.

1.First, choose a location you have visited recently (or go somewhere new where you can make observations in real-time!)

Example: Oxford, England

2.Write down some accurate observations of the place/experience you decided on in step 1. se can be sights, smells, overheard conversations, actions, events, etc.

1.Tourists wander through the street and crowd into the colleges.

2.There are lots of yellow stone buildings in the city.

3.Students punt down the river.

4.The bells ring for a long time on Sundays as residents go to Sunday services.

5.Students stop by kebab vans for late night snacks.

6.Late-night Oxford smells like meat and grease near the kebab vans…

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•Look for a pattern or theme across the observations you have made and decide what story you want to tell. This step is important, as you are creating order and meaning out of diversity and chaos! Mercilessly cut out any unimportant details.

•If I want to tell a story about the different types of people in Oxford, I would likely remove the observation about the yellow stone buildings in the city.

Exercise 3: Mapping your story

This exercise presents a series of questions that are important to think about before beginning a travel story.

•Think about the story you want to tell. What is the most exciting/scary/emotional part? Can you start telling the story from this moment to grab the reader’s attention?

•What narrative voice will you use? Will you include yourself in the story? Or use distance so you can share the opinions of others too?

•Should you use past or present tense?

NB: When the action is important, it can sometimes be more compelling to use the present tense! In many cases, though, you will probably be best off with using past tense.

SUPPLEMENTARY SECTION B: WORKSHEETS

B1

TRAVEL ARTICLE RESEARCH SHEET

Headline: ________________________________________________________________

Author: _________________________________________________________________

Publication: ______________________________________________________________

TARGET

AUDIENCE

PURPOSE OF

THE ARTICLE

CONTENT (micro-themes)

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STRUCTURE

LANGUAGE

STYLE

Other observations

B2

TRAVEL ARTICLE ANALYSIS

Headline: ________________________________________________________________

Author: _________________________________________________________________

Publication: ______________________________________________________________

What can you say about the layout?

LAYOUT

What can you say about the sentence structure?

SENTENCE

STRUCTURE

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What can you say about the vocabulary?

VOCABULARY

What can you say about the style?

STYLE

B3

Watch the video on overtourism again (3.41-11.55) and put down some lines that you hear from the interviewees. Select some quotes which would be suitable for a headline or subheadings of an article devoted to overtourism. Explain your choice.

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B4

PEER REVIEW SHEET

HEADLINE of the article: ___________________________________________________

AUTHOR: _______________________________________________________________

EDITOR: ________________________________________________________________

WHAT I LIKED

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE (THIS INCUDES MISTAKES)

SUGGESTIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS

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