There is more to writing good articles than meets the eye. It’s a skill and an art that journalists, copywriters and professional web content writers have perfected, and now we can all benefit from what they know.
What do you need to think about and prepare before you put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard? Here is my ‘crib’ list,
- Who is your audience? – Keep in my who you are writing for and you won’t either insult their intelligence or write ‘over their heads’
- Research your topic – If you know your subject so well you can write ‘off the top of your head’, great. Otherwise, you must research it.
- An engaging hook – This is the headline and first paragraph. Pose a question, be controversial, be bold. You need to grab their attention.
- What are the facts? – All journalists are taught to give their readers the facts and often you’ll find them in the first sentence.
- Tell a story – Not all articles lend themselves to a story, but if they do, tell your readers a story. Everyone loves stories.
- Include your sources – This is another technique journalists use. Who or what are you quoting. For the web these are often hyperlinks.
- Bulleted lists – Before you start writing summarise your article as a bulleted list. It will help you to organise your thoughts.
- Tell them – This technique is more suited to longer articles where readers will learn something. Tell them what the article is about. Tell them what you want them to know. Summarise what you told them.
To learn more about article writing read wikihow. You will find that after a little writing practice you will internalise these techniques. Then all you need is some research and you can write good articles ‘off the top of your head’.
