Article Writing
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Finding article ideas
It has happened to us all, we have gone to write something and we draw a blank. We have nothing to write about and writers block sets in. Well to help it stop happening to me, I have compiled a list of items that will help spur on writers.
- Write down all ideas
- Buy yourself a notebook and write down all your ideas in it. The best ideas will strike in the shower and during the night. Use these ideas when you can not think of anything.
- Forums
- Visit forums and blogs that interest you. Often you will find people in forums and blogs openly asking for directions to "how to" articles and other helpful guides.
- Read the newspaper
- Often you will find items of interest in the newspaper and other media that you could elaborate on or dispute in your article.
- Brainstorm
- Write down all ideas that come into your head.
- Look over past work
- What have you done well in the past and what has been the most popular?
- Chat rooms
- Go off to chatrooms that you are interested in and see what the current topics are.
- Friends
- Ask your friends and work mates for ideas.
- Surf the Internet
- Look through random websites in your area and you might find something you have not thought of before.
- Questions from readers
- Questions that your get on a regular basis can be a great source of new ideas and topics
- What you enjoy doing
- Look out for things that you enjoy doing as it will make writing about them much easier.
- Your job
- What have you learn from you job that you could share?
- Walk around
- Walk around and look out for for things that have an emotional attachment for you (or provoke anger)
- Do something else
- Often by doing something else for a while, a topic will come to you.
20 Tips for writing better articles
There are many articles around the web and many of them are not well written. Some are have so many problems with them that they are hardly any use at all.
When you are writing articles for the web, there are a few ideas that you should keep in mind.
- Use lists
- People love lists on websites. They are easy to scan and make things simple. Use lists often in your articles
- Small quick-loading graphics add interest to any page
- Images are great a emphasizing a point to the user and adding a bit of style to an article.
- Stay Brief
- The user will not be reading your article for the whole day, so stay brief while making sure that you are not too brief that you do not tell the user anything.
- Spell Check
- Although it seems simple, many articles are not checked for wrong spelling.
- Grammar Check
- Bad grammar is harder to pick up than bad spelling, but it can render your article unreadable.
- Shorter sentences and paragraphs
- It is harder to read on the computer than it is to read on paper. Help the user by using shorter sentences and paragraphs.
- Use white space
- White space helps guide the eye to content and stops everything looking cluttered.
- Use 'san-serif' fonts
- Use 'san-serif' fonts which are 20% faster to read on a computer monitor. Verdana is recommended, as it was designed for computer screens.
- 65 characters per line
- Aim for no more than 65 characters per line by using wide margins. Longer lines slow reading considerably.
- No cryptic titles
- Many newspapers have not done well online, as they have not changed their style of title to suit the web. Use understandable titles, that are not cryptic.
- Use subheadings
- Use frequent subheadings to break up text and draw the reader on.
- Avoid slang that is only known in your country
- Just because everyone uses a term in your country, it does not mean that anyone outside your country knows it.
- Write your title first
- Writing your title first help you to stay on topic.
- Be unique
- It is hard, but try to be unique.
- Stay on topic
- Do not go off track. Stay on the topic your readers want to hear about.
- Be aware that readers on the web are skeptical
- They will not believe one source and like second source to back up any claims.
Writers Block
As a writer, one of the most annoying things is to not have anything to write about and can not focus. This can be a big problem for all of us, when writing a letter or even an email.
What causes it?
The first step to solving your writers block, is to understand what is is that is causing it. There are many things that can cause writers block.
- Too much pressure to complete the writing to a to higher standard
- We do not know that our readers know, or what they what to hear
- We lack the fact and information
- Lack of structure to your writing
- No interest in the topic
- Being tired
- Have not thought about the topic enough.
How to solve it
There is no one solution to writers block, but the main idea is to try many different ideas over a period of time.
- Think about alternative wordings and phrasing
- Make many draft copies
- Wait for an inspiration
- Start a difficult sentence with words that help lay out the sentence, for example "Due to the fact that..." and "it is imperative that..."
