On Writing

Ten suggestions on how to write a better article for Rertojunk.com

In March 2006, I was doing a web search for some of my favorite 80's cartoons intro music. It was during this search I first encountered Retrojunk.com. Immediately, I was drawn to the articles within its web pages on past cartoons, music, movies, etc. I remember myself thinking, wow, there are people out there who enjoy this stuff as much as I do. Eventually, after reading several articles on the site, I finally decided to submit an article of my very own.

Me like site. Me, Knites, write own article. Type with fist!

However, I did not do this lightly. A poorly written piece would not only advertise me as an idiot in the eyes of the Retrojunk readers I wanted to please, it would also show a complete disrespect for said readers and the site of which I had become fond. I strongly believe good writing takes more than just time; it wants your best moments and the best of you. And I believe, despite the fact their topics may be trivial to some, Retrojunk articles deserve no less attention.

Now that we've each written an article for him, Knites will have to do his own work.

Now, twelve articles later, I have decided to share some of the things I have learned about writing for this site, which have helped my articles be well received. Now, to be clear, I do not write works of literary genius, Far from it. I am just hoping future article writers will read this piece and give their work that little extra bit of care from which all Retrojunk readers will benefit.

Some wisdom for you, I have.

To this end, I have examined the "Back Pages" and some front page articles and compiled a list of ten suggestions for writing a Retrojunk article.

Note: All positive (+) and negative (-) article scores below were accurate as of August 22, 2007. The suggestions below are in no particular order and all quotations are direct "cut and pastes" from the articles examined.

1> Make Sure An Article Always Has Pictures

You have fallen for the classic blunder of not including pictures in you Retrojunk article. A little word of advice, no matter how well written you article may be, if it does not include pictures it will not get a positive response.--from the Comment Section of the Back Pages article "Welcome to Camp Melody", Article Score -8.

A big bunch of text and no pics... As attractive as cheese melting in the microwave...--from the Comment Section of the Back Pages article "New Age T.V. Crap" Article Score -8

I forgot the film again. Mr. Kent is so gonna kick my ass!.

It seems almost nothing gets an article sent to the back pages faster than a low amount or complete absence of pictures. Now, some may say an article does not need pictures if it is written well. And this was the case for the article "Sega vs, Nintendo" on this site. However, this is an extremely rare situation. Most often, if a Retrojunk reader does not see a good picture to text ratio in an article, they will give the piece a "thumbs down" without reading it completely. A picture is not worth exactly a thousand words on this site, but it goes a long way to making an article more pleasurable to peruse.

2> Keep Profanity Use To A Minimum

Ok your gonna say "How the fuck is he going to get some dirt on Tiny Toons?.... if you want to see more fucked up shit go onEE ---from Back Pages article "Fun with cartoons" article text, Article Score -14.

You got a fraggin' problem with how I write?

Profanity has its place in writing, even Retrojunk articles. However, if profanity is used excessively in an article, its innately harsh nature it will not only make a writer seem to be on the same intellectual level as caveman feces, but also distract the reader from the topic. This is especially true if the profanity is simply there to make up for a writer's laziness in using appropriate adjectives and nouns.

3> Do Your Best To Use Appropriate Spelling and Grammar

Here are a couple of interesting article quotations:

Well thats it for the overlooked heores of marvel. if you liked it ill considermaking a part two theres a lot more heroes that need love to. (and dont complain if my spelling isnt perfect give me a breack)E --from the article text of "The Overlooked Heroes of Marvel" Article Score +6.

The invinclible*iron man *=on almost all of his comic book covers it shows him gettong his ass handed to him, nonthe less he always comes out on top at the end. as billionair industriolest(i just botched the spelling of that)he made the coolest costume ever!E--from the text of Back Pages article "My Favorite SuperheroesE Article Score -5.

I'm the Vice-President and I say potato is spelled with an "e"

Now, to be clear, I am not advocating spelling and grammar perfection in articles (To be honest, I do not care about them at all in the article comment sections and discussion forums). A typo or two or three in an article is something of which I am a guilty of in almost every one of my pieces (probably this one too ;-) ). However, many would agree the errors in the above quotations are clearly excessive and therefore distracting. The results of poor spelling and grammar on an article are (1) the article is difficult to read and enjoy; (2) the article's comment section is littered or overwhelmed with comments on poor spelling and grammar; (3) the readers possibly form a poor opinion of the writer and a hesitancy to read or a more intense scrutiny on any future works the writer may submit. An article writer should proofread, edit, and preview their article a few times before posting. It can only make the piece stronger.

4> Make Sure Your Topic Is "Retro" Enough

Nothing to do with retro stuff at all. Someone please delete this piece of shit article.

Hmmm,This doesn't have anything to do with the nostalgic premise of this site.

-- Comments from the Comment Section of the Back Pages Article "Fox Scare" Article Score -7

This "Retro" enough for you?

