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14 May 10 4 Preparation Tips that Will Help You Write Better

Proper preparation is as important for writing an article as is the writing itself. The more you prepare for it the better will be the final output. In this article, I am going to share four preparation tips that will make your blog post more interesting, and it will fetch more retweets and diggs.

4 Writing preparation tips

One idea per post

Do not cram too many things in one blog post. It will confuse the readers, which will push them to move away from your blog. The more ideas you will insert in the post, the more users will move away from the blog. Find a core theme and stick to it. Do not wander off, or else you will never be able to finish your blog post.

Find the purpose of your blog post

Knowing the purpose of a blog post will help you draft your article better. Why are you writing the article? Do you want your readers to purchase something, or you want them to know more about the subject, or you want them to subscribe to your newsletter after reading it? Once the purpose is defined, writing becomes easier, as you choose mode, tone, and words on that basis only.

Who is your target audience

This is another important consideration. You need to define an ideal reader of your blog post. Find out what he does, how much experienced he is, and what is his qualification? You also need to find their interest level and intension. Is your ideal customer in the market to buy the thing you are writing about? Is he just researching, or reading casually? Knowledge of the intention will help you customize your language.

Write a draft headline

Write a temporary headline. It will give you a target around which you will organize your ideas. This, in no way, is the final headline that will go with your post. This headline is just the first draft. Revisit the headline, once you are through with the article.

You are much better equipped to write a headline after you are done with the article, as you are much more knowledgeable about the subject matter.

Follow the tips shared above, and you will produce better articles.

Tags: , Core Theme, , , , , Interest Level, , , Preparation Tips, Share Tips, , ,

09 Jan 10 Putting The Finishing Touches On An Article

So you’ve just written an article, and you’re just about to publish it, when you realize you’ve left a grammar error or two.  But then that’s extremely common, especially if you don’t take the proper editing steps once the first draft of your article is complete.  A piece is never finished until you’ve given it a good run through a few times, to clean out the errors and structure.  Here are a few tips to make an article better, once you’ve finished that first draft.

Spell check, spell check, spell check.  There’s a reason word processors come with spell checkers, take advantage of clicking that  button.  Spellchecker won’t catch everything, but it will catch some mistakes that you may have missed.  But remember to double check spellchecker, because computer spell check programs don’t factor context into it’s suggestions.  Spell check could tell you to change a word, when in fact you’ve committed no spelling error.  Which is where the next step comes in handy.

Any word you’re unsure about, don’t hesitate to look up in a dictionary.  The internet has a wealth of free dictionaries online, take full advantage.  Double check a word to make sure your usage is correct, and that your spelling is proper.

Now read through your article.  This step is most useful when you read your article aloud.  That will give you a good idea of how somebody else will be reading your article.  Check sentence structure, as well as paragraph length and make sure both flow.  If you find a sentence getting muddy, tidy it up a little as you go.  Then give a quick re-read after you’ve made your changes to ensure the article flows effectively.

From there do one last check for errors.  Usually it helps to go through your article backwards.  When you read normally there are still grammatical errors that you could miss.  By reading backwards your brain can’t make sense of a sentence, so individual words and punctuation marks will stand out more.  This way you can double check your spelling, and punctuation, and make sure all the untidy bits are properly corrected.

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18 Sep 09 5 More Ways to Improve Your Writing

In the last article titled, 5 Ways to Improve Your Writing, I shared five valuable tips that will help you improve your writing. Continuing our discussion from the point where we left, I am going to share five more tips on the same topic.

Draw and Outline and follow along

An outline is very important for writing. This is a time saving device that also helps in organizing your thoughts. Make an outline of the article or academic paper that you area about to write, and use bullet points to map what all you are going to cover under what heading. Writing will be much easier after this.

Edit, Write, Edit, Edit, Edit, Write

Does this remind you of the way you do the actual writing? Well, if it does then congratulations, and if it doesn’t then you need to work on it because no one is perfect and everyone tends to make errors while writing. Hence; you should be editing your work once you are done writing. Never consider the first draft a final work. Editing will help you remove unnecessary fat from your article.

Is it passion that you are missing?

C’mon what the heck passion has to do with writing?

I have often heard this line of reason. Tell me something, have you written a love letter to your girl friend? I know it is a pretty old concept, so, if you haven’t go and ask your parents or someone older than you who loved in the time and age when the Internet, cell phone or pager was not around.

In those good old times, people wrote letters, and they will tell you how many hours they invested in crafting one letter, sometime even days. They did it because they were passionate about the person who will receive the letter. Do this with your writing. Write on the subject you are passionate about and see the difference in the quality.

Are you here?

Live in present and observe your surroundings. This will give you more stories and inspiration then even the greatest book can. Ask questions, if you do not understand, and listen intently.

Take a break

You should take some time off before you begin editing your written work. Take some time off, and go for a walk or listen to music, that is to say, do whatever you think is good to keep you from thinking about the work that you have just finished. Come back after 20-30 minutes and edit your work.

Tags: Academic Paper, , , , Girl Friend, Good Old Times, , , Love Girl, Love Letter, , Organizing, , , Share Tips, , What The Heck