The scope of creation has widened from some scholars writing on a subject to a majority of the population evolving into creators through research. Articles are like the basic layout of the knowledge we receive in today’s world. The different types of articles now disintegrated need guidance on practices and tips for good article writing, provided herein simplified and useful format. Thus, if you are jumping on articles to understand and learn everything-format, tips, types, etc., about article writing, keep reading to clear up every clogging area.
What is an Article?
Articles are one of the simplest forms of literature. A written composition of content, for the online or offline world, on mostly a specific topic is called an article. What you are reading right now is an article itself. A specific article revolves around a specific keyword to cover enhanced A-Z aspects of the given topic.
Articles are printed in newspapers, magazines, research papers, online websites, blog pages, and many other forms of digital communications.
This wide range of availability, on one hand, gives it huge exposure, rendering no one to be completely unknown from article writing, but on the other hand, the traffic created by lakhs of articles requires a vibrant sheet of work to be exposed to people. Before any of that though, let us be familiar with the basic format of article writing.
Format of Article Writing
Also Read: Copywriting vs. Content Writing: What’s the Difference?
The Basic Format of Any Article Is Divided into 3 Parts:
- Introduction
- Body/ main text
- Conclusion
- Introduction: This part of an article consists of a medium-length paragraph. Here is where you depict the importance of your article. It is like a snippet of the beginning of the problem you will be resolving in your article. Also, the introduction is where readers decide to lend their time to the whole article or not, so your job is to make it interesting or filled with value.
- Main Body: The body is the main area where you make your article useful to people. Fill it with each and every aspect of your topic. Roam around with a 360 degrees approach and write it all down in a formulated way. The body is the longest and the most useful part of an article.
- Conclusion: At the end of all, a small conclusion becomes a good full stop to the work. The conclusion is a precise and concise statement from the article. It can be just a statement conveying how the article was helpful, or what topics the article covered under its umbrella.
Now let us move to the interesting part! Below is the list of some easy and effective tips and practices to improve the quality of your article.
Best Tips for Article Writing
We know that uncountable creators put up uncountable articles, whether it is online or offline. More than 5000 articles are published on the internet on a daily basis, and that is excluding blogs and other such forms. Over this huge number, how should you compete with your challenging competitors? So how will you make sure that your work stands out?
For this seemingly difficult work, there are some very easy practices and tips for good article writing that will surely improve the standard of an article. We will start from some very basic tips you should keep in mind while writing articles, and then move on to some more specific ones.
1. Researching
For an article, you need to circulate valuable information so that people continue to read it. Researching is the pillar of any article you write, on any topic. You may be an expert in a given topic, but with research, you can state facts, which is much more valuable than blank sentences.
Some Good Practices for Researching are:
- Reading other good articles on related topics
- Reading more than one article on the topic
- Making a list of topics around the topic beforehand
- Going through questions searched by people on your chosen topic
In conclusion, read at least 2 good articles on your topic before writing your own, make a list of topics you want to have in your article beforehand so that no last-minute searches are needed, and take notes from people’s questions.
2. Heading/Keyword of the Article
Before moving further, let us not forget the importance of the title of an article. The heading of the article decides whether the readers are going to read the whole article or not. For offline mode, keep the heading unique, interesting, and resonating with your article. How can you make your heading interesting?
Some of the options are:
- Writing a question in the headline
- Giving a metaphorical approach to the heading
- On-point heading
- Writing a very valuable/helpful looking heading
Like, in newspaper articles, we also write a subheading, a bit longer than the heading, which further describes the main point of your article, giving your readers an overview as to what your article is about.
In online mode, you need to do a bit more research according to your keyword. You need to do good keyword research, for example through Ubersuggest, to choose a tempting heading for your article that could rank well in search engines as well.
Here, the title should resonate with what people search for, otherwise, they would simply move to the next one. Your title should include your chosen keyword so that search engines (Google) rank your article well.
3. Writing Style
Be as simple and comprehensive as you can. An article should be valuable to each person regardless of one’s vocabulary strength. Use easy words. Write small and easily understandable sentences. Write as per the reader’s persona and build up a systematic article.
As told earlier, the number of articles on the internet is as wide as it can get, giving a reader negligible tolerance if they do not get a sense of value from your article. Speaking of low tolerance and patience, readers do not keep on searching for the meaning of words if they come across something incomprehensible in an article. So, your approach should be, to either explain a difficult word or to not use it if not necessary.
The writing style also depends upon your type of article. For example, if your keyword is article writing, you need to write a basic article with negligible technical words. But if your keyword is SEO article writing, then you need to use some digital terms.
- Use easy language
- Explain technical words, if used
- Write comprehensive and short sentences
- Write according to the reader’s perspective
Overall, it is always advisable to write 8th class standard of English to be easily comprehensive and valuable to all the readers.
4. Compelling Introduction
After the headline, what determines whether the majority of readers are going to read your article or not depends on the first part of the article, which is the introduction. This puts around 40% of the value in the introduction part of your article. The introduction is usually a small paragraph containing some basics about the following article. Some ways to make the introduction compelling and interesting are:
- Describe the problems (if your answer is in the article) related to your topic
- Start with asking a series of questions
- Begin with a story, fictional or non-fictional, to build up the readers’ interest
- State facts about some topics that fall under your article
- Use the magic of famous or creative Quotes
Following one of these will make the introduction of your article much more powerful and compelling for the readers. Writing a story, whether fictional or non-fictional, will make the readers interested in the further storyline and conclusion of your article, thus it is always a good approach.
