Learning to Write Better Articles
It's a whiz-bang entry for Wikipedia. It's an insightful treatise on better ways to saut squid with peanut butter. Or maybe it's one of those glaringly self-referential search marketing articles designed to inflate your website's PageRank across an increasingly intimidating phalanx of Internet search engines? Whatever it is, if you're going to write an article, why not take the time to write it well? There is an ocean of difference between 500 words and 500 words someone might actually care to read. In a Web 2.0 world that's positively buckling beneath the weight of billions of tedious, badly written, drivel-infused articles, stumbling across something readable, perhaps even edifying, presents nothing short of a eureka moment.
Well, here's two tips to encourage writing that is better, ideas that are rendered clearer, and articles that are more engaging:
1. Your article must have a killer lede (lead).
Use lede or lead. It's your choice. Lede is often used as an alternative to lead as it reduces ambiguity, e.g., My article's lead read "red lead paint licking may lead to lead poisoning." Your lede is the first line in the body of your article. Bad ledes are synonymous with home movies and persistent flatulence in that they send people running from the room.
Your lede should be compelling, something that seizes our eyeballs and makes us say "Wait a second, here's an article that might be worth ingesting." Moreover, your lede should give us a sense of where we're going. Being as concise as you can, dangle something provocative in front of us, something that makes us salivate to read sentence two.
This is a bad lede: "The suggestion, by persons in some places, that the sum total of the enrichment experience potential of going online to check out the Internet in this day and age is in fact in steep decline on account of the plethora of badly written articles, is worth noting."
A small improvement might be: The Net is dying and bad writing is its killer.
2. A good transition helps render a readable article.
Your lede is off the hook, and the subsequent two or three sentences lend it charm and gravitas. You're thinking you're home free. Time to put up your feet and wait for the money, accolades and aggressive advances from attractive members of whichever gender or genders your prefer. Not so fast there, cow person. Your article can't dance without a couple of shapely transitions.
For example: Let's say in your lede you write, "Filet mignon beats the hell out of tripe." We like bovine products, so we say, "Aha, tell us more." You write that tripe is cow stomach and rather chewy, while filet is cow tenderloin and, if cooked properly, melts like butter in your mouth. You go on to say that scientific studies show that there is significantly more protein in filet than in tripe. Now what? It's time to take your article's argument to the next level-but don't go too far afield.
But then, for example, in paragraph 2, you do this: "Take heed, sweet article writing isn't for everyone, including my cousin Darla who looks like a supermodel only with a great many fewer teeth."
Conversely: "Take heed, sweet article writing isn't for everyone; some of you will go on writing lousy articles and surviving on tripe because that is the way of the universe."
Consistently applying these 2 keys will markedly improve the quality of your articles.
Well, here's two tips to encourage writing that is better, ideas that are rendered clearer, and articles that are more engaging:
1. Your article must have a killer lede (lead).
Use lede or lead. It's your choice. Lede is often used as an alternative to lead as it reduces ambiguity, e.g., My article's lead read "red lead paint licking may lead to lead poisoning." Your lede is the first line in the body of your article. Bad ledes are synonymous with home movies and persistent flatulence in that they send people running from the room.
Your lede should be compelling, something that seizes our eyeballs and makes us say "Wait a second, here's an article that might be worth ingesting." Moreover, your lede should give us a sense of where we're going. Being as concise as you can, dangle something provocative in front of us, something that makes us salivate to read sentence two.
This is a bad lede: "The suggestion, by persons in some places, that the sum total of the enrichment experience potential of going online to check out the Internet in this day and age is in fact in steep decline on account of the plethora of badly written articles, is worth noting."
A small improvement might be: The Net is dying and bad writing is its killer.
2. A good transition helps render a readable article.
Your lede is off the hook, and the subsequent two or three sentences lend it charm and gravitas. You're thinking you're home free. Time to put up your feet and wait for the money, accolades and aggressive advances from attractive members of whichever gender or genders your prefer. Not so fast there, cow person. Your article can't dance without a couple of shapely transitions.
For example: Let's say in your lede you write, "Filet mignon beats the hell out of tripe." We like bovine products, so we say, "Aha, tell us more." You write that tripe is cow stomach and rather chewy, while filet is cow tenderloin and, if cooked properly, melts like butter in your mouth. You go on to say that scientific studies show that there is significantly more protein in filet than in tripe. Now what? It's time to take your article's argument to the next level-but don't go too far afield.
But then, for example, in paragraph 2, you do this: "Take heed, sweet article writing isn't for everyone, including my cousin Darla who looks like a supermodel only with a great many fewer teeth."
Conversely: "Take heed, sweet article writing isn't for everyone; some of you will go on writing lousy articles and surviving on tripe because that is the way of the universe."
Consistently applying these 2 keys will markedly improve the quality of your articles.
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