Mastering writing skills is a tough task, but there is a chance to do it. You may need at least some basic knowledge for article writing, but if you remember at least something from the school program, you’ll succeed without any problems. The main thing is to be patient and follow these five tips.
1. Article Writing: Make a Detailed Plan
In order to fully reveal the topic and not miss the small nuances that can be decisive, you should plan the structure of your article. If you skip this step, you risk ruining the main idea, since the art of writing full and interesting articles without making a plan can only be mastered by professionals with years of experience.
2. Article Writing: Cut The Text
Accurate and informative texts are born from a skillful reduction. Once you overcome writer’s block, it’s very easy to fall in love with your own words. It’s a pleasant feeling, but it can lead to negative consequences. If you fall in love with your quotes, stories, and metaphors, it will be nearly impossible to cut them out. And you need to do that.
If your goal is to achieve brevity and accuracy, start by cutting out extensive phrases. Get rid of any paragraph that doesn’t support the central idea of the article. Cut out weak quotes or examples to give way to stronger ones. Don’t make your editor cut the text (if you have one) because you know the text better. Mark the spots for possible edits. Maybe they should be removed now? Here’s what you can cut out:
– Adverbs, puff up emotions but don’t change the meaning: terribly, entirely, especially, completely, accurately, etc.
– Constructions with a pretext that repeats what was said before: in this article, in this story, in this film, in this city (there’s no need to specify all that).
– Phrases like it seems that; it sounds like; we should mention that; I would like to, and so on.
– Abstract nouns based on active verbs: judgment instead of judging, observation instead of observing, stuff like that.
3. Article Writing: Collect Information
Gather all the info you come across – it can be useful for larger projects in the future. To collect raw material for a large project, keep the scraps that others throw away.
When writers work on big projects, they often use an interesting metaphor to describe the method of work: composting. To grow a good harvest, you must first fertilize the land. To do this, many gardeners make a compost pile of organic waste that consists of all sorts of leftovers, such as banana peels.
4. Article Writing: Study The Topic Well
You should never misinform your reader in any way. In recent years, are a lot of new sources (newspapers, magazines, websites, TV channels, and radio stations) appeared. Most of them provide incomplete or wrong information in the pursuit of sensation. Don’t make such mistakes. You should, first of all, think about your regular readers who trust you. The more honest you are, and the more accurately you interpret the facts, the better article writing you get.
5. Article Writing: Find Your Style
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a freelancer in Contentmart or work as a professional academic writer. To be original and recognized, you simply have to find your unique style. It’s all about the details: the intro, the ending of the article, quotations, anecdotes, funny stories, or even cynicism. Don’t forget that you can gain popularity not only for interesting articles but also for resonant ones that go against public opinion but give the reader something that they haven’t seen for a long time – the truth.
Follow these tips, but don’t forget about the most important one: write simply. Articles should be written in simple and understandable language because they’re not a book or magazine full of abstruse phrases and turns of speech. The simpler you give information, and the more people understand it, the better. Therefore, we don’t recommend using any abbreviations, alternative names, slang, and complex terms in your articles. If you can’t avoid them, then try to explain what you meant by this word or phrase. One more rule: always check your content for plagiarism before sending it for review.