how can you write a good article

How to Write a Good Article: Expert Tips for Crafting Engaging Content

How to Write a Good Article?

Before we get into the article, let's answer How to write a good article.

A good article meets the target audience, includes detailed research, and has a structure with logical headings and flow. A great article is written in easy-to-understand language and visuals (images and graphs) whenever relevant.

Today we're going to explain how to create a good, no, exceptional article.

In fact, we've used this exact process to write over 10 million words for 300+ clients.

So, if you're a blogging newbie or an experienced writer, there's something for everyone.

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Are you wondering what makes a good article truly engaging? Direct, clear, and impactful writing are the pillars of compelling content. Here, we break down the essentials so you can create articles that not just draw readers in, but keep them hooked from start to finish.

The Art of Engaging Titles

A title should captivate readers, persuading them to explore the content further. It’s the enticing headline that grabs attention, the promise that quality content awaits. Hence, consider the title carefully before penning down your article. It’s not just a collection of words; it’s the invitation to your reader, the spotlight on your main point.

Your title is the first thing that readers see, and it can be the deciding factor whether they will read the article or move on. So, how do you craft such a title?

The Power of Keywords

Incorporating keywords into the title sends a signal to both the search engine and the reader about the article’s content. Think of it as a beacon, leading the appropriate audience to your content. But remember, the key lies in balance.

While it’s important to start with the main keyword at the beginning of the title, it’s equally essential to ensure that the title remains both creative and clear. After all, you’re writing for humans, not just search engines. Thus, strive to keep your titles engaging, informative, and abundant in keywords.

Example: If my page is targeting "yoga tops for summer" as its primary keyword, a good title might look like:

• The best yoga tops for summer 2024
• Yoga tops for summer: Our picks for 2024
• A spammy version might look something like this:
• Yoga tops summer: Our pick of the best yoga tops for summer

Notice in the example below how the keyword is used at the beginning, but after the colon, there's an additional piece of information to compel the reader to click, not the keyword stuffed in again.

Compels the reader to click

A creative yet clear title can significantly increase reader engagement. It sparks curiosity, invites clicks, and ensures that the reader immediately understands the content’s subject. Imagine a title like ‘Meme Master’ or ‘Employee Success Curator’; they are creative, intriguing, and clear.

The balance between creativity and clarity ensures that your titles are not just visually appealing but also informative, serving as an effective bridge between the reader and the content.

Studies have shown that certain features in a blog title significantly increase click-through rates. Here are a few examples:

• Insert a number at the beginning of the title — 7 best tools to scale your agency
• Use the terms “how to,” “tips,” and “tricks” at the start of your title — How to grow your business by 1000% in the next 12 months
• Ask a conversational question — Is your skincare routine ready for winter?
• Add some fear and jeopardy — Lost revenue? Stop blaming your SDR.
• Include words like “guide”, “complete”, and “ultimate” in the title — The ultimate guide to SEO
• Use action words, such as "grow" or "increase", at the beginning of the title — How to grow your revenue with cold outreach

Writing a Captivating Introduction

The introduction serves as the gateway to your article. It’s the moment when the reader decides whether to continue reading or exit. A captivating introduction can be likened to a tantalizing appetizer, stimulating the reader’s craving for the main course. It sets the tone, offers a taste of what’s to come, and ideally, leaves the reader wanting more.

The characteristics of an effective introduction are:

• Explain the significance of the article to the reader.
• Offers an overview of the subject or issue to be discussed.
• Establishes a foundation for the subsequent content of the poster.
• Outlines the aims and objectives for the reader.

But that's much too simple. Those characteristics could lead to an introduction that looks like this:

The introduction should hook the reader’s attention, provide a brief overview, and culminate in a powerful thesis statement. Think of it as a movie trailer; it should give just enough to intrigue the reader but not give away the entire plot. But how does one craft such an introduction?

Brian Dean makes a compelling case for keeping blog intros to 4 - 7 sentences to ensure you hook the reader quickly and entice them to continue with the article. Here's an example of his intro...

As a content writing agency, we've written millions of words for clients. I personally LOVE the Brian Dean style, but for some clients, especially more B2B, this style is a touch too conversational. Although it's my personal fave :)

Opening with Impact

The first sentence in your article holds immense power. It’s the hook that can either reel in the reader or let them slip away. An impactful opening can manifest in various forms, such as a thought-provoking question, a shocking statement, or an intriguing anecdote. The goal is to spark curiosity, evoke emotions, and compel the reader to read on.

After the hook, the introduction should provide a clear benefit or promise that will motivate the reader to continue reading. The promise could be a solution to a problem, an answer to a question, or a new perspective on a common issue. The key is making the reader believe they will gain something valuable from reading your article.

Setting the Tone

Are you aware that your writing possesses a voice? It’s not just about what you say but how you say it. The tone of your writing can convey a range of attitudes and emotions, from formal and serious to casual and humorous. It’s essential in engaging your readers and creating a cohesive reading experience.

The tone you choose depends on your audience and the purpose of your article. An informative article might require a more formal and serious tone, while a personal blog post could benefit from a more casual and conversational tone. Regardless of the tone you choose, consistency is key. A consistent tone helps create a smooth reading experience and strengthens your connection with the reader.

Crafting Informative and Appealing Content

After enticing your readers with an intriguing title and an engaging introduction, your subsequent task is to maintain their interest with content that is both informative and appealing. But how can you guarantee your content is not just informative, but also able to engage readers? The answer lies in readability and visuals.

Readability is about making your content easy to read and understand. It’s about structuring your article in a way that allows the reader to easily navigate and absorb the information. On the other hand, visuals are about enhancing the reading experience by breaking up large chunks of text and providing visual representations of your points.

Structuring for Readability

Effective structuring plays a crucial role in promoting readability. It involves organizing your content in a way that guides the reader through your article. This can be achieved through the use of:

• Descriptive subheadings
• Short paragraphs
• Bullet points
• Numbered lists

Descriptive subheadings serve as signposts, guiding the reader through your article. They break down your content into manageable chunks, making it easier for your reader to process the information. Keeping paragraphs short, on the other hand, make your article visually appealing and less daunting to read. Remember, a wall of dense paragraphs can repel readers, but well-structured content can engage them.

Integrating Visuals

Visuals have become potent tools for amplifying reader engagement. They not only break up text but also provide a visual representation of your points, making your content more engaging and easier to understand.

Images, charts, infographics, and videos can all be used to enhance your content. For instance, an infographic can provide a visual summary of a complex concept, making it easier for the reader to understand. Similarly, an image or a video can add a new dimension to your content, providing a break from text and keeping the reader engaged. The key is to ensure that your visuals are relevant and contribute to the overall understanding of your content.

Connecting with Your Target Audience

A deep understanding of the target audience lies at the core of every successful article. Who are you writing for? What are their interests, needs, and pain points? A deep understanding of your audience enables you to customize your content to their preferences, guaranteeing that your message resonates with them.

However, establishing a connection with your audience goes beyond merely understanding their needs. It’s about building trust and establishing credibility. Your readers must trust the information you provide and see you as a credible source. So, what’s the strategy for building trust and credibility?

Understanding Your Readers

Understanding your readers entails stepping into their shoes and viewing the world from their viewpoint. What are their pain points? What are their interests? What motivates them? Answering these questions can provide valuable insights into your audience’s needs and preferences, helping you tailor your content to readers interested in personal stories.

Audience analysis involves researching and gathering data about your audience. This can include demographic information, such as age, gender, and location, as well as psychographic information, such as interests, attitudes, and behaviors. This information can then be used to create a detailed profile of your target audience, known as a buyer persona.

Building Trust and Credibility

Building trust and credibility involves:

• Showcasing your expertise
• Providing accurate, reliable information
• Being seen as a credible source of information, someone who knows what they’re talking about.

This can be achieved through a step-by-step guide that includes:

• Thorough research and fact-checking
• Making sure your facts are accurate and up-to-date
• Always citing your sources
• Showcasing your expertise in your field to establish yourself as an authority and build trust with your readers.

Remember, trust is the foundation of any successful relationship, and it’s no different in the relationship between a writer and their readers.

Polishing Your Work: Editing and Proofreading

The writing process of article writing extends beyond the last sentence of a good article. The real refinement happens in the editing and proofreading phase. It’s in this phase that you refine your work, ensuring every word, every sentence, every paragraph adds value to your entire article.

Editing involves revising your content for clarity, coherence, and conciseness. It’s about making sure your message is clear and your arguments are logical. Proofreading, on the other hand, involves checking for grammatical errors, typos, and punctuation mistakes. But how do you effectively edit and proofread your work?

Self-Editing Techniques

For any writer, self-editing is a vital skill. It’s about being your own critic, looking at your work objectively and making necessary improvements. Effective self-editing involves several techniques.

Some effective techniques for proofreading your work include:

• Taking a break once you have finished writing and coming back to your work with fresh eyes
• Reading your work aloud to catch awkward phrasing and long, convoluted sentences
• Using spell-check and grammar-check tools to catch errors that you might have missed

These techniques can help you spot errors and inconsistencies in your writing.

Seeking Feedback

Beyond self-editing, seeking feedback from others also proves beneficial. A fresh pair of eyes can provide a new perspective, helping you catch errors and readability issues that you might have missed.

Whether it’s a professional editor, a trusted colleague, or a friend, getting someone else’s input can provide valuable insights and help you improve your work.

Mastering the Art of Content Creation

The mastery of content creation is more of a journey than a destination. It’s about continuous learning and improvement, honing your skills, and pushing your boundaries. Whether you’re a seasoned freelance writer or a novice, there’s always room for growth.

So, what’s the path to mastering the art of content creation? It involves two key elements: analyzing good articles and consistent practice. You can learn from their structure, style, and techniques by reading and engaging with high-quality articles. And through consistent practice, you can improve your writing skills and become a better writer, able to create articles with ease.

Reading and Analyzing Good Articles

Analyzing high-quality articles equates to a behind-the-scenes tour of a successful production. You get to see the structure, the style, and the techniques that make the article engaging and informative. But more than that, you get to learn from the best.

Whether it’s a thought-provoking piece in The New England Journal of Medicine or a captivating blog post on your favorite site, each article offers unique insights that can help you improve your writing. Pay attention to:

• the headline
• the structure
• the arguments
• the evidence

What makes the news article engaging? What makes it informative? What can you learn from it?

Consistent Practice

The adage ‘practice makes perfect’ holds true in writing as well. The more you practice writing, the better you get. But consistent practice is more than just about quantity. It’s also about variety and experimentation.

To start writing different types of articles, from how-to guides to opinion pieces, experiment with different tones, from formal to casual. Write about different topics, from your areas of expertise to topics you’re curious about. Consistent practice doesn’t mean doing the same thing over and over. It means pushing your boundaries, exploring new territories, and constantly challenging yourself.

In this journey, we’ve explored the art of crafting excellent articles, from engaging titles and captivating introductions to informative content and connecting with the audience. We’ve delved into the importance of editing and proofreading, and the power of consistent practice. But the journey doesn’t end here. As you continue to write, remember to keep your reader at the heart of your writing, strive for clarity and creativity, and never stop learning and improving. After all, the art of content creation is a journey, not a destination.

Key Takeaways

• Crafting an engaging article begins with a captivating title that balances creativity and clarity, incorporating keywords while being inviting and informative.
• A successful article features an introduction that hooks the reader’s attention and sets the right tone, followed by structured content enhanced with visuals for readability and engagement.
• Connecting with your target audience by understanding their needs and building trust through credible content is essential, complemented by thorough editing, proofreading, and continuous practice and learning.

Frequently Asked Questions

What determines a good article.

A good article is determined by its engaging language, valuable information, and an organized, logical structure that captivates and informs the reader.

How can you write a good article?

To write a good article, start by selecting a topic, identifying your target audience, and conducting thorough research. Then, create an outline, write a rough draft, and refine your subject matter. Finally, read your article aloud to ensure it is error-free. Now, go ahead and start writing your fantastic article!

How can I create an engaging title for my article?

To create an engaging title for your article, start with the main keyword and balance creativity with clarity. Make sure the title is intriguing and informative to attract clicks and inform the reader about the content. Good luck!

How can I make the introduction of my article captivating?

To make your article introduction captivating, use an impactful opening sentence or a hook, such as a provocative question, shocking statement, or intriguing anecdote, and then provide a clear benefit or promise to motivate the reader to continue reading. This will grab the reader's attention and compel them to explore further.

How can I improve the readability of my article?

To improve the readability of your article, use descriptive subheadings, keep paragraphs short, and utilize bullet points and numbered lists. Additionally, break up large chunks of text with visuals to enhance the reading experience.

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Kathryn Aragon

Marketing Consultancy

How to Write a Good Article (7-Step Content Writing Process)

March 22, 2021 By Kathryn Aragon

When every brand has a blog, simply creating content isn’t enough. You need to know how to write a good article. And you need to make sure it captures the attention of your target audience.

In this article, I’m going to show you how to write a good article every time you sit down to write. We’ll start by identifying the type of writer you are, and then I’ll give you my 7-step process for consistently turning out good articles that rank well with readers and search engines.

2 Types of Writers

There are all sorts of writers. So, as you might guess, there are lots of approaches to writing a good article.

Planners can’t write until they have outlined every chapter, section and subsection. Pantsers , who write by the seat of their pants, like to start typing and see where their ideas take them. I’ve known other writers who can’t begin to write until they can “see” the entire project in their head.

Me? I’m a bit of a mix. Sometimes I have an idea and will free write to see where it takes me. Most of the time, I’m facing a deadline and don’t have time to waste, or the project is too big, and unless I plan it carefully, I could easily lose control.

As a result, I’ve settled into a writing process that allows me the flexibility to see where my ideas take me and still move quickly to completion.

7-Step Writing Process for Writing Good Articles (Consistently)

Step 1. concept.

For me, every writing project starts with an idea . It’s generally somewhat loose and unformed at the beginning, but I like the concept, so I know it’s worth pursuing. For example, the idea for this article arrived just after finishing an ebook for a client. It was a simple thought, “Hey, I should share my writing process.”

Often, the keywords for the project will be in the idea, and I already have a vague idea of the length and format: article, ebook, training program, etc.

Step 2. Working title

I may or may not start with a title. But I usually plug in something, even if I know it’s likely to change. Often, as I write, I realize that a particular phrase turns up often, and I suspect it could work as the final title. In that case, I pop back up to the top of the document and either replace the working title or add my new idea below it.

When the project is done, I’ll select the title I like best. Or, if I’m unhappy with my working titles, I’ll brainstorm for more.

Note: If I’m writing an article to rank for a keyword, I use the keyword in the title. For your working title, try this format:

keyword [colon] benefit

Step 3. Outline / Research

Just after I have an idea for a new project, I get a flood of ideas for how I could develop it. That’s when I grab a pen and paper or pull up a Google Doc to jot down my ideas. At this stage, the vague idea begins to become more concrete.

Find the high-level topics you need to include

I typically jot down my ideas in the order they come to me, then rearrange them to create a logical progression of thought. I want to see the working title and the major headings right away. That way I can see the overall structure of my project and confirm that the concept is worth pursuing.

