We have all seen their headlines on magazine covers whether we know it or not —those tantalizing phrases promising healthier skin or a better sex life by “following these eight easy steps.”

Or perhaps you're more familiar with the form that takes on a headline like “7 Steps to the Perfect Smokey Eye,” or “The 15-Minute Workout That Even You Can Do."

No matter what magazine you pick up, you can almost be 100 percent certain that you will find a service article inside.

But what is a service article anyway? Well, they're articles written with the intention to serve or help a specific group of people, simply put, to inform.

However, while these articles are (somewhat) informative to the reader, service articles seem to be doing more harm to the journalism field than good for several reasons.

First, service articles are usually "listicles," which are exactly what the name implies — a list turned into a magazine article. Sure, lists can often be the most effective way to present your information, but in my year as a journalism major, I have seen plenty of students use service articles as the easy route for assignments.

I'm guilty of writing one myself, for my Fashion and Beauty writing class, on how to make your lips look bigger with makeup. I was working at such a rapid pace that the 900-word article seemed to miraculously appear on the screen right before my eyes in a matter of 45 minutes.

Why was writing in this style so much easier than my usual, more editorial-like, work? I realized that in my service article, all of the information I needed to write was there for me. I didn't have to come up with grand ideas, lessons or revelations to give my story a purpose. Hell, I hardly even needed an angle.

All I had to do was watch a few YouTube videos and spew the information I just absorbed onto the page in a quirky and fun tone targeted at a teenage girl. Pretty easy, right?

I even plugged a few products that professional makeup artists recommend, which leads to me to my second issue with service articles — you can't trust them.

Let's say I'm writing an article for Allure titled, “The 11 Best Primers for Oily Skin." OK, seems like a useful article. I have oily skin, and I sure would like to know what primer is really the best, so why not read the piece?

Well, the article isn't helpful because half of the primers on that list were only put in there because their manufacturers paid for the spot. It's a form of advertising, almost like product placement, where things are marketed to us right in the stories.

So how can I really know which primer is best when the number one spot may very well have been bought and not chosen by the author? Well, with the service article alone, I can't.

Service articles can be useful when done right, but how often they appear in popular magazines is still unnerving. True writing is being outshone with easy-to-compose lists that capture readers more easily than editorial pieces due to their short length.