Most Retrojunk Readers are looking for articles which remind them of their past--TV shows, books, toys, movies, music, etc. In short, they want nostalgia. When sitting down to write a Retrojunk article, a writer should seriously think about whether their topic tickles the memory or not. Current events or creative pieces are fine as long as they tie strongly to something the readers remember fondly from their past. Remember writers, no trip down memory lane for the reader often results in a very low score and a"Back Pages" position for an article.

5> Avoid Low Content & Poor Research

Matlock is a long-running American television legal drama. The format of the show was very similar to that of Perry Mason, with Matlock figuring out who the murderer was and then confronting him or her in a dramatic courtroom scene near the end." --From the Back Pages article "Top Fav Shows (4)E Article Score -5

I hate bare-bones articles!

The above quotation is from a four-article series giving information on the writer's top fifty favorite shows. The author writes nothing further about the show after this comment and almost always maintains this short summary style for each of the fifty TV shows he mentions. Three of the four parts of this series have ended up on the "Back Pages". Why? Well, while the articles do contain many shows regular readers on the site know and love, the writer gave no more information on them than what one might find in a thin television-listing periodical. Where is the interesting information? Where is the trivia? How about an example of one of the dramatic scenes? What this writer and several other "Back Pages" article writers do is tell readers very little they do not already know. There is no joy of detail or discovery in their pieces.

Me fight for misinformation, laziness, and the ignorant way!

Another problem is lack of research. Here is a prime example from the article text and comment section of the Back Pages Article "The Decline of Teletoon", Article Score -4. When discussing the decline of Teletoon, a Canadian TV animation channel, the author of the piece wrote this opinion with no support:

So what exactly happened to Teletoon? I think that with the budget that it first started out with they could get all of the cartoons that I remember as a kid. But as time went on and on I think they just started getting lazy and as time progressed they felt that they needed to appeal to the lowest common denominator, which is 0, in order to appeal to the populace of adults who still spend their time watching cartoons.

Shortly after the articles posting date, a person in the comment section wrote the correct appropriately researched reason for Teletoon's decline:

When Teletoon first launched in 1997, it had several time blocks devoted to certain content and showed more mature fare as the day progressed, with a strong commitment to air diverse and international programming, as well as the ability to air a great majority of material uncut. A typical broadcast day would start with preschool content at 7:00 a.m. and end with adult content after midnight, airing more adult cartoons such as Aeon Flux, Duckman and various Original Video Animation.

'Unfortunately, Teletoon had an incident during their first year when they accidentally broadcast adult content, including cartoon nudity, during a time normally devoted to preschoolers (thus outside of Watershed). The backlash from the government and parental groups resulted in Teletoon cutting back on almost all programming aimed at teens and adults, alienating those viewers. Teletoon is trying to regain that demographic, starting with the creation of the time block The Detour on Teletoon. Its newest programming block, presenting shows for adults and teenagers. The Detour on Teletoon includes: 12 oz. Mouse, Angry Kid, Bromwell High, Squidbillies, Stroker and Hoop, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Tripping the Rift, Venture Bros, Robot Chicken, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Family Guy, and Futurama

The article ended up on the "Back Pages" shortly afterwards.

Get out of here until you do some research!

Conjecture is a welcome and thought-provoking element in an article when research has failed. However unsubstantial opinions, especially when they are the backbone of an article and so easily proven incorrect by the readers, can take a Retrojunk article to the "Back Pages" very quickly. It is a wise idea to research a topic well before writing. Then, make sure this research is evident in a finished article. Otherwise, readers will judge the article writer as, at the very least, a bit careless or, at the very most, a lazy fool.

6> Always Have Some Background Information/Explanation For Readers New To Your Topic

Here is the opening paragraph from "Nick Rewind: A History", Article Score +7

Before it was named Nick Rewind, we all used to call it Classic Nick and some still do. It started with the website Classic Nick.com, but then the website was removed by Viacom (that's what I heard). The name Nick Rewind started out with Nick Rewind DVDs such as Clarissa explains it all and The Adventures of Pete and Pete.

You know, I have no idea what I just read about either.

Now, if a reader is familiar with "Nick Rewind" and "Clarissa" this should make some sense to him. However, what if the reader is not? There were pictures in this article which could lead a reader unfamiliar with this topic to think "Nick Rewind" was some kind of TV show, DVD, or station time slot, but he can never certain as he is given almost no text to cure his ignorance for the remainder of the article--an odd state to leave a reader for an article claiming to be "A History". A little background information and explanation for people unfamiliar with the topic goes a long way to helping an article quality. Additionally, good use of background information and detailed explanation invites positive feedback from a wider group of readers than just the ones who are extremely familiar with the article topic and, thus, the article may receive a higher score.

7> Make Sure "An Article" Is An Article And Not Something Better Suited To The Discussion Forums

What is this?????? Its a commercial!!!!!! Eat me!!!!"--from the Comment Section of the Article "Flash Gordon Returns", Article Score -6

In all my time on Retrojunk, I have never seen an article get tossed to the back pages faster than this one (less than 24 hours). This particular piece was basically an advertisement for a new Flash Gordon TV Show, not an article.

Well, I think it's supposed to be an article about me, Doctor Zarkov.