Note: When writing, always work BIG to SMALL. Iron out your big concepts (subheads) before worrying about the details (the words).

Refine the article idea

To write a better article, you need to make sure your idea is clear and focused.

Once you have a rough outline, you can refine the concept of your article.

• Does it share information people are looking for?
• Is it specific and focused?
• Is it intriguing to your target audience?

If the outline doesn’t support my original idea, I work with the concept and my supporting ideas until they flow well from beginning to end.

How in-depth does your outline need to be?

That depends on the scope of the project.

If you’re writing a 1,000-word article , once you have your subheads in order, you can start filling in the content. In most cases, you can write in order, from the intro to the conclusion.

Writing from top to bottom, your ideas connect better, so you end up with a cleaner draft. (This flow will give you a better article because each idea flows into the next.)

But the content writing process is flexble. If you have ideas for one section and not another, it’s okay to that write the article out of order.

If you’re writing a 4,000-word article or a large project like an ebook , you’ll need a more detailed outline — usually as many as three levels deep. This lets you see at a glance how you’re going to develop each of your main ideas.

When you’re writing a long, in-depth article, review your outline carefully, before you start writing. Make sure you don’t have multiple sections that say the same thing. Check the flow of your ideas: Does one idea lead logically to the next? If you see any weak areas or gaps, fix those now.

How to fix a weak outline

Sometimes, when I struggle to get the outline right, it’s because the article idea is weak. When that happens, work from BIG to SMALL to diagnose the problem.

• The topic itself
• Your concept: way you’re approaching the topic
• The bottom-line point you’re trying to make

Sometimes, there’s disconnect. Your point doesn’t connect logically with the topic you’ve chosen. Or the way you’re approaching the topic is too vague or too complex.

Evaluate your concept first, to see if it needs to change. Then, if the concept is sound, do a bit more research to see if you can identify the problem.

For instance, my agency was recently working on an article about retargeting. The article brief included both keywords, and the ideas we were supposed to include referred to “retargeting” and “remarketing” interchangeably.

As we researched the topic to create our outline, we realized retargeting and remarketing are two distinct strategies. There was no way to talk about them together. To make this article work, we had to change the focus of the article to include both strategies. Then we created a section for each term.

Step 4.  Research / Write

Research is never a stand-alone step in my writing process. I research when I’m refining my article idea, when I’m creating my outline, and as I write the first draft.

To learn how to write a good article, you must get good at research.

During the outlining phase, you’re looking for the ideas and topics you need to include in your article. During the writing phase, your research focuses on statistics, graphics, quotations, case studies, and other proof elements that will support your claims.

As I just mentioned, writing and research go together. If you’re in a writing frenzy and know you need a statistic, you don’t have to stop writing to search for the perfect statistic. To keep your flow, type an underline or highlight that passage to remind yourself to come back to it. Then, when you’re done writing, scour the web for the statistic you need.

But sometimes, writing and research together can help you connect your ideas and find a better way to present your idea. Both ways of working are valid. Both with help you write a good article.

Aim to write an ugly first draft

Your goal during this stage of the writing process is to capture and refine your ideas. You want to make your points as clearly as possible.

Don’t try to write a masterpiece at this stage. If you have a rough draft that follows your outline, you’re good. Once you’ve got the bones down, you can start focusing on making your writing smoother and more readable .

Note: A title and an outline give you the framework of your article, but you can’t always know exactly how the article will come together until you’re writing. When you outline, you’re a planner . When you begin writing, you need to be at least a little bit of a pantser .

For me, every article starts rough. I’m just throwing ideas and words onto the page. As I get into the article, my ideas begin to crystalize. As that happens, my writing becomes less “drafty” and begins to read more like a final draft.

By the time I get to the end of my first draft, I can see my point very clearly, so I write a good, clean conclusion. Then I go back to the beginning and rework the introduction.

In general, however, I research and refine the outline, then, when the organization looks good and I’m confident I know what I’m going to say, I begin to write. I like this stage to be relatively uninterrupted by left-brained processes. I want to find a flow and stay there.

For me, a writing session lasts as long as the ideas flow. When the ideas stop, I take a break.

Step 5. Review

Once the writing is done, I can lightly edit the article, but fine editing and review must wait. I’m usually still in the writing zone, and I see what I thought I wrote, not what’s really there.

I do a quick review to catch glaring mistakes and make sure I covered everything I meant to cover. This is a good time to give it a good spelling-check and grammar-check. Grammarly is my favorite app for this.

As I mentioned above, I start by making sure my intro still works. If the project veered away from the original concept, the intro probably needs to be rewritten.

I make whatever corrections seem necessary, then put away the project until the next day at least.

Step 6. Rounds of edits

One or two days after I finished writing, I can review the project more objectively. I’m no longer in my writing zone and can see the article as a first-time reader might.

A quick read-through tells me where the rough spots are and helps me identify gaps where I need to add content, or repetitive areas where I need to consolidate ideas or delete them altogether.

I try to fix those areas now. During this phase, I may move whole sections or sentences, add or delete paragraphs, and make sure the structure and logic are sound.  This process continues until I can read through the piece without a hitch.

But don’t expect one pass-through to be enough. Great writing happens during the editing phase. So I go through the article several times, fine-tuning and improving my writing with each pass.

Here are my tips for better self-editing.

Edits should always progress from the general to the specific. I wait to review the finer details until I’ve completed the rough edit. Now, it’s much easier to see the awkward phrases, unclear references, and grammatical mistakes.

The process isn’t perfectly linear, though. If I see these errors while making my rough edits, I fix them. But a last read-through inevitably turns up small mistakes that I couldn’t see before, so I always make time for one last review.

Once the text looks good, I return to the title:

• Does it capture the essence of the project?
• Does it entice readers to click through or download?

Step 7. Final read-through

Before calling the project done, I do one final read-through to catch anything I might have missed in my editing.

I also do a visual scan to make sure the piece looks good at a glance. On a blog, I preview the article and quickly scroll through it. For an ebook, I do a quick scroll through the document.

At this point, I’m looking at paragraph lengths and layout. This is when I might tweak subheads or adjust images.

What’s Your Content Writing Process?

I like my process because it easily scales for any sized project. It also allows me to work quickly while still being creative and flexible. It almost guarantees I’ll write a good article.

But as I said before, all writers are different. What’s your process? Does it keep you productive, or are you looking for a better way?

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How to Write an Amazing Article In 10 Simple Steps

Writing articles is like waving a magic wand to create ripples in a vast ocean. With each stroke of your pen, you conjure waves of inspiration that reach shores far and wide, touching the hearts and minds of people worldwide. Whether you’re just starting out or enhancing your writing skills, mastering the art of article writing can open doors to endless possibilities. 

In this guide, we’ll cover the essential steps and techniques to help beginner bloggers, journalists, and freelance writers craft compelling articles. You’ll learn:

• The basics of article writing
• Structuring your content effectively
• Refining your writing style
• Polishing your work through editing and proofreading

With these tips and templates in your toolset, you’ll be ready to showcase your work to a vast audience, connect with like-minded individuals and establish a professional online presence. We’ll show you how WordPress.com’s user-friendly platform makes the process seamless.

Ready to get started?

In this article:

Informative Articles

Opinion pieces, how-to guides, feature articles, news articles, interview articles, 1. how to identify your target audience , 2. how to choose a topic, 3. how to write a headline, 4. how to conduct quantitative and qualitative research, 5. how to craft an angle , 6. how to write an outline, 7. how to write an intro, 8. how to write the body section , 9. how to write a conclusion , 10. how to edit the article , web writing best practices , best tools for writing articles, 1. the problem-solution template, 2. the listicle template, 3. the step-by-step guide template, 4. the comparative analysis template, write amazing articles and publish them on wordpress.com, types of articles .

Articles can be of different types that serve different purposes and cater to various reader interests. Let’s look at some of the most common types of articles: 

These aim to provide readers with valuable information, facts, or explanations on a particular topic. They focus on educating the audience and are typically well-researched.

Example: WordPress.com vs WordPress.org: What’s the Difference?

These express the writer’s personal viewpoint or perspective on a specific subject. These articles allow writers to share their thoughts, insights, and arguments while encouraging readers to think critically and engage in discussions.

Example: define: Brand

These provide step-by-step instructions to help readers accomplish a specific task or learn a new skill. They break down complex processes into easy-to-follow steps, enabling readers to achieve their goals.

Example: How to Choose a Domain Name for Your Website

These are presented in a list format, featuring a series of items or points related to a specific theme. They offer readers a convenient and organized way to consume information. Listicles are often used to highlight top items, tips, or recommendations.

Example: Best Small Website Builder: The Top Options Compared (2020)

These are in-depth and extensively researched pieces that explore a topic or profile of a person or event. They go beyond basic facts and delve into the nuances and details, providing readers with a comprehensive understanding.

Example: Meals for One

These report on recent events, developments, or noteworthy stories. They aim to provide readers with factual information objectively and concisely. News articles typically adhere to journalistic principles.

Example: ‘Breakthrough’ geothermal tech produces 3.5 megawatts of carbon-free power

These feature conversations or discussions with individuals of interest or expertise in a particular field. These articles often include quotes or insights from the interviewee, providing readers with unique perspectives and valuable insights.

Example: Automattic Women: Selena Jackson

Depending on your goals, target audience, and subject matter – you can choose the appropriate type of article to communicate your message and engage readers effectively.

How to write an article in 10 steps 

The basic structure of an article contains 4 parts:

• Opening paragraphs (introduction)
• The main discussion (body section)
• Closing paragraphs (conclusion) 

However, there are more than just 4 steps to writing an amazing article. Doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner or a pro; following a structured approach can help you create better articles faster. You can follow this proven 10-step process for that. 

• Identify target audience
• Choose a topic 
• Write a headline 
• Conduct quantitative and qualitative research
• Craft an angle 
• Write an outline
• Write an introduction
• Write body section
• Write conclusion 
• Finish editing 

Let’s discuss each step briefly. 

Target audience refers to the person or group you are writing for. If you’re writing for everyone, you’re writing for no one. You need to identify who you are writing for to ensure you effectively communicate your message to the audience. 

Understanding your target audience is crucial for creating content that resonates with them. Consider their demographics, interests, and needs. Research their preferences, pain points, and what they expect from your article. This knowledge will help you tailor your writing style, tone, and content to appeal directly to your intended readers.

Once you’ve researched the audience, create a user persona with common traits and then write for that one person.  Creating a user persona is not just a list of data points. It’s like an imaginary person with a name and specific characteristics that help you understand their needs.     

By focusing on your target audience, your content will speak directly to them, which will help you increase engagement and build a loyal readership base.

Before you embark on the exciting journey of article writing, you must first conquer the challenge of finding the perfect topic. The topic you choose sets the foundation for your entire piece, influencing its success and impact.

First, select a topic that interests you and aligns with your goal of writing. You don’t want to write about everything and anything. Start by considering something that aligns with your knowledge and expertise. Writing about something you’re passionate about or have expertise in makes the process more enjoyable and lets you provide valuable insights to your readers. 

Or you can also focus on solving specific or common problems in your niche. Identifying common challenges or problems and providing practical tips, step-by-step guides, or sharing personal experiences can make your content highly valuable and relevant to readers.

Researching trending topics is another easy way to find a suitable topic. Stay updated with the latest trends and discussions in your industry or niche. Explore popular blogs, news sites, and social media platforms to identify topics currently gaining traction. This ensures your article addresses timely issues and captures readers’ attention.

Lastly, take a data-driven approach through keyword research. Use keyword research tools like keyword planner or SEMrush to look for keywords with decent search volume and low competition. It ensures organic traffic.

“On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy.” David Ogilvy, copywriting legend

The headline is the first component someone reads. One single word can attract or repel them.

The first step in crafting a great headline is to analyze every word. Is every word necessary? If you remove a word, will the headline still make sense? No removable word in the headline is considered a tight headline, with nothing extra to distract from the meaning. So, keep a headline direct and persuasive so the reader is engaged.

Next, aim to craft headlines that are:

• Ultra-specific

Including all these elements in one headline might not be possible, so aim for at least one or two. Doing so will strengthen the headline and encourage readers to read on.

Here are a few more insights on keeping your readers engaged:

• Use proven headline formulas to upgrade your headline to a better level
• Keep the main idea and the keywords of the headlines relevant
• Focus on benefits. Benefit-driven headlines get more clicks
• Inject power words to command attention
• Trim unnecessary words

Solid research strengthens the credibility of your article. When you use the right data, it makes your article stronger and more convincing. 

What is quantitative data?

Quantitative data is objective data that can be measured and assigned a numerical value.

What is qualitative data?

Qualitative data cannot be measured or assigned a numerical value. Instead, it is information that is referenced not by numbers but by concepts, feelings, characteristics, and emotions. Qualitative data is subjective.

For quantitative research, you can use Google to dig out data, statistics, and surveys to support your claims and add credibility.

For qualitative research, you can conduct interviews, gather anecdotes, or explore case studies to provide valuable insights and real-life examples.

To stand out against multiple articles on a similar topic, find a unique angle that sets your piece apart. Consider what makes your article different or special. It could be a fresh perspective, a unique approach, or new insights. Determine your article’s unique selling point and emphasize it throughout your writing. Maybe it’s an expert opinion, an authentic recipe, a top-secret method, or a completely new discovery. 

For example, instead of writing a generic article on “how to deal with depression,” – write:

By offering something distinct, you’ll capture readers’ attention and give them a reason to choose your article over others.

An article outline is a structure that guides your writing process and ensures your article stays focused and well-structured. Once you start using outlines, you’ll find writing articles become much easier.

Start by listing the main points or sections you want to cover based on your research and angle. Then, under each section, jot down the sub-points or supporting details. Don’t hesitate to revise and refine your outline as you progress. Whenever you find something new, add it in its respective position. 

Google Docs is great for creating an outline for your article. Or you can also use Workflowy to organize your ideas into sections and subsections. 

Here’s an example outline I made for my article on ‘how to write an amazing article.’

Click for more tips and templates for creating outlines .

The introduction sets the tone for the entire article by grabbing the reader’s attention. The introduction is your opportunity to hook the readers and provide them with a clear understanding of what your article is about. 

Begin with a compelling opening sentence that grabs attention and sparks curiosity. Then, give a bit of background information and context to set the stage for your topic. Finally, conclude the introduction by stating your article’s main objective or thesis, giving readers a preview of what they can expect.

Example: “Did you know that humans can actually hold their breath for more than 20 minutes underwater? By following some techniques and enough practice, you, too, can extend your underwater breathing time. This article will equip you with seven expert tips to enhance your underwater breathing and unlock the wonders beneath.”

When structuring your article, it’s important to divide it into well-organized sections or paragraphs that delve deeper into the key points you want to convey. By using subheadings, you can break up the text and provide readers with a clear roadmap, making it easier for them to navigate and understand the content.

Each section should begin with a concise topic sentence that introduces the main idea or focus of that particular section. This is a signpost for readers, helping them anticipate what they will learn or explore next. 

