Essay for Contents Pages.

Essay on the contents pages

Although these 4 different contents pages; are from different magazines; and are targeting different people as a whole- they all hold the conventions of a typical music magazine. In order to draw in the attention of a perspective reader the contents page needs to be attention grabbing, with attention grabbing article titles, to make someone want know the rest of “the story”, and in turn this will (hopefully) result in the purchase of the magazine (which is the main aim).

            One of the things that the contents pages have in common is the headlines are all bold and in capital letters. This is one of the typical conventions of a contents page, to capture the attention of someone who is going to buy the magazine. Also the headlines are either in black, white or grey which contrasts against the background tremendously- and as the purpose of a contents page is to inform, the bold titles are needed to do so.

            The use of high quality and interesting pictures is also another technique used to capture the attention of someone wanting to read more into the magazine. The layout of these pictures is another similarity that all pages share. There is always one big (main) picture situated in the middle of the page, with smaller ones either side- directly relating to the article title beside it. The use of these pictures is to add another dimension to the contents page itself, and also to be a visual representation of the article.

            Another way in which these contents pages can be compared is the way in which all of them use vague tag lines to give a taster into a specific article. This is a technique that is widely used to engage the reader; without giving too much away, and if that interests them enough- it might be a reason for them to buy the magazine. Such examples include “Someone’s gonna have to go to the hospital” (in NME magazine) and “It’s gone better than anybody ever expected- even me.” (Q magazine), these ambiguous taglines suggest a little to the reader, but not too much- leaving them with a little bit of mystery behind each article.  

            In conclusion, each of these contents pages holds certain conventions, to inform and persuade the reader in equal measures. The use of article headlines, tag lines and attention grabbing pictures throughout the contents page itself are the main similarities that all these magazines share; regardless of the target audience-whether it be for 12 year olds or even 70 year olds.