- Make notes about ideas as they come to you
- Try brainstorming
- Break the writing into sections and complete each section before working on the transitions between the sentences.
- Try explain what your writing about to another person
- Leave hard sections for latter
- Be flexible and willing to through out sections that are causing problems.
- Take breaks
- Think about your audience; who are you writing it for
- Practice your writing skills
- Work on several articles simultaneously
- Sleep on it
- Allow ideas the time to develop
- It is alright to spell a word wrong while you finish getting down your current idea
Look for ideas
When I am writing for my website, I often find myself lacking ideas to even start on. To get around this for of writers block, there are many places to look for ideas.
- Visit forums on the internet to find what other people what to know about
- Read newspapers and magazines
- Brainstorm
- Participate in chat rooms
- Ask people around you for ideas
- Browse the internet
- Keep a notebook of ideas
Danger Points: Three Areas of Writing You Should Always Check
That’s why, with all the work that a writer must endeavor, they are also very careful on not to mess up with their whole piece. If you wanted to learn more about it, just focus on avoiding your content’s danger points. Writing can be a crucial thing and it always involves influencing the public by sharing what you had in mind into writing. By the way, what are these danger points and how are you going to avoid them when you are writing unto something?
You’ve put together your first draft and run it through a copywriting software. After the automated corrections have been performed, it’s only prudent to give it a run-over to see what else needs extra polish.
While different writers will have varying weaknesses (hence, the frequent suggestion of maintaining a proofreading checklist), there are three points in most pieces of writing that should receive due attention. Some editors refer to it as the “danger points,” since it’s usually the areas that they end up having to revise. There are a lot of things that can be done in the revision process and all you have to do is to avoid these danger points in order to get your work done correctly. Here are the three danger points that you should be aware of:
The lead. How good is your lead at introducing the story? One trick that many editors do is to check how the article reads without the first paragraph. If the piece can stand without it, there’s a good chance that your real lead is in that second cluster of sentences, with the first paragraph being nothing but ineffective filler.
Transitions. You may have been mindful of your transitions, but that doesn’t mean it’s up to par with the standards of good writing. More than merely providing a segway from one paragraph to the next, strong transitions let the reader know why the next section is relevant and necessary to complete the picture.
Indulgent sections. Remember the writing advice that goes, “Find your favorite parts and remove it”? Yes, those portions of text that bring a smile across your face and makes you feel like you’re the best writer ever. Editors usually hate them and they do so for good reason: writing should be about being clear and informative, not brilliant or clever.
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How to Structure Your Articles
With the correct manner of structuring your articles, your readers will understand and can be hooked up easily with the topic that you are writing.
When composing a feature article, there are always a multitude of ways that you can arrange your presentation. Depending on the subject and the type of piece, some of these approaches will communicate your subject better than others.
Of course, you can always go the other way around, choosing to compose the material without a set structure. As with anything put together haphazardly, your eventual result will probably be just as random.
To make your writing task work well according to what you want it to be, try using some writing strategies that will help you to write a meaningful and well-presented article. There are three main structural approaches to presenting an article. Time-tested and applicable to many situations, each of these should prove a viable way to manage your writing. Learn how to make these following approaches as your helping tool in writing:
Inverted pyramid. This is the usual structure employed on news pieces, going from the most important to the least important items. It needs to lead with a summary of the story, giving the user a brief overview of what the story is about.
This structure is the most common writing strategy especially in any news and current events. Your readers can easily spot the main purpose of your writing in a direct to the point manner. So they will find it easy to read onwards and understand what your topic is all about.
Chronological order. This structure follows the sequence of events according to the story’s timeline. How-to features and event descriptions are best presented n this manner.
To make this structure work, try writing an outline first. Write about the things that you will include in your article. Guided with your list of information in a chronological order, you will now find it easy to organize your ideas well in a chronological order.