For instance, if you’re writing an article about the benefits of exercise, one section could be titled “Improved Mental Health,” with a topic sentence like: “Engaging in regular exercise has been shown to have profound effects on our mental well-being.”

Support your statements with evidence, examples, and relevant data to ensure credibility and engagement. This adds depth and persuasion to your article. For instance, if you claim that exercise reduces stress levels, cite scientific studies or share personal anecdotes that illustrate how exercise has helped individuals manage their stress effectively.

To maintain a seamless flow of ideas, use smooth transitions between paragraphs. This allows readers to easily follow your train of thought as you progress from one point to another. Transitions can be achieved through the use of transitional words or phrases, such as “in addition,” “furthermore,” or “on the other hand.” These help establish connections and guide readers through the logical progression of your article.

This is where you end your article. A good conclusion can leave a lasting impression on the readers. Avoid introducing new information in the conclusion and summarize the key points discussed in the body of your article, emphasizing their significance and relevance. Avoid naming their conclusion “Conclusion.” 

Avoid generic headings for your conclusion heading. Be specific like:

• Learn more about [topic]
• Why is [topic] important?
• Does [topic] make sense for your business?

If you must be generic in the conclusion’s heading, then go for:

• Closing Thoughts
• Final Words
• To Sum It Up
• To Wrap It Up

Recapping the whole article helps the reader remember the list of tips. After the recap, tell them what to do next. If someone reads your whole piece, chances are, they’re invested and will take action on your Call to Action ( CTA ). Don’t let that power and impact go to waste. Guiding them to bookmark the page or follow a link to another relevant article is 100x better than stopping at the recap.

The conclusion should be short and should give the reader a clear sense of finality. Ensure you don’t leave the reader confused about the information presented or your stance on a particular topic. 

Once the draft is finished, you’re well on your way, but there’s still a bit more to do – editing. It’s a vital part of good writing. It shapes a piece of raw coal into a glittering diamond.

No matter how good you are, the first draft is always full of mistakes, and there is usually room for improvement.  

When you have the draft, take a break from writing so you can start editing with fresh eyes again. You’ll see a lot of things that you missed earlier. Review your article for clarity, coherence, grammar, and spelling errors. Ensure your writing flows smoothly and effectively communicates your ideas. To make things easier, use some tools to help you edit; I’ll discuss those in a later section.

Next, remove anything unnecessary from your article. Anything that doesn’t add any value to your article shouldn’t be there. Then, check to see if you’ve missed any necessary information. Add statistics and relevant information to solidify your writing. 

If you have the option, have a friend read the draft. A new perspective can usually detect problems. Make necessary revisions and proofread multiple times until you are confident in the quality of your final piece.

By following these ten steps, you can create a well-crafted and engaging article that captivates your audience from start to finish. 

• Stay true to your unique perspective:   As a writer, your unique perspective and voice are your most valuable assets. Embrace your individuality and bring your authentic self into your writing. Avoid replicating existing content or mimicking other writers. Instead, focus on expressing your thoughts, opinions, and experiences. Your distinctive viewpoint will set your article apart from others and create a personal connection with your readers. Be confident in your voice and don’t be afraid to let your personality shine through.
• Offer valuable insights: To engage your audience and leave a lasting impression, your article must provide genuine value. Research your topic thoroughly to unearth valuable insights, fresh data, or unique angles that haven’t been extensively covered before. Share your expertise, research findings, or personal experiences to enrich the reader’s understanding. Offering something new and valuable establishes you as a reliable source of information and keeps readers coming back for more of your content.
• Strive for clarity and coherence in your writing: Clear and coherent writing is the hallmark of an effective article. Ensure your ideas flow logically and smoothly from one paragraph to another. Use clear and concise language to convey your message without ambiguity. Avoid using jargon or overly complex terms that might confuse your readers. Utilize transition words and phrases to create seamless connections between sentences and paragraphs. When your writing is clear and coherent, readers can easily follow your train of thought, making the reading experience enjoyable and memorable. 
• Keep it short and simple: Use simple and easily understandable words to communicate your ideas effectively. Break down complex concepts into smaller, digestible chunks. Short sentences are easier to read and comprehend, allowing readers to grasp your message quickly. Also, don’t stretch your paragraphs too much. A paragraph should contain 3 to 4 lines maximum. Longer paragraphs create a wall of text that discourage readers from continuing.
• Do not copy/plagiarize: Originality is key when creating web content. Plagiarism is unethical and can have severe consequences. Always credit and properly cite any sources or references you use in your article. Provide your unique insights and perspectives to add value to the reader’s experience. Plagiarism damages your credibility and hinders your growth as a writer.
• Use subheadings and make it scannable: Web readers often skim through articles rather than reading them word by word. Help them navigate and grasp your content easily by using informative subheadings. Subheadings break up the text, making it scannable and allowing readers to find the information they are interested in quickly. Use clear and descriptive subheadings that accurately represent the content of each section.
• Use pictures and tables: Visual elements such as pictures, infographics, and tables can enhance the overall reader experience. Images can help illustrate your points, make your article visually appealing, and provide a welcome break from the text. Tables are useful for presenting data or comparisons in a structured and organized manner. Ensure that your visuals are relevant, high-quality, and appropriately sourced.

There are many tools out there to help your writing journey. Let’s introduce you to some of the most useful tools you can get for free to take your article writing to the next level. 

• ChatGPT:   ChatGPT is an AI-powered writing tool that helps writers generate ideas, write sections, conduct research, and fix grammar. AI stands for Artificial Intelligence, a technology that allows machines like ChatGPT to understand human language and respond with natural-sounding text. While AI is powerful, it’s essential to fact-check its outputs since it can sometimes make mistakes in providing accurate information. Use ChatGPT wisely, and it can be your helpful writing companion!
• Grammarly: It’s a popular writing tool that helps writers improve their grammar, spelling, and punctuation. It works as an automated proofreader and editor, checking your text for errors and offering suggestions for improvements. The pro version also has a built-in plagiarism checker. 
• Wordtune: It’s an AI-powered writing tool that assists in rephrasing and improving your sentences. It offers alternative wordings and suggestions for stronger vocabulary and can even rewrite entire sentences to improve readability and style. Wordtune can be especially useful when you want to convey your message more engagingly and concisely. 

These tools can greatly support your writing and editing process, making it easier to produce high-quality articles. However, it’s important to note that while AI tools like ChatGPT, Grammarly, and Wordtune offer valuable assistance, they are not substitutes for human creativity and critical thinking. Reviewing and revising your work personally is essential to ensure that it aligns with your unique voice and meets your intended goals for the article.

Article templates 

Templates can serve as a helpful starting point to structure your content effectively. Here are four commonly used article templates:

This template is ideal for addressing a specific problem or challenge and providing a solution to your readers. It consists of the following sections:

• Introduction: Present the problem or challenge, and explain its significance or impact.
• Problem Analysis: Dive deeper into the issue, providing relevant facts, statistics, or examples to support your claims.
• Solution Presentation: Introduce your proposed solution(s), explaining how they can address the problem effectively.
• Implementation and Benefits: Discuss how readers can implement the solution and the potential benefits they can expect to achieve.
• Conclusion: Summarize the problem, restate the solution, and leave readers with a call to action or a final thought.

Listicles are popular for their easy-to-read and scannable format. This template organizes content into a numbered or bulleted list, providing concise information or tips. It typically includes the following sections:

• Introduction: Present the topic and explain its relevance or importance.
• List Items: Present each point on the list, with a brief description or explanation for each.
• Elaboration: Provide further details, examples, or insights for each list item.
• Conclusion: Recap the main points covered in the list and offer a closing thought or a call to action.

This template is useful for providing a detailed process or instructions on how to accomplish a specific task. It follows a sequential structure and includes the following sections:

• Introduction: Introduce the task or process and explain its significance or benefits.
• Step 1: Describe the first step of the process, including any necessary background information.
• Step 2: Detail the second step, and continue with subsequent steps until the process is complete.
• Tips and Considerations: Offer additional tips, tricks, or important considerations to enhance the reader’s understanding or success in following the steps.
• Conclusion: Recap the steps covered, emphasize key takeaways, and provide a closing remark or call to action.

This template is suitable when comparing and contrasting two or more subjects, products, or ideas. It follows a structured approach and consists of the following sections:

• Introduction: Present the subjects being compared and explain the purpose or context of the analysis.
• Comparison Criteria: Identify the specific criteria or factors used to evaluate and compare the subjects.
• Comparison Sections: Dedicate separate sections to each criterion, providing a detailed analysis and comparison of the subjects based on that criterion.
• Overall Assessment: Summarize the main findings and provide an overall assessment or conclusion based on the comparisons made.
• Conclusion: Reinforce the main points, highlight any recommendations or conclusions, and encourage readers to share their thoughts or experiences.

Other than these short templates, you can find millions of examples online. Simply search for a similar article you want to write, and click on the first few links to see the structure they’ve used. 

Congratulations! You’ve now gained a comprehensive understanding of how to write amazing articles. By following the steps and techniques in this guide, you are well-equipped to embark on your writing journey and captivate your target audience.

Remember, writing articles is not only about conveying information; it is also about connecting with readers on a deeper level, inspiring them, and sparking meaningful conversations. 

The next step is to find a good place to publish your amazing articles now that you have the tools to get started. You can easily get started with a website from WordPress.com. It’s quite simple to get started once you follow some super simple guidelines from WordPress.com support.    

So, what are you waiting for? Start creating your WordPress.com account today, unleash your writing prowess, and let the world discover your remarkable talent!

Happy writing!

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About the author, mehedi hasan shoab.

Mehedi is a freelance writer for SaaS, marketing and finance businesses. He's the founder of PowerhouseBlogger.com. Mehedi is growing businesses with sizzling writing, one piece at a time.

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How to Write a Good Article: 7 Tips

Want to learn how to write a good article? Craft attention-grabbing titles? Pull readers in and keep their focus?

Knowing how to say something is as important as knowing what to say. The following seven tips will help you create articles that engage readers from beginning to end.

<div class="tip">Need help with content creation? Hire writers through our content marketing platform and receive high-quality content for your site.</div>

1. Create a catchy title.

A title is the first thing your reader will see, and it's the first chance you have to convince them to continue reading your article. You don't need to resort to clickbait-style titles to get readers interested. There are many different strategies for formulating good titles . Here are a few suggestions to help you formulate one that is perfectly eye-catching:

• Promise a solution. What problem are you going to solve for the reader? Draw them in with a promise of answers. For example, start out with phrases like "how to" and "tips for."
• Be succinct. Blog posts with 6- to 13-word titles get the most traffic , so make sure your titles aren't too wordy.
• Ask a question. Write your title in the form of a question to which you know the answer will be "yes."

2. Start strong—write a strong hook.

You only have, at most, a few sentences to draw a reader in. Let your reader know that this is going to be an article worth taking the time to finish. The first sentence is the most important of the entire article and should be carefully crafted. You want to hook your reader in and not let go from that point forward. Here are a few tips:

• Pose a question. What's the driving question behind your article? Start there and make your reader want to stay for the answer.
• Present a surprising fact. Right out of the gate, the reader knows they will learn something new in this article.
• Start with a controversial statement. Get the reader invested immediately.

3. Write succinctly.

Keep your sentences and paragraphs short. Long, dense paragraphs can be intimidating. You don't want your reader to open the link, see a block of text and think. “I don't have time for this.” Shorter sentences pull the reader along and encourage a quick reading pace. Here are some suggestions for how to trim your sentences:

• Avoid excessive words. You're a writer. You like to write. But don't get too caught up in creating flowery prose. Make sure that your writing isn't getting in the way of the information you are conveying.
• Check your adverbs. If you find adverbs paired with weaker words, use a stronger word to convey the same meaning instead. Is something “very important” or “critical”? Cutting out adverbs not only saves you a few words, but it also makes your writing stronger.
• Watch redundancy. Adverbs are often at fault here too. Something is just “harmless,” not “completely harmless”. Something is “blank,” not “totally blank”.

<div class="tip">What about the length of an article itself? It's a common question, and there is no one-size-fits-all answer. Follow these guidelines about how long a blog post should be.</div>

4. Edit your work. And then edit again.

In other words, don't be afraid to edit. It's common to feel that every word you write is crucial, and it can be painful to cut things out. However, editing is just as important—if not more important—than the actual writing.

When you've finished your first draft, go back over it with a critical eye, deleting anything unnecessary or repetitive. If a sentence doesn't function to strengthen your argument, give it the ax! After this initial and brutal editing phase, read over your piece again to ensure that every sentence feeds naturally into the next.

5. Pay attention to visuals.

It would be nice to think that only the quality of your writing matters, but the truth is looks matter too. Learning a few tricks allows you to use this to your advantage.

Variation in sentence length, paragraph length, text size, and text type breaks up the visual landscape in an appealing way. This variation also serves to guide the reader to the most important parts of your article.

Images can also serve to break up the text, and they are another way to draw in the reader. A catchy title draws clicks, but an enticing image piques readers' interest enough to continue reading. Remember, it's important to consider which images will work best for your article and how to access them.

• Keep paragraphs short and visually appealing.
• Use bullet points to break up blocks of text. Since 43% of readers skim blog articles , it's important to highlight your main points.
• Bolding is another way to break up your text, directing the skimmer's eyes to those ideas that you want to stand out.
• Use images to break up the text and draw in readers.

6. Use the appropriate format.

Not all articles are created the same. It's important to be aware of different types and to consider which format is the best fit for what you're writing. Will your topic work best as a numbered listicle ? Keep in mind that titles with numbers generate the most clicks.

Formatting your article as a how-to is also a good way to generate clicks . Consider your topic and what will work best in terms of the presentation of ideas.

7. Use keywords strategically.

Keywords are an important part of search engine optimization (SEO). However, keep in mind that Google penalizes sites for keyword stuffing . We are still aiming for quality content and the appropriate use of keywords. Include the primary keyword in the title of your blog post. Secondary keywords should be featured in the subheadings and the body of the text.

Last Thoughts

There are two additional tips that will drastically affect how you write an article: practice and read. The more you practice writing, the better you will get. Actively practice implementing these tips in your writing. Then when you read other articles, engage with them as a writer. Were you drawn in by the opening? Is the layout visually appealing? Thinking critically while you read is another way to improve as a writer.

Happy writing!

This article was written by Compose.ly writer Grace Neveu.

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How to Write an Article (the Complete Guide)

• Sarah Neidler, PhD
• February 9, 2021

Did you just launch your new website and want to fill it with content? Or would you like to work as an article writer  and you’re asking yourself, how do I write an article that actually gets results? 

In both cases, you want to know how to write an article. 

This is a step-by-step guide that shows you how to come up with article ideas, get started with writing, and edit after writing. The guide is intended for online articles, but most points also apply to offline, print articles. Also, note that the difference between an article and a blog post is marginal, so most recommendations also apply to blog posts. 

Because it’s crucial that your article ranks in Google, we also cover some basics about search engine optimization (SEO). For more detailed information, I recommend you reading our 25 Point Blog Post Checklist for SEO .

