Seven Ways To Fine Tune Your Writing.

Would you like to write eye-catching articles? Do your readers drift away reading your posts?

Here are seven tips for you to make catchy articles.

1. Read, Read and Read Is The Ball Game. 

If you read ten thousand lines you may be able to write one line.   Read a newspaper, book, or article aloud for 30 minutes a day.  You will find your vocabulary improving.   Do this every day.  You will notice results within 10 days.

Keep a journal and start writing every day for 30 minutes.  You can jot anything that comes to your mind.  Go on writing your thoughts or anything that flashes across your mind.  Possibly do it at the same time every day.  Slowly writing skills will improve.

Make others read what you have written.  See if it looks good to them and is understandable for that person. Finding people to read is a difficult task, so find a friend or family member who loves reading.

2. "Leave Your Darlings". 

You may have some favorite words that have clung to your vocabulary.  Just leave them aside. Ensure you write something a layman can understand.  Using complex words will make your reader check the dictionary.  Using short sentences not more than eighteen words is preferred by readers. Two ideas should not be in one sentence. You can get a readability test tool Free Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test Tool - Readable (webfx.com).  Similar other tools like Gunning Fog Score, Cloeman Liau Index, and Automated Readability Indeed are other tools available online. A Readability test may be done on one of these before others notice your article. Step into the shoes of the person who reads your writing.

 

3.Checking Punctuations and Grammars"

Once your writing habits improve you can use www.grammarly.com to get your grammar, spellings, and punctuations in place.  Use Hemingway app to beautify the text by avoiding passive voice and sentence complexity. You can keep an extension in your browser automatically helps you write better.   Write your own stories rather than imagined and cooked up stories.  This looks good and readers prefer it. This is a good way to start. This is my personal experience though others may have a different opinion. You may also join a course online to get fine-tuned.  Plenty of courses are available as well as tips from YouTube and other websites can be taken up. One platform that offers free courses is .edX Courses | View all online courses on edX.org.

3.1 Use an Eye-Catching Title and Sub Headings.

The title should make the reader draw attention to the article. The title should have the main keyword to get SEO optimized. Similarly, Sub Heading should have secondary keywords. Ensure that keywords are used in between the article. A Headline Analyser Tool Headline Studio by CoSchedule: Write Better Headline, be used to create catchy headlines.

4. S.E.O. Friendly Writing.

  Search Engine Optimisation ( SEO) plays a role in today's online content.  The basics of S.E.O need to be known to the writer. The use of keywords and use of headings, sub-headings, and other styles of writing are required as SEO standards.   This is also called S.E.O writing.  Multiple formats of writing are used for this. API citation format is widely used in the U.S mainly in universities.  How to Write Great API Documentation | Hacker Noon may be referred.   Using Google docs with Heading 1, 2, or 3 or H1, H2, and  H3 styling are possible on Google docs.  Microsoft Word will also support all these ways. Grammarly.com works along with Google docs.  A better description can be seen in this link-The Best Medium Article Formatting Guide | by Casey Botticello | Blogging Guide | Medium. There are also other styles of citation. MLA, Chicago, Turabian, and IEEE are different styles of formating. Use tools like Google Trends, app.buzzsumo.com for finding Primary and Secondary Keywords. See the number of searches for the topic you are going to write. Your article should have more words than the best ranking Website with the same content for a better SEO ranking.

Articles are broadly classified into  Expository, Persuasive, Descriptive, and Narrative types.  You may choose one of these to start.  We can declassify writing further into:

• Book Review Articles
• Clinical Trial Articles.
• Columns. 
• Commentary/Perspective/Opinion Articles.
• Essays.
• Investigative Articles. 
• Question-and-Answer Articles.
• Business writing
• Academic Writing and so on

5. Do Good Research And Be Adaptable As A Writer.

You should be able to research a lot and should be adaptable as per market requirements in case you want to make a career in writing.  Content writing jobs are in high demand after the pandemic as most businesses are going online.

6. Check Plagiarism.

If you have referred to different web content, ensure the content is free from Plagiarism. https://www.quetext.com/ is a tool to check plagiarism. While checking plagiarism please ensure the article does not have too many keywords stuffed into it. Much usage of keywords might drift the reader away.

7. Proofread the Article Multiple Times Before Publishing.

Ensure to read the article multiple times, and re-read it after a break or the next day. This will make sure the article looks good. If possible ask someone to read it before publishing or submitting it to your client.

Focus on a niche if you take this full-time or as a career. You may also write for different niches once you have got accustomed to one. Use Copyright-free pictures from pexel.com, canva.com, or any other copyright-free website. You may also use infographics to make it attractive to the reader. If you require more insights on content writing and how to excel in it please comment below.