Background
Let's say that I am an average person who read a decently compelling article that stated things like:
A SPACEX Starship rocket crashed and exploded in a huge fireball on Wednesday after narrowly missing its landing pad.
I now believe that the SpaceX mission was a failure. I move on with my life and this unimportant information in everyday life slips to a corner of my brain.
Now, what you want to know is, how can you change my mind?
Your options
Let's start at the very beginning of your future article. If you want a snappy one-liner to get me right at the bat, fine. If you want a long and detailed four pages of facts before you get to your point, fine.
It's really up to you on what style you will choose, and your audience. I will leave that up to you to decide.
Why don't we talk about a snappy one-liner?
You can directly address the misrepresentation in the other article (the Sun one) immediately so your reader is (a) intrigued, (b) is on the same page with you at the very beginning, and (c) if they walk away without reading the rest of the article, at least they learned something.
This snappy one-liner/paragraph could look somewhat like this:
The Sun article about the SpaceX Starship landing ran _ days ago. If you had read it, you were misled to think that the Starship's explosion was an accident. In fact, the landing was routine and completely intended...
Or, if this is not your preferred style, there are still other options.
Perhaps you would like to give a paragraph or two or three of facts first before stating your point? Also fine. Make it look something like this:
On __, at __:_, the SpaceX Starship rocket was successfully launched. This much-awaited technologic advance came after...
etc.
etc.
The Starship rocket landed at _:__. Some articles such as the Sun's __ edition incorrectly connoted the landing as a failure as it had indeed missed the landing pad, but in truth, the landing was smooth and went as intended. Earlier, Elon Musk backed this up by saying...
Not that either? Maybe you would like to not mention the Sun at all. Using this style, you would only use your information and hope that the reader makes the connection that your article is correct and that they may need to take a second look at the Sun's article.
This may look something like this:
The SpaceX landing on __ was a success. It performed exactly as it was intended to and provided more reason for the SpaceX team and Elon Musk to continue to progress their work in rocket and space technology, as phrased in an official statement released in __, which said...
Lastly, you could write a longer article that does some of all the above methods but also dives deeper into the issue while restating key points so you would be set-up to deliver the final, closing, and most compelling argument at the end.
Of course, there are plenty of other methods and I encourage you to try them and decide which works best for you and your article.
So, which should you choose?
It depends on what you're looking for. As I said, try them all. Ask for a second opinion as well.
In my opinion, I would deliver a strong opening line/sentence and then dive deeper later in the article.
Good luck!