1. Come up with a topic and a focus keyword

Before you start writing, you have to decide what you want to write about. That should be obvious. But what makes a good idea for an article?

Writing an article takes a lot of time and effort. Your articles should help you to generate traffic to your website. One of the most important factors that decide how much traffic you get is Google ranking.

Ideally, you want your article to rank for a high volume keyword. If 10.000 people per month type a specific keyword into Google and your article is the first to come up, many people will click on it and thereby land on your website.

When it comes to ranking, you should not only consider the search volume but also how difficult it is to rank for this keyword. A huge search volume is useless when your article appears on page number 256 of the search results.

It’s best to use a keyword research tool to find out the keyword difficulty (KD). We recommend Ahrefs because it provides you with accurate keyword data and many other functions that help you rank in Google.

There are two main ways to come up with article ideas:

• You have some ideas in mind; then you use a keyword research tool to find out if there are good keywords for these topics.
• You do a keyword search, come up with a list of suitable keywords and then decide which ones to cover in an article.

The focus keyword reflects the topic of your article. It can consist of one or two words or multiple words. As an example, the focus keyword of this article is “how to write an article.”

If you struggle to find good ideas, I recommend you read my article about how to find blog topics .

2. Find the search intent behind the keyword

When typing keywords into Google, you have a problem that you want to solve. You might want to learn more about a particular topic, you have a specific question, or you are looking for products to buy. The content of your article has to match the user’s search intent behind the keyword.

“How to” keywords make it easy: They phrase a question, and your article should answer this question. When someone searches for “best Italian restaurant in town,” the person doesn’t want to know what an Italian restaurant is, but how to find the best one.

Google knows this and will display local Italian restaurants with the best reviews. Also, rating websites like Tripadvisor make it to the top search results because they deliver the information the user is looking for: A short review about the best Italian restaurants, explaining why they are the best ones.

Because Google has, in most cases, a good idea about the search intent behind keywords, googling the keyword you want to rank for is always a good idea.

3. Find out how long your article needs to be

How long your article should be, depends on the topic and the competition. Some topics can be covered comprehensively in a short article. There is always the possibility to write more, but more is not always better. Again, keep the search intent in mind.

If the keywords indicate that the user looks for a simple, short answer, it’s better to keep it short. A long, detailed article would instead repel those readers. Take as an example: “How many strings does a guitar have.” This is a very basic question, and the person typing this into Google expects a short, simple answer. He or she doesn’t want to read a 1000-word article to find out.

But many topics are worth covering in detail. Someone who searches for “How to find the best electric bass guitar” would be thankful for a long, comprehensive article that answers all his questions. For these kinds of topics, you need to find out how long your article should at least be to have a realistic chance to rank for it. Googling your focus keyword is the easiest way to find out. Just check how long the top-ranking articles are and write one that is at least that long.

When you notice that your article is getting much longer than planned, decide if the added points are that important. If they truly add value, keep them. Check if they are highly related to the topic. If not, you can always cover them in a separate article.

4. Read competing articles

Take a close look at the articles that rank for your focus keyword. See if you can find good ideas in there and take some notes. This is not about copying your competition. It’s about getting inspired to make your article better.

5. Research the topic

Do deep research about the topic you want to write about. And simply googling your focus keyword and reading the top-ranking articles does not count as research. Ideally, you should already be knowledgeable about the topic.

The less you know, the more research you have to do. But even if you already know the subject in and out, check if there is new information available. For instance, when you write about CBD oil for anxiety, you may already know that CBD oil can help with anxiety and why. But there may still be a new study that you don’t know about. Covering the latest research that your competition hasn’t written about gives you a leading edge.

6. Brainstorm information to include

Once you know what you want to write about and gathered all the important information, you should do some brainstorming about what you want to cover in the article. There may be many points, likely, you won’t keep all of them. But writing them all down helps you to make sure that you don’t forget any vital information.

7. Come up with unique ideas

When you’re done with brainstorming, make sure that you have ideas with unique content that you cannot find anywhere else. If your article summarizes the top 5 ranking articles, you’re not providing value to your readers.

There are many ways to make a text unique, and it depends on the kind of article. If you’re an expert on the topic, you can give an expert opinion with unique insights. When it’s an informational article, try to find information you cannot find anywhere else.

And even if there’s no additional information, you can still provide value. For instance, by explaining a complex problem better than anyone else does. Or by illustrating a point with a story. There are many ways, be creative!

8. Write an outline

Before you start writing, write an outline to give the article some structure. It is not set in stone, and you can change it while writing. But it makes the writing process much more manageable.

No matter what kind of article you write, it should always have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.

Further, each article should answer three questions in the following order:

• What (is it about)?
• Why (is it important)?
• How (to implement it)?

Answering these three questions gives your article a logical flow.

First, you have to let your readers know what the article is about. When you write about something that not everybody is familiar with, you’ll also have to explain what it is and give background information. For instance, when you write an article about magnesium, you should first mention that it is an essential mineral and review its role in the body.

The next step is then to explain why it’s important and why people should care. You would mention how common a magnesium deficiency is and what symptoms it causes. 

In the last step, you would address the how and tell your readers how they can prevent a magnesium deficiency.

In how much detail you answer each of these questions is very individual and depends on the kind of article you write. When you write a “How to …” article, like the one you are currently reading, answering the “How” is the main part. Readers looking for “How to do something” already know what it is and why it’s important. So you can briefly answer the first two questions in the introduction and then spend the rest of the article answering the “How.”

But you can also have articles focusing on the “Why.” After briefly answering the “What,” you explain in detail why it is important. The “How” can then be a simple call to action, leading the reader to an article addressing the “How” or to a product that is solving the problem.

If you wrote about the detrimental health consequences of eating too much sugar, this would answer the question, “Why too much sugar is bad for you.” After your readers are convinced that too much sugar is very unhealthy, you can end the article with a call to action to your article about how to eat less sugar.

The What, Why and How questions can serve as a template that you can apply to any article.

9. Follow the rule of one

Following the rule of one is probably the most important advice when writing an article, and most writers don’t follow it. Yet, articles that fulfill this rule are the most successful ones. So when you apply it, you write better articles than most others.

The rule sounds simple but is not easy to follow. It means that you should dedicate the content to one single topic and don’t deviate from it. For instance, in the article you are currently reading, I stick to advice about how to write an article. I don’t tell you how to write an ebook .

You might think that many people who write articles also write ebooks, and this information might be of interest to them. This might be true. But it’s also true that people who don’t know how to get started with an article are probably not ready to write an ebook yet. That’s why I don’t include any advice about ebook writing and instead would link to an article about how to write an ebook.

You have to put yourself into the shoes of your readers. Keep the search intent of your focus keyword in mind. Someone who types these words into Google is looking for specific information. By deviating from it, you risk boring your readers and losing them.

That’s the last thing you want. And the good thing when writing online articles is that linking to other articles is very easy. So if you are not 100% sure if the information is of interest to all article readers, leave it out and simply link to the content with further information.

10. Avoid the curse of knowledge

It’s good to write about something you’re knowledgeable about. In the end, you have something to tell and to teach.

But when you write about a topic that you are very familiar with, you quickly fall into the trap of the curse of knowledge.

This can have two negative consequences, and you should avoid both like the plague.

• You tell your readers everything you know about the topic, or even worth, everything that is even loosely related to it

This is related to the rule of one. Many writers throw too much information at their readers, mostly because they want to demonstrate how much they know about a certain topic. They think that this signals credibility. What it really does is deviating from the subject and boring your readers.

• You don’t write in a way that your audience easily understands

The second danger is that you are using words your audience isn’t familiar with and assume your readers know something they don’t. Simply because you know so much about a certain topic, you cannot imagine how it is not knowing it. As an author, this problem can be very hard to spot. This is why editing is so important (see point 20)

But you’re losing people that way. Your readers might think that you’re smart, but they will nevertheless stop reading your content because they either find it not interesting or because they don’t understand it.

11. Include references from reliable sources

You should try to provide sources for the information you include. This makes you look credible and also gives your readers the chance to find out more. How many references you have to provide largely depends on the kind of article and the topic.

When you write about a personal experience, you won’t have to provide many sources, and even not mentioning any might be fine. When you write about how CBD oil can help with anxiety, you certainly want to link to some scientific studies proving your point.

12. Link to further information

No matter how long your article is, there is always more information about this topic. An easy way to provide value to your reader is to link to useful information. This can be to another article on your website or an external source.

Linking internally to other articles is also a valuable tool to stick to the point. When you catch yourself covering something that is not directly related to the topic, write a separate article about it and link to it.

Here’s an example of a link from one article to another.

13. Make it “snackable”

People who read online are often looking for quick information. They don’t sit down for three hours to read about a specific topic as they might do with a book. When they click on a Google search result, they skim through the article to see if it provides the information they are looking for. And even if they decide that the article is worth reading, they don’t want to read large text blocks.

For these reasons, you should

• Write short paragraphs
• Use many subheadings (as a rule of thumb, you should have at least one subheading every 300 words)
• Use bullet points where it makes sense
• Bold important information
• Use supporting infographics and pictures
• Summarize the most important points after a paragraph covering a lot of information

14. Make it an easy read

This point is related to the advice to make the content “snackable.” Furthermore, you should use uncomplicated language. Try to keep your sentences short and simple. Write in an active voice.

And avoid technical terms unless you’re 100% sure that your audience is familiar with them.

How “easy” the content is, depends, of course, on your audience’s background knowledge. To be precise, it should be an easy read for your audience, not necessarily for everyone.

15. Use the language of your audience

When you write an article for medical doctors, your tone and language differ from when you write for laypeople. Always keep your audience in mind and try to adopt their language. This way, your content relates to them, and it is easier to connect to them and build trust.

16. Write a compelling introduction

The introduction should explain why the article is relevant and how it solves the reader’s problems. You should keep it short and come straight to the point. The intro helps readers decide whether the article answers their question and it’s worth reading or whether they should look further.

For this reason, your introduction should raise the reader’s interest, but it should also reflect the content of the article. If you make false promises in your intro, you’ll disappoint your readers, and you risk that they won’t read your content in the future.

Mentioning a statistic, a quote, or an interesting, relevant fact is also an excellent way to start an article.

I personally prefer to write the introduction after writing the body of the article. I may write some notes before writing the article and then write it out later. Once the article is written, you have a clearer picture of the article’s content and how to lead into it.

17. End with a strong conclusion

It is a good idea to write the conclusion last. But when writing the article, you should already know what the conclusion is so that you can build up to it. As for the introduction, you can write down the points you want to mention and write them out later.

There are many different ways to write the conclusion. In many cases, it’s a good idea to summarize the article and emphasize the main takeaway. A call to action is also an excellent way to end an article.

I n the end, your article has a purpose, and you want your readers to do something after reading it.

You can guide them to further content, your products or ask them to sign-up for your newsletter, enquire about a product, service, or read an article. These are just a few examples; there are many more!

Here’s an example of a clear call to action for ketogenic meal plans.

18. Remove non-important and redundant information

Some people say that they try to shorten their text by one third once they are done writing. How much you have to shorten your text depends on your writing style. If you tend to write very wordy, include non-relevant information, and even repeat information, you’ll have to shorten a lot. When you already write concisely, removing a little bit here and there will be enough. But in general, shortening your text during the editing process will make your article a better read.

This doesn’t mean that you cannot write long articles. But they should be packed with information. That means that to fill a long article, you need a lot of information. Take this article as an example. It’s 3,500 words +, but it provides 21 useful tips, and every single one is valuable. So, your article should have substance. The worst thing is reading an article that says nothing. It’s a waste of time for your readers (and also a waste of time writing it).

19. Edit, edit, edit

Once you’re done writing, the editing starts. Editing can take as long as the writing itself or even longer. You often find the advice not to edit while writing because writing and editing are two separate processes. I don’t think this applies to everyone and largely depends on your writing style.

When you try to get everything perfect in the first draft, writing takes much longer, but you save time editing. When you write everything down as fast as possible, you’re done writing in no time, but editing will probably take longer than writing.

20. Ask someone for feedback

Having someone to edit your article and to provide feedback will always improve your article. This person will likely notice a few language flaws, even if you are a native speaker and your grammar and writing is very good.

The person can also tell you if the article’s structure makes sense and if the transitions are easy to follow. Most importantly, the editor can tell you whether everything is easy to understand. For this reason, it can be an advantage to have a non-expert. This is especially important when writing for lay people.

21. Make a final grammar check

Once the article went through some rounds of editing, you should do a final grammar check. Grammarly is a popular choice that detects most grammar flaws, suggests synonyms, and also checks punctuation. This is especially important when you’re not a native English speaker. But even if you’re native, a grammar checking program can make the text better.

The bottom line

Writing an article may seem simple, but it involves many steps. It’s not only about the writing; it’s also about finding ideas, doing research, and editing the article. Altogether, they can take more time and effort than the writing itself. 

Outsourcing articles can save you a lot of time and lets you focus on other parts of your business. Writing Studio has expert writers who can take care of all these steps. They know how to write articles that rank in Google and drive high-value traffic to your website.

Don’t forget to share this article!

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A (Very) Simple Way to Improve Your Writing

• Mark Rennella

It’s called the “one-idea rule” — and any level of writer can use it.

The “one idea” rule is a simple concept that can help you sharpen your writing, persuade others by presenting your argument in a clear, concise, and engaging way. What exactly does the rule say?

• Every component of a successful piece of writing should express only one idea.
• In persuasive writing, your “one idea” is often the argument or belief you are presenting to the reader. Once you identify what that argument is, the “one-idea rule” can help you develop, revise, and connect the various components of your writing.
• For instance, let’s say you’re writing an essay. There are three components you will be working with throughout your piece: the title, the paragraphs, and the sentences.
• Each of these parts should be dedicated to just one idea. The ideas are not identical, of course, but they’re all related. If done correctly, the smaller ideas (in sentences) all build (in paragraphs) to support the main point (suggested in the title).

Where your work meets your life. See more from Ascend here .

Most advice about writing looks like a long laundry list of “do’s and don’ts.” These lists can be helpful from time to time, but they’re hard to remember … and, therefore, hard to depend on when you’re having trouble putting your thoughts to paper. During my time in academia, teaching composition at the undergraduate and graduate levels, I saw many people struggle with this.

• MR Mark Rennella is Associate Editor at HBP and has published two books, Entrepreneurs, Managers, and Leaders and The Boston Cosmopolitans .  

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How to Write a Great Article in Six Easy Steps

Whether you’re an experienced writer or just starting out in content marketing, there are tried-and-true techniques for crafting compelling and effective pieces of writing that can truly engage readers . With just six simple steps, you can produce top-notch articles that not only get clicks but keep readers coming back for more! So let’s get started on your path towards becoming a master article writer.

Brainstorm your topic, angle, and headline

As a professional, you know the importance of great ideas. With a little bit of creativity and strategic thinking, you can come up with a topic, angle, and headline that will catch people’s attention. So put on your thinking cap, grab a pen and paper, and see where your imagination takes you.