Another comment from this article's Comment Section reads:

You should have at least wrote a brief history of flash gordon. You know the original TV show, the cartoons, and the movie from the 80's....

This isn't an article! Get it to the forums right away!

Never ignore what an article on Retrojunk should be: a complete piece of writing, as a report or essay that causes people to reminisce, not a quick-point leaflet. Flash Gordon is definitely Retrojunk material. However, the writer simply gave points about a new show without any thought to what a retro-article is actually meant to be. His piece would have been something better entered and better received in the Retrojunk discussion forums.

8> Never Rant Without Reason or Respect a.k.a The Flame Article

This point is similar to the low content/research point mentioned earlier in this article. However, it has the distinguishing element of being excessively negative with zero respect for the material being examined or people who appreciate the material.

Here's what I think of the suff you like, Flame on!

An excellent example of this type of article is "Animation to Live Action 2", Article Score -17 (The lowest score on the site). Here is a quotation:

And the worst of all the Batman movies and probably one of the sorriest excuses for a movie that I've ever come across is Batman Begins. This ungodly mess stars Christan Bale as Bruce Wayne as a young man whose parents are killed in a botched robbery.

I wrote this just to piss everyone off.

The author's comment on this film ends with this quotation. He provides no further information on or support for this opinion. Instead, he goes on to rant negatively about film after film without any convincing conjecture, researched supporting facts, or respect for those who liked the movies. He follows up by not responding to any of the feedback given to his article. There were 98 responses in the article's comment section. Nearly all were negative. One of the most negative read:

Wow...do you SUCK at research and movie reviews or what? Take a freaking hint from ALL the comments and don't EVER post another article again until you get off the crack or whatever it is that you are smoking. Roadkill could write better reviews than you.

I find your lack of respect for Retrojunk Readers disturbing.

Ouch! If an article is written to simply upset people, with no effort to support the opinions within, to the back pages it will go and with a ton of negative, and not always civil, comments too.

9 > Avoid Poor Picture Placement

Why are his pictures always on the left side of the page?

Poor picture placement (as seen here) can weaken a strong article. It may not be enough to get a piece sent to the back pages. However, it can be annoying and advertises a writer's inexperience on the site like a bright yellow street sign. People apologizing for poor picture placement in their articles, rather than actually taking time to figure out how to use the picture placement utility (and article preview option) on this site, seems to be on the increase. So, to support those who would like nice centered pictures with captions in their articles, I have included the string of text necessary below. Just (1) Copy it then paste it in your next article, (2)change all the round brackets to SQUARE brackets, enter your file name and text and let your readers enjoy.

(align center)(pic picturefilename)(/align)

(align center)(text size 1)Type text here(/text)(/align)

10> Take Criticism like a Pro, Constructive or Not

Only this sucks more than your article, but just barely.

A few comment writers on this site can get pretty nasty. They reduce themselves to name calling, profanity and even racist comments. Ignore them. They need to grow up. However there are many more thoughtful comment writers on this site. An article writer will never receive empty praise from these readers. Some of them sugar-coat their criticism while others are extremely direct. These are the ones a writer should embrace because their advice will often make him a stronger writer. These comment writers care about the site and will show a writer the way to better Retrojunk article submissions. And remember, like all advice and criticism (including this article) comment writers can be acknowledged or ignored. Also, a writer should never let criticism get him down, especially words from immature comment writers . The great thing about this site is a writer can always try again no matter what anyone thinks about their work.

Knites, just tying to help out.

Well, there you have it Retrojunk-article writers and article writers to be: suggestions on how to make article submissions on this site more positive. No, I am not the owner of the site. I am mot a moderator either. And yes, I have made mistakes in my own articles and am far far far from a perfect writer. But, that said, I am a writer who loves to write and read and always gives a damn about what he sees and submits on this site. I hope you always will too.

Peace Out,

Knites.

Comments

Well, it's nice to see that still, after five years, this article is doing what it was meant to do--make people think about and discuss the quality of articles they post on this site. As always, people are free to take this advice or completely ignore it. To those who I have helped, I'm glad I could do so, and thanks for commenting if you did. To those I have annoyed, thanks for commenting as well.

I think I should have read this before I posted my first article. I've realized that I lacked a lot of big points within an article and that's why mine is standing with a negative number. Hopefully with some more articles in the future, they will be better for content and usage.

Thanks for posting this! This has given me a better look when I write an article.

@Lego Maniac. I don't think the Knite was trying to say "this is how it's suppose to be done." I am a first timer writing an article about...well anything. With some points that he did mention, will give the reader something to look for as they write the article. You do posess some points too but don't just point him out. He's trying to help so that people won't belittle someone for just posting a retro article.

First off the article is well written and is a very enjoyable read. Now that the plesentries are out of the way, I have to say why did you put this on a website about enjoying things from the past. Are you the one who decides what should go on the site? Are you proofreading and picking them out of the pile? If not then this is not your job. I realize that some crap gets puts on the site and that is a poor job by the webmaster, but who are you to tell people how they should write. This is no doubt moving up in the ratings due to people agreeing with you, but this has no reason to be posted with articles about retro junk.

