Category:Writing

Here are some approaches and tips to help you write better articles.

1.Writing an article2y

As you become more experienced at writing, you will develop an approach that consistently works for you. This article provides a starting approach that you can modify as you learn.

2.Identify your target audience2y

Identifying who your target audience is goes a long way to framing the language and content of your article.

3.Reader end state2y

A reader of your article will be expecting your article to fulfil them in some way. While that will depend upon what they were doing when they came to your article, you can manage their expectations by the language and information you provide.

4.Approach to the topic1y

How you approach the topic is dependent upon how your audience sees it in relation to their own lives.

5.Article heading2y

The best way to think of an article heading is like a headline in a newspaper billboard, which is about getting people's attention.

6.Introductions2y

An introduction sets the tone and expectation for what follows, and the reader will use it to decide whether to continue reading.

7.Structured content2y

There is a tendency for people to think they need to cover everything in what they write, and so try to cram in information, That may be counter-productive.

8.Navigation2y

If an article is also meant to be used for reference, where a reader may want to jump to specific information, navigation becomes very important.

9.Paragraphs1y

Paragraphs provide a block of text centred around one step in a narrative. However, a lot about the writer and their approach to the topic can be gleaned just by looking at their shapes on a page.

10.Words tell the story2y

While a picture may be useful for gaining your site's visitors' immediate attention, words will directly engage and modify their beliefs.

11.Grammar2y

Correct use of grammar, or the ordering of words, will help ensure that the reader will correctly interpret who is doing what to whom, and what conditons apply to that.

12.Punctuation2y

When talking, we insert pauses of different lengths to help the listener interpret what parts of what we are saying are more closely related to each other. Punctuation provides that in writing.

13.Points of view1y

All writing is presented from a particular point of view, and the ones chosen will largely define how engaged the reader will feel.

14.Pronoun usage3d

Pronouns save us from having to repeatedly use names or long-winded descriptions of who we are writing about or to. However, their use must take into account the usage context.

15.Gender-neutral language3y

While women tackle millennia-old prejudices against them, there is an increasing focus upon the way language still reflects those prejudices. Pronouns are one area where writers are having some difficulty coming to a consensus.

16.Take a break before editing2y

Writing can be a very intense process, with a lot of trains of thought. However, while what is written may have made sense at the time, after a break away from it, the thought process may not be as obvious in the words anymore.

17.Revisit2y

Having finished your article, you will probably want to leave it all alone, and get on with other articles. However, you and the world evolves, so what you wrote may not represent what you intended, nor even still be relevant, any more.