Research the topic to get your facts straight

When it comes to researching a topic, reliable sources are crucial to ensuring the accuracy of the information. Whether you are a writer or simply a curious individual, conducting thorough research can give you a deeper understanding of a subject and help you make informed decisions. So don’t be afraid to dive in and start exploring the world of reliable research.

Outline your article to create an organized structure

Organizing an article can be a daunting task, but fear not! A structured outline is the answer to achieving a well-written and thought-provoking piece. It’s essential to start with an introduction that captivates the reader’s interest, followed by subheadings to divide the content into manageable sections. The article’s main idea should be articulated in the body with supporting evidence and an accurate conclusion. Don’t forget to revise and edit to ensure a polished final product. Implementing a well-organized outline will provide guidance and structure to your writing, making the process smoother, and the product more engaging for your audience.

Write the draft with an engaging narrative using strong vocabulary

Crafting a draft requires a combination of skill and creativity. It is where the magic happens, where ideas come alive and take shape. When putting words to paper, it is important to use strong vocabulary that showcases your expertise and knowledge. A clever narrative can capture the attention of your reader and keep them hooked until the very end. By carefully selecting your words, you can create an engaging piece that is both enjoyable to read and informative.

Edit your article to refine language, correct errors in grammar and spelling

You could have the most groundbreaking idea in the world, but if your language is sloppy or your grammar is faulty, your message will fall flat. Fortunately, editing is a powerful tool to refine your message and put your best foot forward. By carefully reviewing every sentence, phrase, and word, you can weed out errors and fine-tune your language until it sparkles. Editing isn’t just about catching mistakes, though— it’s about polishing your message so that it shines like a diamond.

Publish and promote! Post your work on social media and other forums to boost readership

Whether you are writing blog posts, creating videos, or podcasting, people have short attention spans , so it’s important to advertise in a way that stands out and grabs people’s attention. Especially since this often requires creating consistent content, it can be helpful to have a guide on hand so you can develop an effective promotion strategy that works for you. Ask friends or colleagues for advice or research online for helpful tips about how to promote your work on social media and other forums. Once you find an approach that suits you and your content, the readership should start coming in.

Brainstorm your ideas and make sure to research your topic thoroughly. Once you have an outline for your article, start drafting and find your own distinct voice. Finally, be sure to go through several rounds of edits before publishing—this could make all the difference between an average or incredible blog post. Additionally, don’t forget to give yourself a pat on the back after you finish. Writing can be difficult work and it deserves appreciation! And if you need help along the way from experienced ghostwriters or editors, contact Elite Editing and feel confident knowing they can guide you toward crafting amazing content.

Other Resources You Might Like

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How to Write an Article: A Proven Step-by-Step Guide

Are you dreaming of becoming a notable writer or looking to enhance your content writing skills? Whatever your reasons for stepping into the writing world, crafting compelling articles can open numerous opportunities. Writing, when viewed as a skill rather than an innate talent, is something anyone can master with persistence, practice, and the proper guidance.

That’s precisely why I’ve created this comprehensive guide on ‘how to write an article.’ Whether you’re pursuing writing as a hobby or eyeing it as a potential career path, understanding the basics will lead you to higher levels of expertise. This step-by-step guide has been painstakingly designed based on my content creation experience. Let’s embark on this captivating journey toward becoming an accomplished article writer !

What is an Article?

An article is more than words stitched together cohesively; it’s a carefully crafted medium expressing thoughts, presenting facts, sharing knowledge, or narrating stories. Essentially encapsulating any topic under the sun (or beyond!), an article is a versatile format meant to inform, entertain, or persuade readers.

Articles are ubiquitous; they grace your morning newspaper (or digital equivalents), illuminate blogs across various platforms, inhabit scholarly journals, and embellish magazines. Irrespective of their varying lengths and formats, which range from news reports and features to opinion pieces and how-to guides, all articles share some common objectives. Learning how to write this type of content involves mastering the ability to meet these underlying goals effectively.

Objectives of Article Writing

The primary goal behind learning how to write an article is not merely putting words on paper. Instead, you’re trying to communicate ideas effectively. Each piece of writing carries unique objectives intricately tailored according to the creator’s intent and the target audience’s interests. Generally speaking, when you immerse yourself in writing an article, you should aim to achieve several fundamental goals.

First, deliver value to your readers. An engaging and informative article provides insightful information or tackles a problem your audience faces. You’re not merely filling up pages; you must offer solutions, present new perspectives, or provide educational material.

Next comes advancing knowledge within a specific field or subject matter. Especially relevant for academic or industry-focused writings, articles are often used to spread original research findings and innovative concepts that strengthen our collective understanding and drive progress.

Another vital objective for those mastering how to write an article is persuasion. This can come in various forms: convincing people about a particular viewpoint or motivating them to make a specific choice. Articles don’t always have to be neutral; they can be powerful tools for shifting public opinion.

Finally, let’s not forget entertainment – because who said only fictional work can entertain? Articles can stir our emotions or pique our interest with captivating storytelling techniques. It bridges the gap between reader and writer using shared experiences or universal truths.

Remember that high-quality content remains common across all boundaries despite these distinct objectives. No matter what type of writer you aspire to become—informative, persuasive, educational, or entertaining—strive for clarity, accuracy, and stimulation in every sentence you craft.

What is the Format of an Article?

When considering how to write an article, understanding its foundation – in this case, the format – should be at the top of your list. A proper structure is like a blueprint, providing a direction for your creative construction.

First and foremost, let’s clarify one essential point: articles aren’t just homogenous chunks of text. A well-crafted article embodies different elements that merge to form an engaging, informative body of work. Here are those elements in order:

• The Intriguing Title

The title or heading is at the top. It’s your first chance to engage with a reader. This element requires serious consideration since it can determine whether someone will continue reading your material.

• Engaging Introduction

Next comes the introduction, where you set expectations and hint at what’s to come. An artfully written introduction generates intrigue and gives readers a compelling reason to stick around.

• Informative Body

The main body entails a detailed exploration of your topic, often broken down into subtopics or points for more manageable consumption and better flow of information.

• Impactful Conclusion

Lastly, you have the conclusion, where you tie everything neatly together by revisiting key points and offering final thoughts.

While these components might appear straightforward on paper, mastering them requires practice, experimentation with writing styles, and a good understanding of your target audience. 

By putting in the work to familiarize yourself with how to create articles and how they’re structured, you’ll soon discover new ways to develop engaging content each time you put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard!). Translating complex concepts into digestible content doesn’t need to feel daunting anymore! Now that we’ve tackled the format, our focus can shift to what should be included in an article.

What Should Be in an Article?

Understanding that specific items should be featured in your writing is crucial. A well-crafted article resembles a neatly packed suitcase – everything has its place and purpose.

Key Information

First and foremost, you need essential information. Start by presenting the topic plainly so readers can grasp its relevance immediately. This sets the tone of why you are writing the article. The degree of depth at this point will depend on your audience; be mindful not to overwhelm beginners with too much jargon or over-simplify things for experts.

Introduction

Secondly, every article must have an engaging introduction—this acts as the hook that reels your audience. Think of it as a movie trailer—it offers a taste of what’s to come without giving away all the details.

Third is the body, wherein you get into the crux of your argument or discussion. This is the point at which you present your ideas sequentially, along with supporting evidence or examples. Depending on the nature of your topic and personal style, this may vary from storytelling forms to more analytical breakdowns.

Lastly, you’ll need a fitting conclusion that wraps up all previously discussed points, effectively tying together every loose thread at the end. This helps cement your main ideas within the reader’s mind even after they’ve finished reading.

To summarize:  

• Critical Information: Provides context for understanding
• Introduction: Sheds further light on what will follow while piquing interest  
• Body: Discusses topic intricacies using narratives or case studies
• Conclusion: Ties up loose ends and reemphasizes important takeaways

In my experience writing articles for beginners and experts alike, I found these elements indispensable when conveying complex topics articulately and professionally. Always keep them at hand when looking to produce written material.

How should you structure an article?

Crafting a well-structured article is akin to assembling a puzzle – every piece has its place and purpose. Let’s look at how to create the perfect skeleton for your content.

The introduction is your article’s welcome mat. It should be inviting and informative, briefly outlining what a reader can expect from your writing. Additionally, it must instantly grab the readers’ attention so they feel compelled to continue reading. To master the art of creating effective introductions, remember these key points:

• Keep it short and precise.
• Use compelling hooks like quotes or intriguing facts.
• State clearly what the article will cover without revealing everything upfront.

Moving on, you encounter the body of your piece. This segment expands on the ideas outlined in the introduction while presenting fresh subtopics related to your core story. If we compare article writing to crossing a bridge, each paragraph represents a step toward the other side (the conclusion). Here are some tips for maintaining orderliness within your body:

• Stick closely to one idea per paragraph as it enhances readability.
• Ensure paragraphs flow logically by utilizing transitional words or sentences.
• Offer evidence or examples supporting your claims and reinforce credibility.

As you approach the far side of our imaginary bridge, we reach an equally essential section of the article known as the conclusion. At this point, you should aim to wrap up your message neatly while delivering on what was initially promised during the introduction. This section summarizes the main points, providing closure and ensuring readers feel satisfied.

Remember this golden rule when writing the conclusion: follow the  “Describe what you’re going to tell them (Introduction), tell them (Body), and then summarize what you told them (Conclusion).”  It’s a proven formula for delivering informative, engaging, and well-structured articles. 

One final tip before moving on: maintaining an active voice significantly enhances clarity for your readers. It makes them feel like they’re participating actively in the story unfolding within your article. In addition, it helps ensure easy readability, which is vital for keeping your audience engaged.

Tips for Writing a Good Article

A persuasive, engaging, and insightful article requires careful thought and planning. Half the battle won is by knowing how to start writing and make content captivating. Below are vital tips that can enhance your article writing skills.

Heading or Title

An audience’s first impression hinges on the quality of your title. A good heading should be clear, attention-grabbing, and give an accurate snapshot of what’s contained in the piece’s body. Here are a few guidelines on how to create an impactful title:

• Make it Compelling: Your title needs to spark interest and motivate readers to delve further into your work.
• Keep it concise: You want to have a manageable heading. Aim for brevity yet inclusiveness.
• Optimize with keywords: To boost search engine visibility, sprinkle relevant keywords naturally throughout your title.

By applying these techniques, you can increase reader engagement right from the get-go.

Body of the Article

After winning over potential readers with your catchy title, it’s time to provide substantial content in the form of the body text. Here’s how articles are typically structured:

Introduction:  Begin by providing an appealing overview that hooks your audience and baits them to read more. You can ask poignant questions or share interesting facts about your topic here.

Main Content:  Build on the groundwork set by your introduction. Lay out detailed information in a logical sequence with clear articulation.

Conclusion:  This reemphasizes the critical points discussed in the body while delivering a lasting impression of why those points matter.

Remember that clarity is critical when drafting each part because our objective here is to share information and communicate effectively. Properly understanding this approach ensures that the writing experience becomes creative and productive.

Step By Step Guide for Article Writing

How do you write an article that engages your readers from the first line until the last? That’s what most writers, whether beginners or seasoned pros are trying to achieve. I’ll describe a step-by-step process for crafting such gripping articles in this guide.

Step 1: Find Your Target Audience

First and foremost, identify your target readers. Speaking directly to a specific group improves engagement and helps you craft messages that resonate deeply. To pinpoint your audience:

• Take note of demographic attributes like age, gender, and profession.
• Consider their preferences and needs.
• Look into how much knowledge they are likely to possess concerning your topic.

Knowing this will help you decide what tone, language, and style best suits your readers. Remember, by understanding your audience better, you make it much easier to provide them with engaging content.

Step 2: Select a Topic and an Attractive Heading

Having understood your audience, select a relevant topic based on their interests and questions. Be sure it’s one you can competently discuss. When deciding how to start writing an article, ensure it begins with a captivating title.

A title should hint at what readers will gain from the article without revealing everything. Maintain some element of intrigue or provocation. For example, ‘6 Essentials You Probably Don’t Know About Gardening’ instead of just ‘Gardening Tips’.

Step 3: Research is Key

Good research is crucial to building credibility for beginners and experts alike. It prevents errors that could tarnish your piece immensely.

Thoroughly explore relevant books, scholarly articles, or reputable online resources. Find facts that build authenticity while debunking misconceptions that relate to your topic. Take notes on critical points discovered during this process—it’ll save you time when creating your first draft.

Step 4: Write a Comprehensive Brief

Having done your research, it’s time to write an outline or a brief—a roadmap for your article. This conveys how articles are written systematically without losing track of the main points.

Begin by starting the introduction with a punchy opener that draws readers in and a summary of what they’ll glean from reading. Section out specific points and ideas as separate headings and bullet points under each section to form the body. A conclusion rounds things up by restating key takeaways.

Step 5: Write and Proofread

Now comes the bulk of the work—writing. Respect the brief created earlier to ensure consistency and structure while drafting content. Use short, clear sentences while largely avoiding jargon unless absolutely necessary.

Post-writing, proofread ardently to check for typographical errors, inconsistent tenses, and poor sentence structures—and don’t forget factual correctness! It helps to read aloud, which can reveal awkward phrases that slipped through initial edits.

Step 6: Add Images and Infographics

Introduce visuals such as images, infographics, or videos into your piece to break text monotony and increase comprehension. They provide aesthetic relief while supporting the main ideas, increasing overall engagement.

Remember to source royalty-free images or get permission for copyrighted ones—you don’t want legal battles later!

Common Mistakes to Avoid in Article Writing

Regarding article writing, a few pitfalls can compromise the quality of your content. Knowing these and how to avoid them will enhance your work’s clarity, depth, and impact.

The first mistake often made is skimping on research. An article without solid underpinnings won’t merely be bland – it might mislead readers. Therefore, prioritize comprehensive investigation before penning down anything. Understanding common misconceptions or misinterpretations about your topic will strengthen your case. 

Next, sidestep unnecessary jargon or excessively complex language. While showcasing an impressive vocabulary might seem appealing, remember that your primary objective is imparting information efficiently and effectively.

Moreover, failing to structure articles effectively represents another standard error. A structured piece aids in delivering complex ideas coherently. Maintaining a logical sequence facilitates reader comprehension, whether explaining a detailed concept or narrating an incident.

A piece lacking aesthetic allure can fail its purpose regardless of the value of its text. That’s where images come into play. Neglecting them is an all-too-common mistake among beginners. Relevant pictures inserted at appropriate junctures serve as visual breaks from texts and stimulate interest among readers.

Lastly, proofreading is vital in determining whether you can deliver a well-written article. Typos and grammatical errors can significantly undermine professional credibility while disrupting a smooth reading experience.

So, when pondering how articles are written, avoiding these mistakes goes a long way toward producing high-quality content that embodies both substance and style. Remember: practice is paramount when learning how to write excellent material!

How to Write an Article with SEOwind AI Writer?

Using the power of artificial intelligence has been a major step in many industries. One such significant tool is SEOwind AI Writer , which is critical for those curious about how to write an article leveraging AI. In this section, I’ll cover how you can effectively use SEOwind AI writer to create compelling articles.

