After reading some poorly formatted articles, I felt the need to start a list of ways you should format your writing. If you have a different method, please show us here.

This is the best way to format an article, in my opinion:

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[/hr]
Name Your Article Here
Provide a short description of your work.

By: [your real / psudo name]
Created: [the date you posted your article (ex. August 12, 2005)]

Your lead should be here. Leads are the first paragraph, drawing your readers into reading the rest of your article. They are important because people have better things to do than to read what you have to say, so leads are why people should read your article. Be sure to tell people what your article is about here and why it matters in your lead. Remember, a good lead will draw anyone who reads the first sentence of your lead into reading the whole article.

[Title of First Paragraph]
This is the most important of the paragraphs. People will judge how the rest of your works are based on this paragraph. If you sound stupid or uninteresting here, your readers might just press the back button, abandoning the rest of your writing. Make sure this paragraph is the most interesting, fun and witty one.

[Title of Second Paragraph]
This paragraph matters but not as much.

[Title of Third Paragraph]
Put the boringest part here.

[Title of Fourth Paragraph]
This is where it starts to get interesting.

[Final Paragraph]
Make sure this is more interesting, fun and witty than the first paragraph. People will remember your whole article most depending on your final paragraph.

[hr=noshade]
Tips:
- Use simple and direct language. People will understand it more if you lay off those flowery words you include in college essays.
- Make your article enjoyable to read. It should be more than merely a "how-to" or a "tutorial."

So anyway, this is my way of writing articles. You may list your methods here.