How to Write Articles
Here are some tips on how to write a quality article.
1. Articles should be informative
2. Have Reasonable Expectations
3. Short Attention Span of Readers
4. Write on What you Know
5. Choosing a title is important
6. Get Right Tone
7. Writing is similar to Speaking
8. Start Anywhere
9. Good grammar and spelling are important
10. Humor is good
11. Posting an article
1. Articles should be informative
Offering a review of a film / book / product is a good idea. Articles that explain how to do something are also valued. If you give meditation classes, why not write about different types of meditation exercises. If you organize races you could write an article on “Things to remember for organizing a running race.”
2. Have Reasonable Expectations
Don’t feel you have to attain perfection in your writing. If you have the idea the article must be perfect, it becomes difficult to write and it will take longer than it should. In some respects, quantity has its own perfection. I have found that as you write more, writing becomes more fluent. See your first 10 articles as “warm up” articles. When you get into the rhythm of writing you will find that you can write 500 words in 20-30 minute.
3. Short Attention Span of Readers
Always bear in mind people’s attention span is often short. Therefore it is important to:
a) Write with clarity and simplicity
b) Breaking up an article into different sections is helpful
c) I often like to write an article by numbers. Top 7 tips for.. are always popular.
Concentrate on writing articles on subjects where you have some specialized knowledge. A reader can tell whether you are re-hashing ideas from others, or whether you have something new to offer.
5. Choosing a title is important
It is better to have longer titles which explain the contents of the article. It is also better to choose articles, which are specific to a certain niche. An article on “Lord of the Rings” will have too much competition on the Internet. However if you are real Tolkien enthusiast. Why not try an article like “Celtic influences on the writings of Tolkien”.
Personal experiences, for example, what you felt like at breakfast are not that interesting, - Unless you are either a highly gifted writer or, you eat most extraordinary things for breakfast.
7. Writing is similar to Speaking
Writing shouldn’t be seen as an onerous task. If you get stuck writing, a useful exercise is to imagine you are speaking to a group of people explaining something.
If the first paragraph seems difficult, start in the middle and go back to the start later.
9. Good grammar and spelling are important
It is important to maintain a certain standard of English. Otherwise it creates (subconsciously) a bad impression on the reader. If you learn the basics of grammar, you will enjoy writing more. Always verify your articles with a spellchecker. I recommend you the Google Toolbar.
If you can find a way to add humor, it will be appreciated. Obviously, not all subjects are as suitable for comedy. And humor is optional it doesn’t mean you have to put a bad joke in just for the sake of it. But it is good if you don’t take yourself too seriously.
When you wish to post an article, remember that you must specify tags related to your article; doing this will make your article easier to be found. We replaced the tag cloud with categories so you will also have to pay attention to choose the right categories in order to have your article posted in the right place.
Also, as we mentioned before there will be `Tops` on our website. Your articles will also be posted there. (Most commented posts, Recent comments, Top commentators or Top rated posts)
As part of our evaluation system, three of the most important things we will focus on are these: quality, usefulness and uniquity. The first two will determine how much does you article value, but the last one will determine IF your article will be posted. We are taking serious interest in improving the internets content concerning articles and so, we will not take any article lightly; we hope neither will you.