Step 1: Create a Brief and Outline

The first step in writing an article revolves around understanding your audience’s interests and then articulating them in a comprehensive brief that outlines the content’s framework.

• Decide on the topic: What ideas will you share via your article?
• Define your audience: Knowing who will read your text significantly influences your tone, style, and content depth.
• Establish main points: Highlight the key points or arguments you wish to exhibit in your drafted piece. This helps create a skeleton for your work and maintain a logical flow of information.

With SEOwind:

• you get all the content and keyword research for top-performing content in one place,
• you can generate a comprehensive AI outline with one click,
• users can quickly create a title, description, and keywords that match the topic you’re writing about.

As insightful as it might seem, having a roadmap doubles as a guide throughout the creative process. SEOwind offers a user-friendly interface that allows the easy input of essential elements like keywords, title suggestions, content length, etc. These provide an insightful outline, saving time with an indispensable tool that demonstrates the practicality of article writing.

Step 2: Feed AI with context

The magic ingredient to make your AI content stand out is feeding it with the right kind of information.

1. Define your Brand Voice

• Your brand’s voice is its heartbeat. We will help you sketch it out. Just provide SEOwind with some sample text.
• Check out this handy video on  SEOwind Brand Voice Feature
• Company and product details
• The more we know about your company, products, services, and audience, the better. This fuels the AI to craft content that truly resonates.
• Dive into our video on  SEOwind Company data feature

3. Integrate with Google Search Console

• Authorize GSC integration, so SEOwind can find relevant internal linking opportunities when writing your articles.

4. Choose a model for AI Writing

• Choose between GPT-4 (which offers a creative flair to your writing) and the Google Gemini 1.5 Pro (which focuses on data precision and accuracy).
• For more details, check the video  Gemini vs OpenAI

5. Enrich AI with your own insights

To stand out from generic content, it’s essential to enrich your AI-generated articles with your own insights and expertise. This not only adds value to your content but also positions your brand as an authority in your field. In order to add your own insights, just toggle on Your own insights when creating the brief (Section: Include in AI Article within Build your brief) and add your thoughts in the field.

Step 3: Write an AI Article using SEOwind

Once you have a brief ready, you can write an AI article with a single click. It will consider all the data you provided and much more, such as copywriting and SEO best practices , to deliver content that ranks.

Step 4: Give it a Human Touch

Finally, SEOwind’s intuitive platform delivers impeccably constructed content to dispel any confusion about writing an article. The result is inevitably exceptional, with well-structured sentences and logically sequenced sections that meet your demands.

However, artificial intelligence can sometimes miss the unique personal touch that enhances relatability in communication and makes articles more compelling. Let’s master adding individualistic charm to personalize articles so that they resonate with audiences.

Tailoring the AI-generated piece with personal anecdotes or custom inputs helps to break the monotony and bolster engagement rates. Always remember to tweak essential SEO elements like meta descriptions and relevant backlinks.

A quick product tour on how to create AI articles below

So, whether it’s enhancing casual language flow or eliminating robotic consistency, the slightest modifications can breathe life into the text and transform your article into a harmonious man-machine effort. Remember – it’s not just about technology making life easy but also how effectively we utilize this emerging trend!

Common Questions on how to write an article

Delving into the writing world, especially regarding articles, can often lead to a swarm of questions. Let’s tackle some common queries that newbies and seasoned writers frequently stumble upon to make your journey more comfortable and rewarding.

What is the easiest way to write an article?

The easiest way to write an article begins with a clear structure. Here are five simple steps you can follow:

• Identify your audience: The first thing you should consider while planning your article is who will read it? Identifying your target audience helps shape the article’s content, style, and purpose.
• Decide on a topic and outline: Determining what to write about can sometimes be a formidable task. Try to ensure you cover a topic you can cover effectively or for which you feel great passion. Next, outline the main points you want to present throughout your piece.
• Do the research: Dig deep into resources for pertinent information regarding your topic and gather as much knowledge as possible. An informed writer paves the way for a knowledgeable reader.
• Drafting phase: Begin with an engaging introduction followed by systematically fleshing out each point from your outline in body paragraphs before ending with conclusive remarks tying together all the earlier arguments.
• Fine-tune through editing and proofreading: Errors happen no matter how qualified or experienced a writer may be! So make sure to edit and proofread before publishing.

Keep these keys in mind and remain patient and persistent. There’s no easier alternative for writing an article.

How can I write an article without knowing about the topic?

We sometimes need to write about less familiar subjects – but do not fret! Here’s my approach:

• First off, start by thoroughly researching subject-centric reliable sources. The more information you have, the better poised you are to write confidently about it.
• While researching, take notes and highlight the most essential points.
• Create an outline by organizing these points logically – this essentially becomes your article’s backbone.
• Start writing based on your research and outlined structure. If certain aspects remain unclear, keep investigating until clarity prevails.

Getting outside your comfort zone can be daunting, but is also a thrilling chance to expand your horizons.

What is your process for writing an article quickly?

In terms of speed versus quality in writing an article – strikingly enough, they aren’t mutually exclusive. To produce a high-quality piece swiftly, adhere to the following steps:

• Establish purpose and audience: Before cogs start turning on phrase-spinning, be clear on why you’re writing and who will likely read it.
• Brainstorm broadly, then refine: Cast a wide net initially regarding ideas around your topic. Then, narrow down those areas that amplify your core message or meet objectives.
• Create a robust outline: A detailed roadmap prevents meandering during actual writing and saves time!
• Ignore perfection in the first draft: Speed up initial drafting by prioritizing getting your thoughts on paper over perfect grammar or sentence compositions.
• Be disciplined with edits and revisions: Try adopting a cut, shorten, and replace mantra while trimming fluff without mercy!

Writing quickly requires practice and strategic planning – but rest assured, it’s entirely possible!

Seasoned SaaS and agency growth expert with deep expertise in AI, content marketing, and SEO. With SEOwind, he crafts AI-powered content that tops Google searches and magnetizes clicks. With a track record of rocketing startups to global reach and coaching teams to smash growth, Tom's all about sharing his rich arsenal of strategies through engaging podcasts and webinars. He's your go-to guy for transforming organic traffic, supercharging content creation, and driving sales through the roof.

Table of Contents

• 1 What is an Article?
• 2 Objectives of Article Writing
• 3 What is the Format of an Article?
• 4 What Should Be in an Article?
• 5 How should you structure an article?
• 6 Tips for Writing a Good Article
• 7 Step By Step Guide for Article Writing
• 8 Common Mistakes to Avoid in Article Writing
• 9 How to Write an Article with SEOwind AI Writer?
• 10 Common Questions on how to write an article

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• Article Writing

Article Writing Format: Explore How To Write, Example Topics and Tips

Have some great ideas, opinions and suggestions you wish you could share so that it could reach readers all around the world? One of the best ways to get your thoughts across the globe is by writing an article. There are techniques you can use to write the different types of articles. This piece on article writing will give you all the tips and tricks you need to master before you start writing your article.

Table of Contents

The art of writing an article, how do i write a good article – tips and techniques, article writing samples, faqs on article writing.

An article is a piece of writing which explicates ideas, thoughts, facts, suggestions and/or recommendations based on a particular topic. There are different kinds of articles, namely:

• Expository article – The most common type of article which allows the writer to put out information on any particular topic without the influence of their opinions.
• Argumentative article – An article in which an author poses a problem or an issue, renders a solution to the proposed problem and provides arguments to justify why their suggestions/solutions are good.
• Narrative article – An article in which the author has to narrate mostly in the form of a story.
• Descriptive article – An article written with the aim of providing a vivid description that would allow the readers to visualise whatever is being described. Using the right adjectives / adjective phrases is what will help you write a descriptive article.
• Persuasive article – An article aimed at persuading or convincing the readers to accept an idea or a point of view.

Writing an article takes a lot of effort on the side of the writer. Content writers/creators, bloggers, freelance writers and copywriters are people who have mastered the art of article writing, without which they would not be able to make their mark as a writer of any kind.

In order to be able to write an article that makes sense in the first place, you have to keep a few things in mind.

• The first and foremost thing that you have to take care of when you are sitting down to write your article is to check if you are well aware of the topic you are going to write on.
• The second thing that you have to ask yourself is why you are writing the article.
• The next thing that you have to focus on is the kind of audience you are writing the article for because unless you know your audience, you will not be able to write it in a way that makes them want to read it.
• The language you use is very important because, without the right spelling, correct grammar , punctuation and sensible sentence structure , the article would not be able to sell itself.
• Use keywords so that you get a good number of reading audiences.
• Maintain coherence within and between paragraphs.
• Double-check the data and information you provide, irrespective of the type of article.
• Keep the title and description as short and catchy as possible.
• Edit and proofread before it is published.

To help you understand better and practise the art of article writing, read through the articles given below:

Can I write a good article?

If you know all the information about the topic you are going to write about, a good hand over the language, a knack to keep it simple and interesting throughout, you can write a good article.

What is the format of an article?

The article should have a title/heading and a description that states what the article is about. The body of the article can be split into 3 to 5 paragraphs according to the volume of content with respect to the topic you are discussing. You can have subheadings and use bullet points wherever possible. Make sure your introduction makes people want to read the whole article and your conclusion leaves them satisfied.

How many paragraphs should there be in an article?

An article should have a minimum of 3 to 4 paragraphs. The writer is, however, given the choice to present the content in more than four paragraphs, if it would be better for the article.

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What Makes a Good Article? 5 Essential Qualities

Julia McCoy

What makes a good article? And why is it important in marketing?

According to the 2022 CMI survey, 83% of marketers  believe it’s more effective to create higher-quality content less often. And when it comes to content marketing, high quality doesn’t just mean a good read — it has to be substantial as well.

Because content with 900-1,200 words attracts 21% more traffic and 75% more backlinks than content with 300-900 words. This is why B2C marketers have increased their production of long-form content from 22% to 42% in the past year.

But creating a good long-form article takes more than just writing skills.

It requires an understanding of the audience, thorough research, clear language, logical structure, and visual integration. Having an understanding of how to write a captivating story is essential for any content creator who wishes to draw attention and engage readers.

In this post, we will explore what makes a good article by looking at these five essential qualities.

Table of Contents

Know Your Audience

Who are you writing for?

This is a question every content creator should ask before writing an article or blog post.

Knowing who your audience is and what resonates with them will help ensure that your work reaches the right people, engages them, and encourages them to take action.

Here are three tips for creating content that speaks directly to their needs.

1. Identify Your Audience

The first step in content creation is to identify who you’re writing for — your target audience.

• What age group are you targeting?
• Where do they live?
• What type of job do they have?

Once you’ve identified the demographic characteristics of your readership, it’ll be easier to craft content tailored to their interests and needs.

2. Understand Their Needs

Now that you know who your readers are, it’s time to understand what kind of information would be most valuable to them.

• What topics interest them the most?
• What challenges or problems do they face on a daily basis?

Keyword research can help you find topics that are most relevant to your target audience. Cover these topics in your content pieces to reach maximum engagement.

3. Determine What Type of Content They Consume

Now that you have content ideas, how should you write them?

Does your target audience prefer to read stories or case studies? For visual learners, perhaps you can turn your written text into a slideshow, video, or podcast.

Different types of media resonate differently with different types of audiences so consider experimenting with a variety of formats until you find one that works.

At the end of the day, knowing exactly who you’re writing for will make all the difference when it comes to creating great content pieces.

Research Thoroughly

Once you have an idea of who your readers are, it’s time to start researching relevant topics for your article or blog post.

When creating content, you need facts, numbers, and even opinions to back up your claims. And the best way to find these things is through research.

Research lends credibility to any piece of content. You can only earn the trust of your readers if your content was created out of facts — not speculation.

By thoroughly researching your topic and giving proper credit to your information sources, you demonstrate to your readers that you care about providing them with useful, relevant content — in exchange for their trust and loyalty.

Here are three tips on how to conduct research for your blog content — because well-researched writing is part of what makes a good article.

1. Gather Sources

Look at industry publications, blogs, websites, and other online resources related to your topic.

2. Check Credibility

Find sources with factual and up-to-date information to build credibility with your audience. If possible, try finding multiple perspectives on a topic by including interviews from experts or citing different studies related to what you are discussing.

3. Organize Your Notes

Taking notes while researching can help you keep track of all information and organize them into categories based on importance or relevance. This makes it easier to go back while you’re going through your drafts since everything should already be accessible.

Researching thoroughly is essential to what makes a good article. Without proper research, you risk publishing wrong and outdated content that could ruin your reputation.

Want to learn every step involved in our C.R.A.F.T. framework? You’re in the right place. To learn more about AIO and C.R.A.F.T, read our individual guides:

• C –  a full guide on cutting the fluff
• R –  a full guide on optimizing your content for SEO
• A –  a full guide on adding blog images and visuals
• F –  a full guide on how to fact-check
• T –  a full guide on how to trust-build in your content

Additionally, subscribe to our blog, watch our C.R.A.F.T. and AIO tutorials on our YouTube channel, and read this blog to understand the AIO model.

Use Clear Language

Clear language is essential for effective communication — whether spoken or written.

When writing an article , it’s important to use words that your target audience understands. The goal is to communicate your thoughts in a way they can easily grasp, not to show off the depth of your vocabulary.

First, think about the style of writing that best suits your piece. Is it more conversational? Or do you want a more formal tone?

Your choice will depend on the type of content you’re creating as well as who your target audience is.

Avoid words that are too specialized for readers. Instead, use simple words and phrases that don’t require further explanation or context.

It’s also important to write in an active voice rather than a passive voice. These statements are more direct and to the point.

For example, “The squad formed the program” is better than “The program was formed by the squad.” Both sentences mean the same thing, but one reads more smoothly than the other which helps with comprehension.

When writing long-form content, breaking up long paragraphs into shorter sections with subheadings makes the article easier to skim. Adding visual elements such as charts, graphs, diagrams or photographs also helps keep readers engaged when there’s plenty of text involved.

Since you know your audience well, you can insert idioms, colloquialisms, analogies, and metaphors that they also use in their daily conversations — making your article more relatable. These types of expressions provide a personal touch and emotional connection. Although they may not always fit perfectly into every situation, they add personality and flavor when used properly.

Remember, ambiguous language doesn’t add anything to your piece but only confuses your readers. What makes a good article is written language that’s easy to understand and paragraphs that flow logically — which we will discuss in the next section.

Structure Logically

Organizing your content in a logical and easy-to-follow manner is key to what makes a good article. Search engine optimization (SEO) also relies heavily on how well you structure your article so do not take this for granted.

Here are some tips on how to create a logical structure for your content.

1. Start With an Outline

Before you start writing, create an outline of the topics you want to cover in your article or blog post. This will give you a clear roadmap for where you’re going and help ensure that all of your points flow together logically.

2. Add Headings and Subheadings

Once you have an outline, use headings and subheadings to break up large chunks of text into smaller sections that are easier for readers to digest. This also helps search engines index your content more effectively so it can be found by potential customers online.

3. Make Connections Between Ideas

As you write, make sure each point relates back to the main topic at hand and ties into other ideas within the piece. Doing this helps keep readers stay on topic while reinforcing key concepts along the way.

