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6 Serious Article Writing Deficiencies And 6 Ways You Can Fix Them
s a writer and editor of need to research out digital
The Digital Camera Zone, I cameras before buying one, but
spend hours every day then drops the ball.
scouring the ezine barns for
articles to put in front of an In essence, the only thing the
information hungry public. article says, in 500 - 600 words
or so, is “Do your homework”.
I definitely find a lot of
articles, all right. They number —There are no concrete
in the thousands. Because I need suggestions as to how to do the
content to feed a voracious research.
audience, I select as many as I
can even though I’m often not —There are no suggested sources
really happy with many of them. where the reader can go to find
information.
”Why,” I can hear you ask, “do
you publish articles that you are —There are no criteria by which
not happy with?” the reader can decide which
camera is best for her.
Well, the answer lies in several
unfortunate deficiencies in many In short, the article might not
of the articles published in as well have been written. The
article barns... writer is merely telling the
reader what she already knew and
DEFICIENCY NUMBER ONE: INADEQUATE provides no real information.
CONTENT Remember: it’s not “content that
is king¨; it’s quality content
Many articles are glaringly that is king.
superficial. The author may start
with a good premise, say, the DEFICIENCY NUMBER TWO:
OVERDEPENDENCE ON KEYWORD either your own, an acquaintance,
ANALYSIS or a plausible situation, and
should confront the reader with a
Just about every article on problem, immerse her in a
writing articles for the web dilemma, or invoke an emotion
emphasizes that your creation that directly leads to the
should be “rich” in the keywords solution posed by the article.
your readership is inputting into
the search engines. Many article writers start firing
facts at the reader and doggedly
The trouble comes when you try to go on in the same paragraph to
include all of the right keywords advance the solution, without
in your article so that people really building up the reader’s
will find and read it. The danger curiosity or expectations.
is that you actually degrade the
content of the article and make DEFICIENCY NUMBER FOUR: NO
it less useful. ORGANIZATION
DEFICIENCY NUMBER THREE: NOT Many writers, when they decide
GRABBING THE READER’S ATTENTION it’s time to pump out their daily
AT THE BEGINNING (or minute-ly) articles, sit down
and write paragraph after
There’s nothing that attracts a paragraph until the word count
reader more quickly to an article reaches 850 words or so without
than a short story, anecdote or any discernible organization to
personal experience that their work.
identifies her with the subject.
Then they stop, and fire it off.
This anecdote or short story
should be based on experience, DEFICIENCY NUMBER FIVE: NO SUB
HEADS OR BULLETS FINAL HORROR: GRAMMATICAL AND
SPELLING MISTAKES
We load up the article with long
paragraphs which exhibit no —Gramatical Mistakes. Yes, you
logical breaks. knew this one was coming—things
like “your¨, when you mean
The article has no: “you’re¨; “its¨ when you meant
“it’s¨.
-- Subheads. A pithy subhead for
each paragraph will pique your —Spelling Errors. Your reader
reader’s interest and lead her will assume that if you can’t
into it. If your readers don’t spell, you don’t know what you’re
encounter at least one subhead talking about.
after reading a couple of
paragraphs, you’ve probably lost —Incomplete Sentences. Have a
them. subject, a verb and an object
unless you’re being fancy, and
—Bullets. If you’ve got several know you’re being fancy.
points you want to make in a
paragraph, create as many bullets —Missing Words. Missing words,
as you need. Don’t overdo it of for example, “I went New York”,
course. Bullets are like salt. are enough to blow any reader
away. My question is, “You went
—Numbers. If you’ve got what?”
sequential steps you want the
reader to take, number them. It If your article contains any of
makes it so much easier to figure these stoppers, your readership
out what you’re trying to say. will never get as far as your
Resource Box.
DEFICIENCY NUMBER SIX AND THE
SO WHAT’S THE SOLUTION? GO OUT Think economy: less is more.
AND HIRE A PROFESSIONAL WRITER?
—Get somebody else to read
No, you are the pro. Here’s what it—somebody who neither loves you
you can do to make your articles nor hates you.
sizzle:
—Sleep on it. Never send out an
1) Read professionally written article the same day you wrote
articles on the web until you’ve it. Your brain will “cook¨
absorbed their style. overnight and you’ll think of all
kinds of things you needed to
2) Develop your own voice. Do say...and change.
this by writing and writing.
—Read it from the bottom up. This
3) Paste a picture of your is a good way to catch typos
hypothetical reader on the after you’ve looked at it for too
computer, and write to that long.
person. What do you need to say
to catch and keep their --Read it out loud.
attention?
—Do a spell check. In this modern
4) Break it up. Use subheads, age of spell checking word
bullets, and numbers. Keep processors, how can anybody
pulling the reader ahead with submit an article that contains
your subheads. misspelled words?
5) Edit. 6) Beware of the spell check. It
doesn’t catch words used in the
—Read and re-read what you’ve wrong context.
written; cut out unneeded words.
The bottom line is, take more glow like comets and you’ll see
time with your stuff. Write your dreams come true.
something that will make ezines
About the Author:
John Young has been writing since he was, well very young, and is now 62. Although he has a scientific background (degree in Chemistry), and several years IT and Programming experience, he is interested in a variety of subjects and is presently setting up a number of ezines. He lives in California with his wife and pet cat "Bear". Check out his new ezine "The Digital Camera Zone" at
http://www.pcreveal.com/digitalcamera and his Informational Marketing site at http://www.ebook-marketing-software.com where you’ll find a handy free tool (Article Creator) that really helps with article organization, as well as books writing.
Read more articles by: John Young
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