I don't understand why some people would post articles that are not proofread. It's not a post on a forum. You are giving something to someone to publish. But if that is what they choose to do, then so be it. The webmaster obviously thinks it is worth posting if they post it. I just think you should have thought more about posting this before you did. Maybe email the webmaster and see about making it a FAQ. But this has no place here!

I'm not trying to be mean about it but I don't come on this site to be taught about english. I come here to be taught about things from the past that I either forgot, or maybe missed in my fast paced childhood. Once more thing, lobbying ofr votes is very bad taste.

This was quite helpful indeed. I can't stand it when people can't back up their arguments and provide opinions where there should be facts. Also, people: don't use Wikipedia unless there's nothing else to be found. Since Wikipedia is peer-edited, you don't know if it's right or not.

GOOD WRITIN!

Thanks, this should help if I write more articles and lets me know what to expect when my first articles are posred

This should be required reading for anyone wanting to submit an article.

Very good. Has nothing to do with Retro-anything. But yet, an important read for anyone who hasn't taken a Eng. 101 class. I could agree with this being on the FAQ's page, or at least a link in the Writers Corner page.

Thanks Knites, I hope this guide helps me out when I write my first article. I don't know when I'll get started on one, but I hope soon.

Thank you Knites. I have been thinking of writing an article for some time now, but honestly didn't want to write one only to have it roasted, toasted, and burnt to a crisp in the comments section. I found your article very informative, and a great guide to all of us who aspire to write for this site. I just might have to begin on my article, thanks again.

Thanks very much for the feedback, everyone. While I doubt it would ever happen, I would be very honored to see this article made a permenant addition to the front page or FAQ'd.

This article is incredibly helpful. Alot of the things you have here SHOULD be common sense to most writers but obviously its not. I'm not a great writer by any means but research spelling and grammar are three things I can't stress enough when I read someone else's articles. My own included. The research thing I got down its the other two that gets me every now and again. The centering pictures is another thing that I never really thought about a whole lot but is a good idea. Thank you very much for this article it is a great service to Retrojunk, and personally I think it should always be on the front page so new retrojunkies can learn from it before submitting there first article.

Like I said before, It's never too late to comment or vote!

I'm as well late for the comments, but all I have to say is just thanks. I like everyone else find this very informative, and thanks to you the article I was writing on the company Toaplan got a 14 thumbs up because I read this while making that article. This should be a read for anyone who wants to make an article.

P.S., I right now writing an article on the Neo Geo MVS machine and it's history.

This will help me out alot in my writings.

Glad I could help out. ;-)

When I read the really atrocious articles on this site, I envision Bizarro as the person reading them to me. Not to mention as the person who actually wrote them. Nice info. If I ever do get around to creating a kick-ass article, I'll have to re-read this for sure.

you recently inspired a dalmationlover article.he says thanks

I do agree that there are a lot of the articles on here that just are plain awful. Some of them lack proper research and others just rant away about how much cartoons/TV has decline in recent years. A lot of these articles are poorly written as well. I have submitted two articles and neither of them are perfect, but I tried my best to do good research and proofread them. Sometimes, I don't even catch the errors I have made until I have submitted the article but they are usually minor errors.

You did a great job with this article. It'll help the new people who are just getting article writing. It should be stickied (sp?).

It's never too late to comment, or vote! ;-)

I'm a little late to commenting on this, but I think this article should be required reading for anyone who writes here.

(I further think that whoever approves articles should use it as a standard, as we could do with tighter approval criteria here.)

I agree with this article all the way. All of the TV sucks now articles and top 10 articles are getting out of hand. I'm quite sick of them. And a lot of these articles are poorly written. Thanks for this article, man.

Knites, you just beat the record for highest rated article.

If you read again, you'll find I listed titles, not the authours' names (although the people did revela themselves in the comment section from time to time). And, if you got the school teacher tone, great. That's exactly what I was after. This artcile was not meant to be soft an coddling. It was meant to be hard hitting. If you've voted me thumbs down for that, I'l gladly take it. And, the way I see it, if the writers had taken care to do their articles at a higher standard to begin with, they wouldn't be in this article would they?

Remember when your parents/teachers told you, "you better do that right or somewhere down the road someone who doesn't love you like us is gonna nail you for it." Well, in this piece, I'm that guy. Here's a bit from a post I replied to in the forums:

A retrojunk member wrote to me after I criticized a writer on this site:

Here's an idea for an article. Write an article about how much you loathe people who make spelling mistakes in their articles, and then maybe an article about what makes a total hypocrite tick .

I replied: You know, I was actually thinking about this after I finished writing the previous post. I even found a few pics to go with it. Hmmm. The trick will be to make it witty while not attacking anyone directly. Hmmmm.

Then later, I further replied: I just wanted to let you know your suggestion in my forum section--as insulting as it may be--materialized into an article. It was thanks to what you said and this bit I read a while back on Wikipedia about Retrojunk.com

"Articles submitted from readers cover everything from music of the times to popular cartoons. Some criticism has emerged from a few members that many of the articles do not measure up in a professional and sometimes even an informed manner."

