12 Jan 11 How to Write within the Word Limits?

Is it often you are asked to write within few numbers of words and you just don’t know how to write within the given word limit? Well, you are not an exception. Many great writers even fail to write within stated word limit. Often it becomes very difficult to write in short, lengthy writing comes easily to us. But, there are circumstances where exceeding word limit is not only time wastage but also get us negative marks in examinations. Learn these few tricks of writing within word limit.

Organize thoughts, jot down points

Don’t just go with the flow. Organize your thoughts first and jot down the points you wish to include. Write each point below one another and leave space for elaboration. Now concentrate on each point and elaborate. Depending upon the word limit perform elaboration part. Don’t elaborate too much that you exceed word limit. Rather than focusing too much on elaborating one point, move on to the next point so that you don’t skip any of them yet stay within the word limit. You always have the scope of getting back to each point once the write up is completed and add more lines if word limit has not been met yet.

Avoid repetitions

One effective way of meeting word limit is by not repeating any thought or meaning twice. Often we keep stretching an intended message over several lines. It keeps fattening our write up. Such technique helps only when we lack substance and wish to write long. Make sure, you convey your points in a sentence or two. Repetitions not only unnecessarily lengthen articles but also bore readers.

Keep a constant watch on word count

Don’t wait for counting words at the end; keep a close watch on words written right from the start. Latest version of Microsoft words automatically displays number of words written in the bottom of the screen. Else after every few lines you can manually check the word count. It will help you to keep your write up within the word limit.

Edit at the end

Of course easiest and most practiced option is editing write up and making it short. When you just couldn’t help yourself from writing a long article and exceeding word limit you are left with the option of revising it carefully, editing all unnecessary points out. You may have to edit then read, again edit and read.

Tags: Circumstances, Close Watch, Elaboration, Exceed, Great Writers, Jot Down, Microsoft, Microsoft Words, Organize, Point Move, Repetitions, Right Start, Scope, Wastage, Word Count, Word Limit, Word Limits

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07 Aug 09 SEO and Freelance Writing

Everyone says writing for the Internet is different from writing for print, but very few people tells us in exactly what sense it is different. Some says, when writing for web, you should divide your long articles or blog posts into 3 or 4 smaller articles by inserting 3 to 4 sub-heading at required places, while, others will say do not write long posts. There are people who will say write list-posts more frequently, and another group will pronounce the importance of killer title.

Everything written above is important; rather very important, but what is more important than all these things, when writing for web, is SEO, or say keywords to be more precise. (If you need to know about what key word is, and how to find relevant keywords or how to sue them then you should read SEO Simplified: Basics of Keyword.)

More often than not, you will stumble across a client who will ask you to write a keyword rich article, or to write an article using the given keyword, but the keyword density should not exceed 5 percent of the word count. You may also be asked to write a keyword-rich title (headline), headings, sub-headings, and anchor texts, or the client can demand you to write different meta tags as well along with the article. The demand of a client doesn’t end here; some even asks to use keywords twice in the first paragraph, once towards the end of the article while maintaining a keyword density of 4 percent.

The point is, if you are writing for web, you cannot avoid SEO (Search Engine Optimization). You have to know what SEO is, and how to find and use keywords in your articles. This is, when writing for web, as important as a working knowledge of grammar. Some writing experts [so-called] may try to denounce the importance of SEO in writing for the web, by classifying this kind of writing under SEO writing heading, which according to them is just one form of writing for the web. Well, nothing can be as far from the truth as it is. Let me tell you, every kind of writing for the web is SEO writing. No matter what you write, if you want people to read it, you need to optimize it with relevant keywords.

I will suggest you to follow the succeeding link and familiarize yourself with SEO, if you already don’t know about it, by reading SEO Simplified: an Overview. This series is meant for beginners only, and an absolute one for that.

What is your view about the importance of keywords in online copywriting?

Tags: Anchor, Freelance Writer, Freelance Writing, Grammar, Headings, Key Word, Keyword Density, Keyword Rich Article, Meta Tags, Paragraph, Relevant Keywords, Search Engine Optimization, Search Optimization, Seo Optimization, Texts, Truth, Word Count, Word Find, Working Knowledge, Writing For The Web

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