4. Keep Sentences Short

To make sure readers don’t get overwhelmed by long-winded sentences, keep them short and sweet – no more than 25 words per sentence whenever possible.

Keep sentences concise but informative so search engines can easily pick up keywords related to the topic while still providing enough detail for readers to understand.

Add Visuals

Whenever possible, include real-life examples or visuals such as images, charts, and graphs to demonstrate abstract concepts.

Visuals can help separate bulky sections of text and make them easier for people to read without getting swamped with too much data. They make sure people stay engaged with what they are reading until they reach the end of your article.

Adding visuals to your long-form content is also great for SEO since search engines prefer pages that have multimedia elements on them. This means that if you use images or videos as part of your post, then those elements may show up in search results alongside the written content of your page.

Here are some tips on how to add visuals to your blog post.

1. Choose Relevant Images

When selecting an image for your blog post, make sure it is relevant to the topic you’re discussing.

An image that has nothing to do with the content of your article will only distract from what you’re trying to say. If possible, try using original images or ones that have been specifically created for this purpose.

2. Optimize Your Visuals

Once you’ve chosen an appropriate visual, be sure to optimize it before adding it to your post. This means compressing the file size so that it loads faster when someone visits your page. No one wants their website experience interrupted by slow loading times!

You should also include keywords in the alt-text field so search engines can easily find and index them as well as give credit where credit is due (e.g., citing sources).

3. Include Videos

Videos are a great way to add depth and interest to any blog post. They provide an interactive element that helps keep readers engaged while reading your long-form content .

Try embedding YouTube clips or other types of video files directly into posts. This way viewers don’t even need to leave the page in order to watch them.

4. Create Infographics

Infographics are becoming increasingly popular because they offer a visually appealing way of presenting data — perfect for those who don’t want to read long paragraphs of text.

Plus, infographics are easy to share across social media platforms, making them great tools for driving traffic back to your blog or website.

5. Don’t Overdo It

While adding visuals is great, you should not go overboard. Stuffing pages with too many graphics could end up hurting your website as these elements can slow down loading times.

As you continue writing and experimenting with different types of media, you’ll begin to see how these elements add value to your content — whether its purpose is to educate or entertain.

Don’t forget: practice makes perfect. The more often you practice writing, the more you improve the quality of your work. Keep honing those skills by trying different styles until you find what works best for both readers and search engines alike – then watch those clicks continue rolling in.

FAQs – What Makes a Good Article

What makes an article a good article.

A good article is one that effectively communicates its message to the intended audience. It should be well-researched, organized, and structured logically, with clear arguments supported by evidence.

It should use language appropriate for the target readership and contain no errors in grammar or spelling.

SEO best practices such as keyword optimization can help increase the visibility of an article on search engines while attracting more attention from potential readers.

What does a good article look like?

A good article should be well-written, engaging, and optimized for SEO. It should include relevant keywords in the headline and throughout the text to help it rank higher in search engine results.

The content should be easy to read with short paragraphs that use an active voice.

Additionally, a good article will have links back to other pages on your website or external sources as appropriate.

A good article requires a clear understanding of the audience, thorough research, and logical structure. It should be written in simple language that is easy to understand and accompanied by visuals whenever possible.

Crafting a great article can take time but with practice, it becomes easier to create content that resonates with readers. Knowing what makes a good article will help you write pieces that engage your target audience and reach your desired outcomes.

Written by Julia McCoy

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• Critical Reviews

How to Write an Article Review (With Examples)

Last Updated: April 24, 2024 Fact Checked

Preparing to Write Your Review

Writing the article review, sample article reviews, expert q&a.

This article was co-authored by Jake Adams . Jake Adams is an academic tutor and the owner of Simplifi EDU, a Santa Monica, California based online tutoring business offering learning resources and online tutors for academic subjects K-College, SAT & ACT prep, and college admissions applications. With over 14 years of professional tutoring experience, Jake is dedicated to providing his clients the very best online tutoring experience and access to a network of excellent undergraduate and graduate-level tutors from top colleges all over the nation. Jake holds a BS in International Business and Marketing from Pepperdine University. There are 12 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 3,118,459 times.

An article review is both a summary and an evaluation of another writer's article. Teachers often assign article reviews to introduce students to the work of experts in the field. Experts also are often asked to review the work of other professionals. Understanding the main points and arguments of the article is essential for an accurate summation. Logical evaluation of the article's main theme, supporting arguments, and implications for further research is an important element of a review . Here are a few guidelines for writing an article review.

Education specialist Alexander Peterman recommends: "In the case of a review, your objective should be to reflect on the effectiveness of what has already been written, rather than writing to inform your audience about a subject."

Article Review 101

• Read the article very closely, and then take time to reflect on your evaluation. Consider whether the article effectively achieves what it set out to.
• Write out a full article review by completing your intro, summary, evaluation, and conclusion. Don't forget to add a title, too!
• Proofread your review for mistakes (like grammar and usage), while also cutting down on needless information.

• Article reviews present more than just an opinion. You will engage with the text to create a response to the scholarly writer's ideas. You will respond to and use ideas, theories, and research from your studies. Your critique of the article will be based on proof and your own thoughtful reasoning.
• An article review only responds to the author's research. It typically does not provide any new research. However, if you are correcting misleading or otherwise incorrect points, some new data may be presented.
• An article review both summarizes and evaluates the article.

• Summarize the article. Focus on the important points, claims, and information.
• Discuss the positive aspects of the article. Think about what the author does well, good points she makes, and insightful observations.
• Identify contradictions, gaps, and inconsistencies in the text. Determine if there is enough data or research included to support the author's claims. Find any unanswered questions left in the article.

• Make note of words or issues you don't understand and questions you have.
• Look up terms or concepts you are unfamiliar with, so you can fully understand the article. Read about concepts in-depth to make sure you understand their full context.

• Pay careful attention to the meaning of the article. Make sure you fully understand the article. The only way to write a good article review is to understand the article.

• With either method, make an outline of the main points made in the article and the supporting research or arguments. It is strictly a restatement of the main points of the article and does not include your opinions.
• After putting the article in your own words, decide which parts of the article you want to discuss in your review. You can focus on the theoretical approach, the content, the presentation or interpretation of evidence, or the style. You will always discuss the main issues of the article, but you can sometimes also focus on certain aspects. This comes in handy if you want to focus the review towards the content of a course.
• Review the summary outline to eliminate unnecessary items. Erase or cross out the less important arguments or supplemental information. Your revised summary can serve as the basis for the summary you provide at the beginning of your review.

• What does the article set out to do?
• What is the theoretical framework or assumptions?
• Are the central concepts clearly defined?
• How adequate is the evidence?
• How does the article fit into the literature and field?
• Does it advance the knowledge of the subject?
• How clear is the author's writing? Don't: include superficial opinions or your personal reaction. Do: pay attention to your biases, so you can overcome them.

• For example, in MLA , a citation may look like: Duvall, John N. "The (Super)Marketplace of Images: Television as Unmediated Mediation in DeLillo's White Noise ." Arizona Quarterly 50.3 (1994): 127-53. Print. [9] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source

• For example: The article, "Condom use will increase the spread of AIDS," was written by Anthony Zimmerman, a Catholic priest.

• Your introduction should only be 10-25% of your review.
• End the introduction with your thesis. Your thesis should address the above issues. For example: Although the author has some good points, his article is biased and contains some misinterpretation of data from others’ analysis of the effectiveness of the condom.

• Use direct quotes from the author sparingly.
• Review the summary you have written. Read over your summary many times to ensure that your words are an accurate description of the author's article.

• Support your critique with evidence from the article or other texts.
• The summary portion is very important for your critique. You must make the author's argument clear in the summary section for your evaluation to make sense.
• Remember, this is not where you say if you liked the article or not. You are assessing the significance and relevance of the article.
• Use a topic sentence and supportive arguments for each opinion. For example, you might address a particular strength in the first sentence of the opinion section, followed by several sentences elaborating on the significance of the point.

• This should only be about 10% of your overall essay.
• For example: This critical review has evaluated the article "Condom use will increase the spread of AIDS" by Anthony Zimmerman. The arguments in the article show the presence of bias, prejudice, argumentative writing without supporting details, and misinformation. These points weaken the author’s arguments and reduce his credibility.

• Make sure you have identified and discussed the 3-4 key issues in the article.

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://libguides.cmich.edu/writinghelp/articlereview
• ↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4548566/
• ↑ Jake Adams. Academic Tutor & Test Prep Specialist. Expert Interview. 24 July 2020.
• ↑ https://guides.library.queensu.ca/introduction-research/writing/critical
• ↑ https://www.iup.edu/writingcenter/writing-resources/organization-and-structure/creating-an-outline.html
• ↑ https://writing.umn.edu/sws/assets/pdf/quicktips/titles.pdf
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_works_cited_periodicals.html
• ↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4548565/
• ↑ https://writingcenter.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/593/2014/06/How_to_Summarize_a_Research_Article1.pdf
• ↑ https://www.uis.edu/learning-hub/writing-resources/handouts/learning-hub/how-to-review-a-journal-article
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/editing-and-proofreading/

About This Article

If you have to write an article review, read through the original article closely, taking notes and highlighting important sections as you read. Next, rewrite the article in your own words, either in a long paragraph or as an outline. Open your article review by citing the article, then write an introduction which states the article’s thesis. Next, summarize the article, followed by your opinion about whether the article was clear, thorough, and useful. Finish with a paragraph that summarizes the main points of the article and your opinions. To learn more about what to include in your personal critique of the article, keep reading the article! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Copyblogger

How to Write Articles Fast: 10 Pro Tips

How to write articles fast is an art form I’ve spent some time perfecting. See, I don’t really want to spend more than 20 minutes a day writing an article. And I spent no more than 20 minutes writing this article.

I realize this is writing blasphemy. But when I have a daily schedule to post on and a business to run, I can’t find more time to write . There simply isn’t time to spend hours polishing every single blog post or writing 2,000-word articles.

Writing quickly doesn’t mean compromising on writing well , though. I’ve got 10 tips to get you in and out of that composition box fast – without sacrificing quality.

1. Keep an idea list

When inspiration for a post strikes, scribble it down in a notebook or word file.

For many bloggers and content creators, finding the topic to write about takes up half the time. Keeping an idea list to capture more creative content ideas lets you leap in to a new post quickly when you’re ready to write.

2. Let your ideas incubate

If you try to force yourself to come up with supporting information for your brilliant idea right away, it’s going to take ages.

Let that topic sit for a few days, though, and you can add new ideas as they occurs to you. And when you’re ready to write, you’ll already have all the supporting info you need.

3. Edit before you start

You’ve probably got twice as many ideas as you need at this point, so it’s time to be brutal with your content editing .

Cut out any supporting idea that doesn’t fit with the main topic of the article. Remember, we’re talking about how write articles fast, not an epic. You can always use the ideas you don’t need for later posts.

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4. Use bullet points

When you learn how to write bullet points , it can make writing an article fast a lot simpler, in terms of organization.

You no longer have to figure out transitions from one idea to the next. The great side benefit is that readers like lists. They’re easier for the eye to follow.

5. Keep it short

If you want to finish that article fast and stick to a schedule , try to keep it under 1,000 words.

Don’t feel like you’re skimping on quality content, either. This article isn’t more than 1,000 words but it’s chock-full of information. Make every word count and you’ll save time without letting quality slip.

6. Stay distraction-free

It’s easier to learn how to write a short article when you can dedicate time to focus on the task. If you can stop distractions and commit to 45 minutes of solid writing time, you’ll be surprised by how much you can get done.

Turn off notifications on your phone, or put it in another room. Only use your web browser for research related to your article.

7. Write in pre-defined time intervals

See how I mentioned committing to 45 minutes in the tip above? It could be 30 minutes or 90 minutes as well.

The point is to set a certain period of time specifically for writing. You can even set a timer to keep you on track. When the time is up, you can do other work.

8. Don’t overthink it

Once you’ve carved out your distraction-free space, you want to start writing as quickly as possible.

Second-guessing your idea is just going to eat away at the time you’ve set aside to write. You can explore other content ideas later. Use this time to complete your assignment.

9. Come back later

When you don’t feel like writing , don’t try to force the words to come.

Save the article and work on something else for a while until you’re no longer stuck. If inspiration strikes, open up that document again.

You can even switch from one blog post to another, spending a few minutes on each as ideas comes to you. It’s a huge time-saver.

10. Never save a good idea

It’s tempting, when you look through your list of content ideas, to save the best ones for later because you think they’ll be easier to write.

You don’t want to save time later, you want to save time now . Do the articles you know will come easily and make the most of that time.

Follow these simple steps and you’ll be on your way to writing articles fast.

Jim Estill is the CEO of Canadian computer product company SYNNEX and the author of the Time Leadership blog and book .

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Reader Interactions

Reader comments (424).

September 5, 2008 at 10:17 am

This is superb. Simple & It hit me hard… Keeping life simple yet meeting deadlines are best ways to avoid procrastination.

September 5, 2008 at 10:23 am

Writing doesn’t usually take too much time, but the proofreading is what requires an immense amount of revision and fine-tuning. Fortunately (or unfortunately), I have a dedicated readership who are all too glad to correct grammatical and spelling mistakes in the comments 😉

January 19, 2011 at 9:04 pm

Totally true about proofreading taking longer. I have a bunch of articles an seo company did on my website and I probably spent more time fixing the inaccuracies. The funny thing is, it takes me just as long when I write the articles myself! This site totally helps you stay focused though on whats important.

Thanks for the great tips. I need to work on the time I take to write a post.

September 5, 2008 at 10:25 am

Jim, I do something very similar to this. I have written 770 articles since March of ’07 by using these methods. Every morning I look at my notes from the evening before and turn them into articles. I also keep a notebook with me at all times and have one in my car as well. It can be done! Connie Ragen Green

September 5, 2008 at 10:28 am

I agree whole heartedly that the writing comes quickly when the inspired ideas are there. I also have a full time job apart from my blog, and actually, I blog as a part of my paying gig that’s already writing-heavy, so it can be a challenge.

I think it’s important to interject cretivity into the process and also just be observant. Some of my best ideas are born out of metahpors within my own life or experiences. Mowing the lawn, watching a friend’s kid, things that don’t have anything to do with my topic, which is thrilling, really.

November 17, 2010 at 7:48 am

I often do this same thing, metaphors of everyday happenings are sort of like the melody that my words/lyrics ride in on. What’s really awesome is when a particular experience can go past the metaphor and all the way to allegory – identifying on many many points. Not that I’ve achieved that, but I know it’s feasible. Now I want to read your blog!

September 5, 2008 at 10:30 am

Articles written in a short amount of time are often better than well-researched ones because they come across more original and with more real language.

September 5, 2008 at 10:32 am

I do this all the time. It’s really not that hard to do. Good article and love that they are short and sweet.

September 5, 2008 at 10:41 am

Wow on the 770 articles.

Thanks for the comments.

September 5, 2008 at 10:44 am

My wife always wonders how I can go back and forth between topics. Writing about my kids, then gymnastics, then what is going on in my own head. I thought I was the only one who did this.