So, I guess, I'm not the only one upset with low quality articles. I'm just willing to put my opinion out there.

And before you judge me too harshly on how I criticized XXXXX, read this quotation from his first article (which is now on the Back Pages by the way):

"5.the invinclible*iron man *=on almost all of his comic book covers it shows him gettong his ass handed to him, nonthe less he always comes out on top at the end. as billionair industriolest(i just botched the spelling of that)he made the coolest costume ever!"

See that last line? He knew he made an error and he still didn't bother to look it up and fix it! Tell me, is that what you really want for the articles here? Should that really be okay? Thirteen years old he may be, but that's just lazy.

Yes, I make typos. In fact, I know my articles hold a typo or two or three. But let me assure you, it comes after a lot of proof reading and it really bothers me when I find them after I've submitted the work for posting. I'm not demanding perfection--only a fool demands perfection. I never say that in my comments. And I definitely don't expect it in the forums or the comment sections--places of passionate reply. I just want people to try harder in their articles? Is that really so bad? Yes I'm direct, but only because I see so many comment writer's praising someone's work, while completely ignoring the blatant and numerous errors that really shouldn't be there. To be honest, I've been noticing it for a while now and xxxxx's article was the straw that broke the camel's back. I try really hard to make quality articles for this site. Are you saying I shouldn't? That Retrojunk readers don't deserve it? That people who write articles shouldn't even bother to pick up a dictionary? They should just apologize mid-sentence and everything will be okay?

I hope not everyone is so accepting of low quality articles or this site is in for some dark times indeed.

Anyway, thanks for the idea.

He replied: Alright, here goes. Have you ever seen a man run with his tail between his legs (mods, it's an old expression if you haven't heard it before - it's not meant to sound so gross)? Look Knites, this is my public apology. I realize I was a bit harsh on you and for that I'm truly sorry. I was having an extremely bad day that day. Not that it's much of an excuse, but it's all I've got. Your rebuttal has left me very ashamed of my actions. I may not agree with the way you went about critiquing BS100, but you do have a right as a human being and you do put out quality articles. I'm looking forward to reading your next article. Maybe we'll find a common ground someday and become the best of friends; but until then let us always look to the skies in hopes that we may catch a glimpse of that billionair industriolest in all of us. ;-)

I replied: Thanks for your thoughts. No hard feelings--ever.

Whether this article was your cup of tea or not, if I've made you think twice and decide to put more care into an article you write for this site because you fear I, or someone else, may put it out there for public scrutiny, then I've done the readers who want to see quality articles a service--my goal in the first place.

I respect what you tried to do, and I agree. However, I would have cited the 'poor' examples without listing the authors name and/or article. Example:

In one particular backpage article, the author states-

"Before it was named Nick Rewind, we all used to call it Classic Nick and some still do. It started with the website Classic Nick.com, but then the website was removed by Viacom (that's what I heard). The name Nick Rewind started out with Nick Rewind DVDs such as Clarissa explains it all and The Adventures of Pete and Pete."

Keep it anonymous man. Yes, I know when articles are posted they are 'public property' so to speak, but the way you did it is a little like a school teacher reading a particularly poor spelling test outloud to the rest of the class, and making it a point for everyone to know who authored the test. It makes you seem like you're looking down and making fun of them. Or you are Mr. Hand givig Jeff Spicolli full credit for his 'I don't know' phrase on the board. It makes you look bad, and it might even make you look like a pretenscious jerk.

Oh, man, it's -21 now. I wonder, if an article can get so many "thumbs down" does it actually falls off the website?

Yeah, saw that -19

Knites, you should see on how low Animation to Live Action 2 has now.

As long as people see this article as a means to make their articles a better read, then this article has served its purporse, high score or no high score. Still, thanks for the heads up. :-)

Knites, if you get two or three more thumbs ups you'll brake the record for highest rated article.

yet another kick-ass article by Knites.

If you think I wrote this article just to spite certain people, your missing the point entirely. This article section is a public posting area. I simply used quotations from articles which best supported the points I wished to make.

Good to hear!

Great article. I'm new here, and have already thought of a few articles to write. You can bet, I'll make a few visits to this article before and during my writing process.

This article is a fresh breath of air. I'm personally tired of "Why modern cartoons suck" articles.

Awesome information! Writing is one of those things where if you take your time, the finished product will be great. That's actually given me the inspiration to write another article, but I'm not sure about the subject just yet.

Well, this isn't really an article, but it's a good way to keep all Retrojunkies informed on how to become better writers and such. I was thinking of doing something special for my 20th article, but then I thought maybe not, but you inspired me to do it anyway. You'll just have to wait and see what it's gonna be about though.

damn right Knites.

Great article! Very well laid out and thought provoking.
Much appreciated. Great work.

Well, just make sure you back up what you have to say with examples and supportting research.