Essay format. Everyone’s favorite, this is the same structure that you do when you put together most varieties of writing assignments for school. The format is characterized by a standard layout, involving an introduction, a middle and a conclusion.
Some writing opportunities, of course, are best handled with a combination of the above structures. As such, don’t be afraid to use hybrid versions when the situation calls for them. Regardless of what format you go with, make sure to turn up the best piece you can with the help of a powerful writing software.
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What Does My Essay Instruction Mean?
So once you had your writing task with the set of instructions on how to do it, read it automatically so that you will determine if what are the things that you needs to clarify the most. Be particular with that matter. Besides, you can ask you mentor about the things that you need to clarify before you proceed into writing.
Look at the main verb used in the instructions. That’s about the biggest clue you can get regarding what you’ll have to do for the essay. The following list groups all of these usual verbs and details exactly what they mean when you see them on your assignment. These might help you to identify what is your essay instruction mean and apply these guides into your pre-writing task afterwards:
Analyze. This means dividing the issue into various parts, discussing each one. This will help you understand each statements well and to be able to take actions afterwards.
Argue. Give your opinion on the subject, supporting it with evidence and facts. You can always dig for more information about the topic and give your ideas accordingly in how are you going to react with the subject.
Assess. Study a subject and make a judgment about its value. Discuss what’s good and bad about it, detailing your criteria for evaluation. This is a fair assessment with your subject. Even if you have a side to believe and support with but in order to know the value of a given subject, know its negative and positive aspects first.
Classify. This entails organizing the subject into categories, providing supporting arguments why each grouping makes sense.
Describe. This means giving an account of the subject, both in terms of physical and non-tangible characteristics. Learn how to describe the subject well including each idea that you had inserted in your text since it may affect the overall quality of your content.
Discuss. Discussing a subject refers to the processing of pointing out its main issues and characteristics, proceeding to elaborate on each one. With this approach, you are bound to understand what your subject is all about which is a good way to influence your readers.
Evaluate. Perform the same activities as assessing a subject matter.
Explain. Dive right into clarifying your position, argument or topic by any of a variety of means, including analyzing, arguing, evaluating and defining them.
Identify. Label and describe the subject matter.
Illustrate. Provide examples of the main topic.
Relate. Point out relationships between the subjects listed and discuss these connections.
Summarize. Describe the main ideas and explain the matter in concise form.
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How to Write About an Uninteresting Subject
But what if it has to be the opposite way? Where you are assigned to write a topic that is not so interesting in your part and even in your reader’s side? That’s going to be a tougher challenge since there is nothing that you can do except learn how to write it well.
Writing a not so interesting subject leaves you empty headed. You can’t find any ideas that will suit your topic and most of all, there are few or no words that will flow out in your mind. You will probably be having a bad time dealing with that situation. So what are you going to do? You can’t back up with that task. What you need is a handful tips that will help you solve your probably.
Most importantly, you’ve got to determine how to write an uninteresting subject into an interesting one and where your readers will find it appealing also.
A good piece of writing will need to capture the reader’s interest. Before it does that, though, it will need to capture someone else’s interest first: yours. After all, if it doesn’t hold your interest, how are you going to make it any engaging for your readers?
Conveying Good Feelings
When you are passionate about a subject, conveying those same positive feelings over text usually comes easy. You could be discussing something as inane as yesterday’s laundry, but if you are genuinely interested in it, the enthusiasm will shine through. With the help of a good writing assistant software, you can end up turning out immensely good copy, regardless of the actual depth of your writing abilities.
Getting To Know Your Topic
Problem is, not every writing assignment you are going to get will be on a subject that you find appealing. You could very well end up tasked to work on a topic that you couldn’t care less about, much less one that absolutely bores you.
Caught in this situation, it is prudent to try to get yourself a change of topic. Barring that possibility (e.g. if everyone in class is supposed to write on the same subject), there are a few things you can do:
• Find an interesting angle.
• Relate it to a different subject, one that you’re particularly interested in.
