Tuesday, 1 September 2009

Writing Online Articles

By David Lim

You are reading this article because you want to know how to write a good online article. Unfortunately, I can't teach you how to write well, not in one article. And anyway, I'm not a good enough writer to be qualified to teach. But I do know a thing or two about writing for the online community, and this article is about how to gear your writing for the online world.

Know What You Are Writing About

The best, if not the only way, to write good articles is to know your subject matter. Granted that you can't be an expert in everything, and that most writers are asked to write on a wide range of subjects, that little extra time taken to do a bit more research or homework before starting to write will pay off handsomely.

Use Bullet Points And Subheadings

Writing articles to be read online is different from writing for offline consumption. On the web, many readers prefer to scan their articles before reading them. Therefore, it is good if you can break up your article into sections, and use bullet points if you are presenting a list.

Write In The First Person

I would recommend to always write in the first person. I think it gets your message across and makes your readers sit up and take notice. It really feels like you are there in person with them. In case you are still wondering, consider the following sentence: "Before the next step is undertaken, it is recommended that goggles be worn." Compare that to the first person: "I would recommend that you wear goggles before undertaking the next step."

Be Clear And To The Point

The articles you write for online consumption are generally not meant to be literary pieces but are vehicles through which you impart your expertise. Nevertheless, you can incorporate your own style but do be mindful that your readers are looking are a quick and fast read to get the information they want.

Check For Errors In Grammar And Spelling

It gives your readers a very bad impression if you have obvious spelling and grammar errors in your article. So do make good use of the spellchecker in your word processor, and spend a few minutes going through your article checking for errors in your grammar.

Conclusion

On the Internet, there are articles written purely for SEO ranking, their only purpose being to serve as fodder for the search engines, and not meant for human eyes. Despite that, I feel that if you were to put your name to an article, you should be proud of it. As such, any article you write, for whatever purpose, should be a well written piece that a human reader can appreciate and enjoy.

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