First, show how the Simpsons have "gone down hill" and give a clear argument with support as to why. I would recommend two or three outside sources--maybe some online articles from a newspaper or critic site. Do not rely exclusively on just your opinions and observations. Then, do the same for Family Guy.
Otherwise, people will challenge you and with good reason--your opinions will have no strength.

I would recommend checking www.jumptheshark.com and perhaps search some newspaper sites and include quotes from them in your article--as well as giving credit to the sources. Hope this helps. If you want any further help from me, you can PM me if you want.

In fact, it was so good, I'm going to tell you that I'm working on an article right now, the title is currently "The Decline of Family Guy" to show that Family Guy has gone downhill just as much as The Simpsons. This is my 3rd article and the 1st with pictures, what do you think? I'm at least a quarter of the way through finishing it.

Great article Knites.

Thanks, man. Thanks to all.

It's funny how the moment I finally decide to return and see what's new on retrojunk, this article happens to be on the front page.

I got two words for you knites: 'bout time

I was annoyed at the fact that for every 5 articles only one would actually be worth reading through. I think following these 10 tips should be somewhat mandatory for anyone planning to submit an article, simply because it'll teach everyone how to write better articles and not just serve out retro "junk".

Excellent Work.

I don't feel that the article section belongs to the minority. It's for the masses to enjoy (just as I can enjoy musicians' work on music sites, artists' work on art sites, etc, even though I'm not contributing my own music, art, etc). But since there are thousands of readers out there, and far fewer writers (and even fewer talented ones), then the contributors are clearly in the minority.

Benesato.

Dang...thought those HTML tags would work. Good thing this wasn't an article!

First, Benasato, thank-you for the thoughtful comment. I've noticed your two-cents to be worth quite a bit more from article to article.

Benasoto wrote: I wasn't drawn to retrojunk.com by the "free love for all...oh, and you can write about...whatever...and post it for your own personal gratification". Allowing every Tom, Dick and Harry having the freedom to write their own crappy article about some inane topic isn't what makes retrojunk.com great. The forums are the place for the everyman to assert such freedoms. The articles section should be a place for the masses to be entertained by the talented minority.

Well, I don't know if I feel the article section belongs to a minority (and I know you did not accuse me of thinking so), but I do think a person who decides to write an article for this site needs to show respect for the people who will read the piece--this includes, but not exclusively, the ten things I've listed here. The article section isn't a personal blog after all.

1. It's not a retro article. Thus it doesn't really belong here. But in Knites' defence, I suspect many people like myself are more interested in the articles than the forums most of the time (I avoid all forums because they suck away too much of my time).

2. Well written, and I don't think at all too negative. The examples you cited were valid in most cases, and not the least bit slanderous.

3. As for 'scaring away' newbies...well, if a discouraging hacks from writing slap-happy articles while encouraging the careless writers to be more careful is a bad thing; I say it's good that you're bad, Knites.

Less is more, some say. At retrojunk.com I think that rings true. Years ago the articles were released very infrequently (or so it seemed), but they were of a much higher calibre. Jason43 is the evil person responsible for getting me totally hooked on retrojunk.com - with quality articles that were entertaining.

I wasn't drawn to retrojunk.com by the 'free love for all...oh, and you can write about...whatever...and post it for your own personal gratification'. Allowing every Tom, Dick and Harry having the freedom to write their own crappy article about some inane topic isn't what makes retrojunk.com great. The forums are the place for the everyman to assert such freedoms. The articles section should be a place for the masses to be entertained my the talented minority.

I can't play a musical instrument, so I would never record myself playing a saxophone and then upload it onto the www for the world to listen and be appalled. I leave the music to the musicians, the acting to the actors, the Mariah Carey to deaf people, and so on. People who can't write articles should do likewise, and leave the article-writing to those who can write articles.

Bag-o-worms released.

Benesato.

"It seems to me the greatness of this site is that anyone can post an article on something they feel the need to write about"

GREAT statement thisguy81!

I've not been on this site long, But I have to agree with thisguy81 on this comment also

"this article seems rather stuck up. Like "look at what these suckers did, I'm better and I'll tell you why."

Sorry Knites, But you're the type of person that seems to suck all of the fun from any website or real life place for that matter. Sometimes people have profound things to say, That is until people like you scare them out of it.

Thanks so much for all the feedback everyone, positive and negative. I really appreciate everyone taking the time to drop a comment. By the way, a few people wrote this article should have been (or should also) be a sticky in the forums. Can I do that? I thought you had to be a moderator or something even more powerful to do that. Seriously, can I post a sticky? I just have "member" status. Anyone know?

I was wondering if someone was gonna write something like this soon. I gave you my thumbs up.

I've submitted two articles to RetroJunk, but...I personally don't think they're all that great. :\

Knites, man. your awesome. i dig this article, although, i already said that, eh.. i don't care, i'll say it again: i dig this article. well done!

hey give the guy a break, all hes doing is giving the rest of us some advice on how to make our articles better and prevent them from ending up in the back pages like alot of other crappy articles. You should be glad he choses to share his experiance at all, but its just advice its not as if he was ranting on at other peoples failed work. So you dont have to listin to it but it might help a little.

but ive got to thank you for qouteing my mishmashed spelling article of the underapreciated heroes. that really touches my soul that it was bad enough (spelling wise) to be used in this article! thank you knites!

hey knites is this really an article? all your doing is complaining. not retro at all.what is your strange fixation on perfecting spelling and grammer in articles?