• Learn more about it. Many times, a topic can become very interesting after getting to know it better.
Whichever of those approaches you decide to take, remember that it’s much better than slogging through the piece. An innate apathy about the topic you work on is just the easiest way to producing dull, dry and dragging copy.
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Three Deadly Mistakes When Writing an Admissions Essay
While there a number of little mistakes that can be made when preparing your admissions essay, there are three in particular that are deadly and if you do not avoid them they will cost you. The three most lethal mistakes when writing your admissions essay are:
1. Not Proofreading: This is the biggest no, no when it comes to writing and this no, no is amplified when it comes to your admissions essay. If you are not willing to proofread your admission essay many times over then you may as well hand in a blank piece of paper. Those who review your essay will immediately begin to discredit you if your essay is littered with syntax, grammatical, or spelling errors. If you are not good at proofreading and editing then find someone who is. If you are wondering how many time your easy should be reviewed, the answer is as many times as it takes to make it perfect.
2. Trying too Hard to Impress: If you are attempting to impress the admissions board it will usually come out in your essay. Your essay should be written on what you know and then see you using your own personal experiences within the essay. If you are trying to cover some ground shattering events that you have no idea about you may come off as pretentious. Remember that the admissions committee is looking to find out about you so you have to be sure that your essay conveys that.
3. Plagiarizing: There is never an excuse to copy or plagiarize other’s work. Many students think that if they simply copy from another student's essay from the past that they will not get caught. This is not true and if you plagiarize you risk handing something in that is either off topic or that will be abundantly clear that it is not portraying you in a true light. Plagiarism at any level is despicable and if you truly care about your future then you will not use with your admissions essay to begin the practice of it.
If you are at the point that you are preparing your admissions essay then there is little doubt that you have worked hard up to this point. While it may be tempting to attempt to take short cuts or to do a little brown nosing with your admissions essay, that kind of behavior can prove disastrous. Make your admission essay convey the real you and be honest and forthright throughout. Just as with many things in life, honesty is the best policy when it comes to your admissions essay.
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How to Use Commas and Semicolons
You may have difficulties of using them and that’s because they have a little bit the same uses when they are applied in sentence writing. Even if you are going to use a word processor that automatically detects any grammatical and spelling errors, once you place a lot of commas in your phrases and words within your sentence, there are instance where instead of using commas for that phrase, you’ve got to use semi-colons and we are not aware about that.
To think that we also wonder why we need to use semi-colons in one of our phrases instead of commas? Say, what’s the difference between them. Or in other words, how and when are we going to use these kinds of punctuation marks in our sentences. Any ideas? It is really important to know the basics and study a lot of stuffs regarding these issues.
That’s why we need to read for more information, remember it always and apply it into our actual writing task. That’s pretty much tiring for most beginners but that’s the only way to do it. If you need to correct your mistakes, then learn from it. Know the ways and techniques. Identify your problem first and then you are now heading to the right track.
Still struggling with the use of commas and semicolons? Some people really just never catch on, even after reading through the guidelines over and over. If you count yourself among those who continually have a hard time with these two punctuations, here’s an idea:
Stop memorizing the rules.
Yep, just quit on it. If it hasn’t stuck after five or six times of trying (and hoping to catch mistakes with a writing correction software), it might be prudent to try something else. Rather than give it one more go doing the same thing over, how about you try getting these punctuations right by getting a feel for them?
Let’s say you’ve written a paragraph and are now trying to figure out proper placement for commas and semicolons. Read it aloud in a conversational tone, noting where you would normally pause if you were narrating it to an audience. Those pauses indicate where the punctuations should appear.
• If it’s a short pause, you probably need to add a comma.
• If it’s a long pause, but not quite a full stop (as a period will require), you probably need a semicolon; just make sure that the clause following the semicolon is a statement that can stand on its own.
• If you wrote down a comma in a section where it wouldn’t make sense to pause when you’re reading it aloud, remove it; the punctuation only makes the sentence difficult to read.
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