Hanna Scheid

Article Writing Tips

Whether we like it or not, there comes a time in many people’s lives when they’re forced to write an article, whether it’s for the school paper, a blog, or an online business. It doesn’t matter if you’re a regular William Shakespeare or you don’t even know how to write a five paragraph essay, most of us are obliged to write. So the question becomes, how do you write a good article? Well, I’m about to give you the basic steps necessary for composing that award winning article.

First you need to have a subject, a purpose, a ‘big idea’ to build your article around. For instance, the big idea in this piece is: “How to write an article;” simple, yet helpful. Make sure your subject is relevant, useful, and something people care about. Having a solid focus will help you mold your whole article.

Once you’ve found your subject, you need to add a title. Now, you don’t necessarily have to create a title at this point in the process, sometimes it’s easier to wait until you have the whole piece written to come up with a title. Do whatever is most comfortable for you. What you want to do with the title, no matter when you create it, is grab the readers’ attention. Don’t have something generic or boring. Questions work well for getting attention and are one of my favorite tactics. Another way is a fact or an exciting statistic: “80% of businesses fail. Here’s why.” Make sure it is relevant to the rest of the article and pulls the reader in.

Now that you have a direction for your piece it’s time to flesh it out with facts, figures, and juicy details. So go do some research; find some content to build around your subject, to prove your point, explain your idea, spur others to action. Some good ways to gather such information are: interview the experts— they’ll love to tell you what they know; also, go online and find reports, pictures, and statistics. However, when doing all this, remember your main idea, your thesis, make sure your facts, stats, and examples are relevant and will prove your point and get your ideas across. Everything should support that big idea. Remember to keep going back to your subject to make sure you’re on track.

Once you’ve fleshed out your article with examples and interviews, you need to put a solid conclusion on it. A conclusion should ideally concisely wrap up your whole article. Perhaps end it with a call to action (go do something), or a nice summary of your major points. In any case, you want to make sure you’re wrapping up your whole piece in it—we don’t want any loose ends flying around.

So to recap: 1. Have a definite subject, make it interesting and helpful. 2. Grab your readers with an amazing, irresistible title. 3. Gather info that supports and validates your main point.  4. Have a solid conclusion that leaves nothing to the imagination. Follow these basic rules and you’ll be creating effective articles in no time.

Bonus:  Now that you know how to craft an appealing ad, where are you going to post it? Here are some great free article submission websites:

http://www.avangate.com/articles/article-submission_72.htm

www.articlecity.com

www.articlebiz.com 

http://www.articledashboard.com

http://www.webpronews.com