Article is alright, but as you say in your article, this has nothing to do with anything retro, and should be stickied to the FAQ instead. I think using examples from articles from this site is a bit low. I'm not saying your article isn't informative, but I haven't been on this site very long, and this article seems rather stuck up. Like "look at what these suckers did, I'm better and I'll tell you why." It seems to me that the problem is more with articles being approved than the writing. If the article isn't good, or doesn't live up to certain "standards", put it on the backpages. It'll still be on the site, and the writer can have that good feeling of having something posted, and the more well written, more informative articles can go on the front page. Or don't approve them at all. It seems to me the greatness of this site is that anyone can post an article on something they feel the need to write about.

well done. very respectable article. A+.

I actually considered some positive examples, chokeslam. However, I felt what I considered "right" might be too easily challenged versus what I felt was "wrong" because of the amount of personal guesswork involved. As I examined the praise and the criticism on this site, I discovered comment writers comment when they like something, but they don't go into much detail why. However, when they don't like something they are much more likely to give their entire two cents. So, I basically had more negative detail than positive detail to work with and decided to write this article based on that.

I loved this article, a definite thumbs up. Only thing is it was a bit too negative. You pointed out what was wrong with alot of the low scoring articles but I would have also been helpfull if you'd also pointed out what was right about some of the higher scoring ones. Just some food for thought.

Knites you have certain provided to wise words to live by, or at least to write by anyway. I just hope future writers will heed this article.

PS, I am touched that you very first quote in this aricle was one of mine.

To :TheCurator, I've got nothing against pictures that blend with text. I simply used it as an example because it clashes with the visual rythym of this article. My problem is with writers who post their pictures with out any effort to make it look nice.

I agree with most of your suggestions, except one. I think having text flow around a picture can make it more interesting, because it makes the text and art appear intertwined. The problem is most of these left-aligned pictures don't have space separating the text from the art, so the text can be difficult to read.

Great advice, u got some cajones there mister

Good article, I happen to agree with many of your points. I've just started enjoying the whole writing articles thing and I always try my best to keep the articles I write interesting as well as nice to look at. I proof-read them like 3 or 4 times before submission and often make minor or major alterations before I'm finally satisfied. It's important to have standards, I don't think its so much an issue of "what'll they think of me" but what you personally think of your work. But it is a good idea to please the readers, god knows when I take the time to read the RJ articles I want to be entertained rather than bored or irritated.

Excellent! Yeah most of it IS common sense but many people still mess it up. So thanks for your article. Should be a must-read before writing an article.

Nicely put sir. Nice work on this one. I'll be honest, I wouldn't have the guts to put it up. Although I've had a 1.5 year hiatus from RJ so it would be a bit out of place for me to put up something like this after coming back after so long.

I've been active on my favorite forums/blogs in the last year or so. I pushed RJ aside for a while, only wanting to come back and really enjoy this site again. I enjoy a lot more now than I used to. I think the article scoring feature is a needed feature to filter the good and bad.

I like your style Knites. I hope it can guide article writers in the future. It feels good to be writing for this page again, and this article will help me a bit in the future too. I can definitely make some improvements on my own articles. As you can see by the length of my comments I tend to ramble

To Lucas2600b, I think you're incorrect on one account. I AM a bit full of myself ;-) Otherwise, I never would have had the guts/audacity (take your pick) to write this article. I actually thought long and hard about putting this in the forums. However, I felt I needed to put it in the article section where the topic I am addressing was occuring.

I'm not trying to scare off new writers. I'm just offering suggestions--as my title cleary states. If a writer wishes to write an article ignoring all the things I've mentioned here, he may, as always, go right ahead. I'm just trying to save them from putting their work and perhaps their mind and heart into something that ends up being sent to the Back Pages. I feel sorry for the guy who wrote the four part series article on his 50 favorite shows only to have three-quarters of it sent to the back pages. All that work for nothing.

As for using article quotations, I believe it reinforces the fact this is a public forum--that articles here are being viewed by others--and thus writers who decide to write here should put some thought into how their work appears before submitting. If they decide not to write because they don't want to put the thought into their work this article is suggesting, all the better for people and writers who respect the site, right?

Yeah, it's my definition of right and wrong. I don't deny that. But, if this really belongs in the forums, then why isn't it there already, put there by someone with greater power over this site than little ol'me? No disrespect intended to the all powerful at this site, but if they are going to let the low quality stuff be posted and leave it to us to vote on its survival on the front pages, than why not do a little full frontal constructive criticism here ourselves?

Thanks to everyone who has given feedback so far. I'm so pleased this article has been accepted. I was worried for a while it might be rejected outright. An article about how to avoid the "back pages" on the "back pages". Wouldn't that have been ironic.

