Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Article Writing for Website Content
Although some people seem to be blessed with a natural gift for writing while others seem to have trouble putting two sentences together, there is no reason why anyone should not be able, by following a few basic rules, write an informative article of four to five hundred words.
A talented writer or even your old English teacher may view the article as poorly constructed, grammatically incorrect or find a host of other technical faults, but does that really matter if it adequately covers the chosen subject in an understandable way.
An article is simply an essay, a description of something, or a simple instruction manual, that is being written, possibly as content for a website. In it simplest form it should probably consist of an introduction, a body and a conclusion. While it should be informative and as interesting as possible, it does not have to be an attempt to write a best selling novel or definitive work on a given subject. I am sure the first thing that JK Rowling ever committed to paper was a far cry from the latest Harry Potter book.
At some point in your life I am sure you have been asked how or why you did a certain thing. If you have children you have probably performed the task a thousand times. You have given a verbal account of something and thought nothing of it. When it comes to writing it down however, you seem to present yourself with an ‘I can’t do that’ barrier.
Simply think how you would verbally explain the chosen subject, write down the key points that you wish to get across, and then expand on your list of key points.
I don’t consider myself to be a great, or even a particularly good writer by any stretch of the imagination. Words do not flow easily from my pen or keyboard. My punctuation is perhaps not totally accurate and sentence structure is probably some way off target but nevertheless I have written this, you have read it, and hopefully we have all learned something from the exercise. Incidentally, you probably also do not consider yourself to be among the top one hundred chefs, builders or gardeners in the world, but I am sure you have adequately fed yourself and your family, or successfully performed other household tasks, and have probably done so for many years without a second thought.
By the same standards you do not have to be among the world’s best writers to write a short article, whether it be for your own pleasure or as content for a website.
This ‘article’ has now run slightly over its intended length and consists of five hundred and forty-one words and has taken just over an hour to write. You are now faced with several choices.
You can; 1. Throw it in the bin or hide it in a drawer, never to see the light of day. 2. Submit it as an article, to an article directory with a link to our own website, hopefully gaining some free traffic to our website. 3. Publish it as a blog, add some Google adsense code and hopefully earn some money from it. The choice is yours.
Although some people seem to be blessed with a natural gift for writing while others seem to have trouble putting two sentences together, there is no reason why anyone should not be able, by following a few basic rules, write an informative article of four to five hundred words.
A talented writer or even your old English teacher may view the article as poorly constructed, grammatically incorrect or find a host of other technical faults, but does that really matter if it adequately covers the chosen subject in an understandable way.
An article is simply an essay, a description of something, or a simple instruction manual, that is being written, possibly as content for a website. In it simplest form it should probably consist of an introduction, a body and a conclusion. While it should be informative and as interesting as possible, it does not have to be an attempt to write a best selling novel or definitive work on a given subject. I am sure the first thing that JK Rowling ever committed to paper was a far cry from the latest Harry Potter book.
At some point in your life I am sure you have been asked how or why you did a certain thing. If you have children you have probably performed the task a thousand times. You have given a verbal account of something and thought nothing of it. When it comes to writing it down however, you seem to present yourself with an ‘I can’t do that’ barrier.
Simply think how you would verbally explain the chosen subject, write down the key points that you wish to get across, and then expand on your list of key points.
I don’t consider myself to be a great, or even a particularly good writer by any stretch of the imagination. Words do not flow easily from my pen or keyboard. My punctuation is perhaps not totally accurate and sentence structure is probably some way off target but nevertheless I have written this, you have read it, and hopefully we have all learned something from the exercise. Incidentally, you probably also do not consider yourself to be among the top one hundred chefs, builders or gardeners in the world, but I am sure you have adequately fed yourself and your family, or successfully performed other household tasks, and have probably done so for many years without a second thought.
By the same standards you do not have to be among the world’s best writers to write a short article, whether it be for your own pleasure or as content for a website.
This ‘article’ has now run slightly over its intended length and consists of five hundred and forty-one words and has taken just over an hour to write. You are now faced with several choices.
You can; 1. Throw it in the bin or hide it in a drawer, never to see the light of day. 2. Submit it as an article, to an article directory with a link to our own website, hopefully gaining some free traffic to our website. 3. Publish it as a blog, add some Google adsense code and hopefully earn some money from it. The choice is yours.
