Practical insights on professional writing: articles, editorial metrics and academic method. Full guides are coming soon.
News writingArticle coming soon
Writing a news article: kicker, headline and standfirst
A newspaper page follows a precise hierarchy, and understanding it is the first step toward writing an article that works. The kicker sets the context in a few words, the headline condenses the story and must stand on its own, and the standfirst previews the essential elements while inviting the reader in. In this guide we will examine the classic editorial framework and its variations for the web: how to distribute information across the three levels without repetition, how to choose verbs and when to drop adjectives, and how to build an opening that respects the five Ws without overloading the first paragraph. We will also look at how character counts affect layout work and why many newsrooms set strict limits for headlines and summaries. Through practical rewriting examples, you will learn to recognise a weak headline and turn it into one that truly guides the reader. The guide will include a final checklist to use before submitting to an editor, useful both for contributors to a publication and for anyone running a company blog.
Editorial metricsArticle coming soon
The readability index: what it measures and how to improve it
Readability indices turn into a single number how easily a text can be understood: the Flesch Reading Ease for English, the Gulpease index for Italian, Szigriszt-Pazos for Spanish and Kandel-Moles for French. All of them combine two fundamental quantities: average sentence length and average word length. In this guide we will explain how to interpret the score without chasing it mechanically, because an over-simplified text can feel thin while an overly dense one discourages readers. We will cover concrete techniques to raise the score when needed: splitting subordinate clauses, preferring common vocabulary over unnecessary jargon, and removing asides that interrupt the reasoning. We will also address the limits of these tools, which evaluate neither coherence nor factual accuracy, and show how to use TramaEditor's real-time calculation during the final revision of articles, thesis chapters and web copy, with reference thresholds for different kinds of audiences.
Academic methodArticle coming soon
Structuring a thesis: chapters, abstract and revision
A successful thesis starts from a clear structure decided before writing begins. In this guide we will see how to organise the work into balanced chapters, how to write an abstract that summarises objectives, method and results in a few hundred characters, and how to keep coherence between the introduction and the conclusions. We will devote space to managing sources: when to cite, how to avoid paraphrasing too closely, and how to keep an orderly bibliography from the very first drafts. We will then discuss revision, the most underestimated phase: rereading after a few days, checking paragraph length, and making sure every chapter opens with a premise and closes with a logical bridge to the next. We will show how TramaEditor's metric tools help at this stage, from the page count many faculties require to the readability index that keeps the register clear even in technical passages. We will close with a realistic weekly work plan, designed for those writing a thesis while studying or working.