While this may sound beyond your reach, I can assure you that it is not. I have read many books, articles, and forum posts on the subject, and they all say pretty much the same thing - sit down at your keyboard and write like you talk! It's that simple to start...although I recommend you carry it a bit further.
After you've got a chunk of text written, go back and do a little editing using the following guidelines:
Break the text up into readable paragraphs of three to four statements. You want the reader to stay engaged, and if your paragraphs look too long many readers will move on without hearing what you have to say.
Now make sure your sentences read well. I personally have a tendency to ramble, so I need to be very careful of sentences that run on and on and never seem to stop, which gives people a sense that I'm completely unaware of what a period is from a grammatical point of view, plus it tends to be very confusing and your readers will probably forget what you're trying to tell them by the time you get to the end of the sentence which is definitely not what you want when you're trying to make something easy for people to read and understand. Get my point?
Come up with a catchy title or headline. You can do a little research on what will hook your reader, but what typically works for the moment are things like "How To...", "7 Tips On...", "Great Ways To...", and so on.
Structure your content so that it flows. The generally accepted rule is - give the readers a preview, give them the main idea(s), and then recap what you've just told them.
When you're done with the previous steps, run it through a spelling and grammar check. The idea behind writing is to get people to read what you've written, and come away with the notion that you know what you're talking about. If your content is a collection of glaring misspellings and poor grammar, you will not create a good impression. On the other hand, don't be so compulsive about it that you sacrifice readability on the altar of perfect punctuation.
So there it is in a nutshell. Writing can be easy, and with a little practice can be fun and profitable. Just keep in mind that your primary goal is to catch and keep the reader's attention for the entire length of the article, and you'll do well!
Published by William Cox
Bill Cox is a freelance author,entrepreneur, and consultant with a background in Information Technology and Business. View profile
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- Sit down at your keyboard and write like you talk!
- Go back and do a little editing.