Asking questions usually renders the readers pondering on the problems, and thus, keeping them motivated to expect answers and valuable information from your article. The whole point of introduction being of great value lies in people’s lack of patience and the number of hollow articles present on the internet. Make sure the article you write has a genuinely informative eye.
5. Use Spaces
To make your article as well defined and inflow as possible, use spaces. By spaces, I mean bullet points, short paragraphs, subheadings, tables, and normal white spaces. While writing online, white spaces should be more than in offline writing. Your article should be formulated in a way it is very easy for the reader to grab important points from, even in very little time.
To make your article well-spaced and easily anecdote so that it is beneficial for readers, use the following practices:
- Use Bullet Points: It is quite common to ignore long sentences. It is highly convenient for readers to rely on simple bulletins. So, use bullet points whenever you can.
- Use Subheadings: Divide your article into relevant parts. Give those parts subheadings if possible so that readers have the option of jumping to the one valuable to them. Subheadings also define and shape the article.
- Small Paragraph: Give your article spaces. Leave a line after a paragraph. It is like giving some fresh air to the readers. Compact writing overwhelms readers before even beginning to see if your article is good or not. So better to make the article visually clean.
6. Create a Draft for Topics
A systematic article is a way to go. Begin from A and end on Z. It is unwise to drop off the pieces of information on the page as you receive them. Do research wisely and write the valuable topics and facts as drafts before actually writing them. You will probably gather information and inspiration in bits and pieces; it is your function to curate them into a structured building.
So, before jumping into the writing part, select your topics, find the notes and facts about them, select the questions you will be looking into, and then you will be ready with a loaded pen. Drafts ensure you don’t waste your time rummaging for extra pins, as well as helps in some overview on the article. This point was clearly not for the readers, but for your own convenience.
7. Highlight Important Texts
We already talked about how less the attention span of people has gotten. This means, make the solutions as concentrated as possible. A paragraph is like diluted acid, it may be effective for some people who are actually taking all the time to do in-depth research. But for most of the audience, the article should be concentrated on solutions, knowledge, facts, and whatever our reader is looking for.
Thus, highlight the important points. One method is to use bullet points and subheadings. But what if some important pieces of stuff are inside a paragraph? Bold them! Use bold fonts for valuable scripts.
8. Accompany with Stats or Facts
Do not risk being a hollow writer!
Write as statistically correct and well-furnished in an article as possible. Obviously, you will get better with experience, but always try to be on point. With well-done research and well-organized notes, it is easy to write a connecting article accompanied with the required statistics, examples, and facts.
Work in numbers along with words if possible. All these true figures add true value to the article. For example, which one sounds more compelling and truer?
The second one, right? Anyone would rather choose a statement with perfect figures, even if not needed because this shows how well searched an article is. You can add some images, not a huge number though. 1-2 images are enough for a 2000+ word article. But images, especially graphs or proofs on facts, images, add a lot of value to the article if chosen wisely.
9. Proofread and Edit
At last, no one would be interested to read a whole article filled with small grammatical and spelling mistakes.
To avoid these mistakes that could ruin an otherwise perfect article, do thorough proofreading and edit the parts which are wrong or seem not as clear as they should be. Read your article again thoroughly. Every writer, however famous or good he/she may be, makes mistakes that are only put into the right place via extra and tiring efforts of going back into the work and being vigilant.
Reading the Article Again can Provide You with the Following Options.
- It gives you another chance to update some of the contents.
- You can check for redundancy and omit repeated parts.
- You can edit your mistakes.
You can use useful online tools like Grammarly, Hemingway editor, Ginger, Language tool, and much other software available to decrease the number of spelling or grammatical mistakes on the spot. These remarkable tools make the tedious work of editing much easier.
10. Focus on Digital Optimization
The final task is to optimize the article for the digital world. You might have learned everything about article writing, but it is of no use if it doesn’t rank on search engines at all. For this, you must have knowledge about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Your article will rank well given you have managed to perform good off-page and on-page SEO.
Some very simple things for on-page SEO are writing thick content (i.e., an article of at least 3000-5000 words), choosing a good keyword (using tools like Ubersuggest for keyword research, removing plagiarism, and writing as per your keywords. Listicles are highly effective articles; thus, they rank better than normal articles. They are more helpful to readers as well, given they are structured better. So, write listicle articles if possible.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What are the 5 parts of an article?
The main 5 parts of an article are:
- Headline/title
- Subheading
- Byline
- Body /main text
- Conclusion
2. How many paragraphs is an article?
There is no fixed number. If you are writing an offline article, 2-5 paragraphs in the body are enough. As for online article writing, short paragraphs are recommended, thus writing on 2-5 topics in an article should be the goal.
3. How do I write an article for content writing?
Here is the Series:
- Do keyword research and choose your keyword
- Write an eye-catching headline
- Compelling and short introduction
- Research well
- Create a draft, with all the required topics, information, …
- Optimize digital content
- Proofread and edit
- And finally, publish!
4. What are the tools for editing content?
Some tools for editing grammar are Grammarly, Hemingway editor, Ginger, and Language tool. These will help to edit your content easily.
Conclusion
Give this list of 10 practices and tips for good article writing a practical approach to gain improved results in the area. The points mentioned above can improve the quality of the articles you write.