To smackthatweirdo, I am so pleased you think almost everything I've written here is common sense. I do too. However, if you have been to Wikipedia and looked up Retrojunk.com recently you will read this:

"Articles submitted from readers cover everything from music of the times to popular cartoons. Some criticism has emerged from a few members that many of the articles do not measure up in a professional and sometimes even an informed manner."

Sadly, it seems, common sense is slowly being forgotten on this site, particularly by new contributors. A refresher course was clearly in order and as I feel it is the responsibility of old writers like me to support new writers, I stepped up.

You're new to this site, but, in time, I think you'll come to understand why this article was written. If there is one thing I've learned, in both writing and life, common sense isn't so common after all.

And, as your username implies, sometimes you can't always lead by example. (I've written 12 articles. I think I have enough examples out there that if everyone learned that way they'd have done it by now). Sometimes, you have give some of the wierdos--that is the people who don't take the time to write quality work--a little smack.

Although It got my thumbs up I think this would have been better as a stickied forum post, or FAQ entry. It's not really that encouraging for new writers to see this getting a better score than all of the new articles up right now. It seems as if you have more fans than anything on this page but I know your direct reviews have offended others in the past. This in sense turns people away from Retrojunk.
I can tell you put a lot of work into this Knites, but as an article it can make you look a bit full of yourself. I see where you're coming from and don't think you're full of yourself but I think some people here still may view it that way. Especially the fact that you used article examples to objectify your opinion of "right and wrong".
In a technical sense this is not a Retrojunk article, but a "how to" guide that should be somewhere else where it can be used by everyone as a good reference.
In closing, keep the great articles coming. We all appreciate your input to Retrojunk.

I found the only informative part was the picture-aligning, because I just recently joined and have no idea how to add pictures, as I can't find any instructions on this site. The rest of the article is just common sense, and if common sense needs to be preached then we need to step back and reevaluate our process.
I think this is just me, but I didn't like this article. It was well-written to be sure, but I don't think this is the answer; yes, it should be a FAQ, or a Read-Before-Posting type of thing, but I think that the people who share the same interest to write a "good" article could better spend their time writing said articles, not a critique/instruction. The way I think of it is like this: you could either write a book about "high art" and telling people what's good and what's not...or you could be making what you think is good art.
Anyway, I hope you understand my point. All your points make sense, and it may be just my way of thinking.

Bravo!

This should be stickied or FAQ'ed if possible.

Knites, this is awesome, man. I'm personally sick to death of the "TV sucks now" and "Cartoons are crap now compared to what I grew up with" articles (particularly the Nickelodeon and CN ones) We get the fucking point already. We need some music articles on here. Maybe I ought to write one on my favorite bands.

I know my articles aren't perfect, but thanks for the tips.

Thank you for this article Knites. I hope people read it and follow the tips you give, because a lot of the articles in retrojunk are crappy

I agree with Bamfing. I find that the best articles are on either something obscure, or if it's well-known, they'll give us facts I might not know about. Be original. There's only so many "Top 10 cartoons, tv shows, movies, etc." or "Stuff today sucks compared to when I was a kid" articles before it gets VERY boring.

Another great article Knites.

Nice article. I've seen some pretty poorly written articles, and I think this will help the cause it's aimed at.

Knites, this really IS a great article! I'm not just saying that because of the little disagreement we had the other day, either. I don't believe I've ever seen a how-to article like this on this site before (then again I'm kind of new to this site - but all the same..) Great job man!

Dark Knight, Knites, I LOVE this article. If I could, I would give you a nomination for Article of the Year. But since there's no such thing... all I give is my thanks.

Knites you are write on the money! ;P
And DigiDestined, thanks for the honorable mention.

Nice man! I hope this can help some of the people new to writing articles, or maybe some writers that have had a few back page articles in the past. It's all about being able to take criticism in the right way.
I agreed with most of the points here, and I admit I'm not perfect either. I always read over my articles, but I tend to ramble and miss some typos as I usually write later at night.

I really enjoyed this article. Another thing I would add though is avoid repetiveness of articles. I'm really getting annoyed at "my top tv shows or favorite tv shows" articles and "cartoons from the 80s and 90s compared to cartoons of today". It's starting to get to the point where I'll just give a thumbs down if I see any one of those topics as an article again. Also, people should think if an article is worthy of being an article or should be a topic for the forums.

Thank you for writing this. Although I enjoy most of the content from the majority of these articles, many of them are poorly written. I often wonder if some of the writers take the time to even read what they wrote. If they had stopped to take the time to look over their writing, they would have noticed that their spoken language does not look good in black and white. Thank you again, and maybe this article will help out others.

Knites, I've been a big fan of your articles since discovering this site. If anyone has the right to call out poor writing, it would be you (or possibly Cartoon Dragon).

While I don't claim to be a great writer (my bookworms series was little more than a glorified list) I do try to put time and effort into a good article. When other writers do the same, it's like we're expressing a mutual respect for each other. Seeing people post lousy articles brings down the credence of the site, and makes writing for retrojunk seem less than worthwhile.