Thanks for the great post. I will have to try the game of “have it done by…” sometime this weekend.

September 5, 2008 at 10:52 am

writing several articles about a topic permits me to utilize the research and speeds the development of each article. Frequently one feeds others.

Getting started is always the most difficult part. Once I’m on a roll, I should write day and night. But, you know how that goes.

September 5, 2008 at 10:54 am

I am ADD…I keep a kitchen timer with me and set myself a goal to get a certain number of tasks done before the bell rings…usually for 20 minutes. I have the little wind-up ones and keep them in multiple places around the house.

February 13, 2011 at 11:33 am

I love the kitchen timer idea! It is so easy to lose track of the time while doing anything related to my website. Minutes can easily turn into hours while doing something we are “into”. It’s like the law of entropy. “A gas will completely fill it’s container.” With me, if I don’t set a limit and make a plan of specific things to get done, also within a specif period of time, I will end up spending all my time on just one thing instead of may. Again, thanks for the “kitchen timer” idea/reminder! There are so many good ideas/suggestions on here. Thanks to everyone for contributing. Please keep it coming!

September 5, 2008 at 11:00 am

I agree with the last point of advice…I have found that using bullet points really helps me to figure out what to say by making it easier to see what looks good and what doesn’t. Maybe it’s an organizational or structural thing- but it works wonders!

September 5, 2008 at 11:45 am

Hmmm….Very interesting

You see, I could give you ideas, but I need them for my blog!

September 5, 2008 at 11:48 am

Aside from anything else, point number 4 is excellent advice (it’s all good, I’m just focusing on that one). Don’t hold back your good stuff. Give it when it comes because there’s always more to come.

September 5, 2008 at 11:56 am

Blogger’s best friend: Clarefontaine notebooks. Unlike spiral pocket-size notebooks, you can carry these in a hip pocket for years and they won’t fall apart – and the texture is great. Marvelous tool. Best, they’re exactly the right size to slip 3×5 cards inside the cover.

September 5, 2008 at 11:57 am

Oops – that’s “Clairefontaine.”

September 5, 2008 at 12:06 pm

You had perfect timing with this article. I was struggling with this very thing yesterday. I’ve been working in PR for many years, mostly writing the last few, and I can whip up a press release in 15 minutes if necessary. When it comes to writing for my blog, though, it’s taking me half a day. I have a bad habit of underestimating transitions. Blog writing is different from the more formal writing of PR/marketing materials and I’m trying to get used to writing in a more conversational tone.

September 5, 2008 at 12:10 pm

Oh, this is probably really geeky, but I carry around a digital recorder so when I think of an idea I won’t forget it. It also allows me to start writing if I think of a great title or opening line and I can work through it out loud instead of struggling with a pen and paper.

September 5, 2008 at 12:22 pm

The writing isn’t what takes up time for me, or coming up with ideas. Proofreading and editing are time consuming, looking up links (to my own posts or to other sites), and then finding the right image for my posts. But 20 minute definitely sounds like a timeframe to shoot for.

September 5, 2008 at 12:23 pm

Thank you for the great tips! I’ve been blogging for almost a year, and I can see how this strategy will really help me write better quality articles faster.

September 5, 2008 at 12:30 pm

Great tips. I can’t say I have ever tried writing several articles at once, but I have definitely done the incubator. It works great, especially when I feel I might not have enough ideas for the post. Just write a few, tuck it away and think about it subconsciously.

September 5, 2008 at 12:33 pm

Very good article! I liked it because: 1 – It was clear 2 – It was concise 3 – It was relevant to my needs 🙂 In summary, I have used your techniques to become a better comment writer. Notice how thoughtful and informative my comment is. About the author: John Pash is a veteran blogger with over one dozen posts on his website. In his spare time he likes to spread his unique brand of humo(u)r by commenting on other people’s blogs. John is not and will never be CEO of anything, unless you consider a blog to be a company. In that case, John is CEO, CFO, head of IT and the guy who makes the coffee in the morning.

November 17, 2010 at 8:02 am

John, 1) I appreciated your use of Brian’s Rule of Threes. 2) It was nice to see a mini demonstration of how you comment on other blogs. 3) Your humor is actually intelligent, witty and even funny.

Thank you… for giving me more than a grunt, a smile or even just a chuckle this morning!

September 24, 2011 at 2:26 am

John, man! Your comment made laugh so hard and loud, my wife came to check what was going on. Really, I’ve never laughed so hard with a comment.

The article was great, but your comment is 100x better!

Thanks for this great moment.

September 5, 2008 at 12:44 pm

Love the tips! I must agree with you about the ideas, not the writing…takes so long for me to write an article due to putting ideas together to write a brilliant piece!

September 5, 2008 at 12:49 pm

Great information! I’m definitely adding this to my toolbox.

Kudos for the title.

20 minutes? That’s a really short amount of time and I am unsure I’ve ever pulled that off. Nevertheless, lots of good tips in this article.

I utilize many of them.

September 5, 2008 at 1:22 pm

great tips, I use some of them too, I also carry the notebook to jot down ideas. I forget ideas from one end of the house to the other so I have to!

@ Shae, I also have a mini recorder, and yes I feel geeky sometimes. Especially in public – grocery store or the like, but I don’t care if I look geeky, I just chuckle and do it anyway. Usually embarrassing whoever is with me (the best part).

September 5, 2008 at 1:53 pm

In my experience, articles written off the cuff (or in 20 mins) don’t get many natural links. The articles that I’ve written that were the most popular were also the ones that took the longest to write and rewrite.

I’ve never had a 20 min article get to the front page of Digg or the Top of del.icio.us. Not naturally, anyway 😉

September 5, 2008 at 2:40 pm

A really short time for a good article! Which means that the preparation matters a lot…

September 5, 2008 at 2:54 pm

Thank you for this article, I just started writing my own blog and this is so incredibly helpful.

September 5, 2008 at 3:03 pm

Good tips – it’s all too easy to spend way too long writing a post.

One writing tip that I’d add (though it may lead to violation of the 20 minute rule) is to let the post morph into something different if you find a more interesting angle. I’ve had some great posts grow out of topics that were originally quite different. To keep the time down, when I see that I need to redirect the post I’ll jot down the key points and, as Jim suggests, I’ll let the new concept incubate until the next day.

September 5, 2008 at 3:14 pm

I end up composing many of my articles on the move — especially if I’m running or showering or the like. But I don’t think I can have two or three articles going at the same time and do five minutes on each. I like to think in terms of “writing blocks,” giving myself a solid, undisturbed block of time to crank something out from beginning to end. My projects are frequently so diverse that I have to take what I call a “think around the block” to switch from a pediatrician’s website to a technology company’s white paper.

Still, great tips. Thanks for being such a helpful resource for us all.

September 5, 2008 at 4:13 pm

Picasso used to draw a taurus in five seconds charging a thousand dollars for the job. The Problem is, he worked 40 years to perform such a task

September 5, 2008 at 4:49 pm

Writing an article in 20 minutes is no big deal, editing it in 20 minutes is another story altogether.

September 5, 2008 at 5:33 pm

I find #6 particularly helpful. I’ve usually got a few posts simmering away. First I knock out some subheads, then I fill them in as I can. I often tell myself I’ll just do one section, then end up writing the whole thing.

I usually don’t post the same day I draft, I’ll let it sit overnight and then do at least one edit. Like WDOC, editing takes me quite awhile.

September 5, 2008 at 5:47 pm

Writing articles does take practice but the nice thing about it is the more you write, the better you get.

But you’re right, getting ideas is probably the toughest part, then it’s the proofing.

I like to keep note pads laying around my house (including my nightstand) and jot down things as they come to mind. It’s funny, most of my best ideas come in the middle of the night, …hmmm kinda weird.

September 5, 2008 at 5:48 pm

Great article – simple and to the point. Love the ideas!

September 5, 2008 at 7:56 pm

I’m a huge fan of #7. Whenever I feel like I’m “in the zone,” so to speak, I like to carry that momentum and work on as much as I can while I can.

September 5, 2008 at 10:06 pm

20 minutes per 400~500 words?! I bet the proofreading is not yet included. As your 2nd commentator mentioned, it is the checking that takes an article to finished.

I must admit, I am spending around 2~3 hrs for the same number of words and maybe another 15 minutes while I read it again after posting.

But I am really impressed on how you make different articles simultaneously, as I might be loosing focus if I will be in your shoes.

September 6, 2008 at 3:53 am

Those are great advice. The problem I think a lot of people face is what to write, not the writing itself. I also take about 20 minutes once I know what to write.

That was a problem when I first got started but I’ve since tackled the problem using some tactics I shared on my blog.

September 6, 2008 at 4:27 am

> coming up with the ideas is the tough part. Ideas anyone? Yes. Carry a yellow sticky pad with you in the car, to the movies, wherever. You have more ah-ha moments than you’re remembering. You just need to free up your brain.

To give you an idea of what’s possible, when I first started, at the end of the week, I would have about 10 good ideas (write one idea per sticky post). However, the more I dumped my brain, the more I freed it up for more. I go through a couple of full sticky pads per week now. Now, I use Dragon Speak to put the ideas into Word docs at the end of the week.

Also, here’s a few keys: 1. Edison used personal invention quotas – http://sourcesofinsight.com/2008/01/07/personal-invention-quotas/ 2. The book THINKERTOYS exposes Disney’s imagineering techniques – http://sourcesofinsight.com/2008/05/05/thinkertoys-book-nuggets/

September 6, 2008 at 9:41 am

Thanks for these Great Tips, definitely hits the mark. I keep trying and failing to complete a post in 30 mins.

I like the idea of coming back to the article over time.

I’m using the timer on my cell phone to help me keep to schedule with my blog writing.

I also use its recorder for taking notes that pop into my head when I’m out and about and sometimes when I wake up in the night with a ‘great’ idea. How sad is that.

September 6, 2008 at 9:42 am

very very helpful article! thanks! Really a PRO!

September 6, 2008 at 10:29 am

I can sometimes whip out an article in 20 minutes, if I don’t get interrupted!

When I have a topic that is difficult for me, I start with a title, then write as many separate sentences as I can, quickly getting the facts on the page. Then I rearrange what I have into paragraphs, add an opening, closing, and a few transition sentences…. then see what I have. Often, I have exactly what I need to send to a client!

September 6, 2008 at 10:47 am

Getting ideas IS another story. Brainstorming with other bloggers works best for me when I am stuck.

Sometimes I ask someone who does not blog what they think about “X subject”. That type of conversation often triggers at least one or two points I can use as a starting block.

September 6, 2008 at 10:52 am

i really relate to the third point – dropping ideas. I have a post in mind and but i like to keep my posts short. It’s a challenge but being succinct and focused on only a couple of main points makes for better posts.

September 6, 2008 at 11:08 am

Some interesting ideas Jim, i`ve just launched a blog at http://www.adelto.co.uk/blog (take a look and let me know your thoughts) the problem i am having is finding the stories to begin with. since we write about contemporary living (architecture, interior design, products etc) and also good descriptive pictures. The writing part is the easiest!!

Have a good weekend Richard

September 6, 2008 at 11:33 am

Interesting read, for a number of reasons: I found a confusing use of English grammar in the first paragraph, (“Many of my blog entries are actually less than 500 words so take me less time”) perhaps confirming that you wrote this in 20 minutes or less 🙂 I relished your use of techniques discussed in this very blog about headlines. The article is ‘churned out’ in 20 minutes, but it is an ‘attitude’ of writing that actually gets a good piece of writing (like this one) out in print. And that attitude can not be quantified in any number of minutes, now can it? I also found this article of great use because I can plug in a relevant link to my post about writing good blog posts right about now blogging made easy, I promise

All in all, a great post. Thanks 😀

September 6, 2008 at 1:33 pm

I write a lot of software reviews. To get acquainted with really good software I need at least one to two hours! An example:

http://blogorama.eisbrecher.net/2008/09/04/businesscards-mx-heute-zum-halben-preis/

Do you count this solid preparation too? Can’t imagine that you can do it faster.

September 6, 2008 at 1:57 pm

nice article. must needed for a lazy blogger like me.

September 6, 2008 at 2:01 pm

Ha! It’s not the writing that takes time: it’s the flippin’ formatting problems on Blogger that take ages to sort out. How I wish posting something only took 20mins!

September 6, 2008 at 2:12 pm

These are certainly good tips. My problem is that I procrastinate far too much for keeping to this routine for long. Any tips on how to beat procrastination ? I guess not… the subject is too personal and too complex. W

September 6, 2008 at 2:51 pm

I’m all over the place when it comes to writing. I keep notes and I keep adding to them till I have something that resembles an article. Then I put it into word and clean it up. It usually takes me less than a half hour when it gets to this point. I know this sounds kind of crazy but I actually get even more idea’s for articles this way.

Best regards, ChrisS

September 6, 2008 at 6:14 pm

I like Brian’s advice about only writing (and posting) when you have something to say.

September 6, 2008 at 11:38 pm

I think an excellent idea for a post or better yet a GROUP post would be for us to brainstorm ways to come up with article ideas.

Maybe you should take the lead and in the end make a post with links to our articles with ideas on how to create blog post ideas.

I’m game…. anyone else?

September 7, 2008 at 1:34 pm

Great post. I love articles that have 8 tips or 5 ways or 9 methods. Easy to read, easy to write

September 7, 2008 at 6:56 pm

I never thought that much about my process for writing. But 20 minutes is a small pittance of the time it takes me to produce a post so I’m envious. I’m often guilty of creating two posts in one, which I guess, makes me the Queen of editing.

September 7, 2008 at 9:26 pm

I’m struggled for over 3 months to write for my blog after the first post. At last when I started to write on morning, I completed the post in half an hour. but the editing took me a quite a while. Each time I look at it, I want to change it. At last I posted it in my blog. what matters I believe your confidence and conviction to say what you thought right in your own way. Copyblogger inspired me a lot! thanks!

September 8, 2008 at 3:55 am

I usually write my posts while I’m on the bus or train – about 20 minutes. But as Chris F says, it’s the editing and proofing that takes up a whole lot more time.

September 8, 2008 at 3:59 am

Interested in the start point of 20 minutes. George Bernard Shaw is reputed to have written to a friend with a note saying “sorry it is such a long letter I did not have time to write a short one”. The quality versus quantity versus input time is such a personal judgement that the key question for me is “will 20 minutes do justice to this topic and this readership?” then make the call. All your tips are really valid when that judgement has been made.

September 8, 2008 at 5:10 am

Nice outline of the process. I always wanted to know how to write a good enough content without spending to much time with it. My usual takes 1 1/2 to 2 hours including quick research which is quite a lot.

September 8, 2008 at 12:21 pm

Good stuff …. I’m just launching my webcomic’s blog and was already getting a little writer’s/blogger’s block. This helped clear my head.

September 8, 2008 at 1:07 pm

The advise given here would be useful for sure.

Since there are quite a few bloggers here who are prolific I wanted to know how much time on an average do you spend to write a post? Honestly, for me 20 minutes seems too less a time to write a post. I end up spending an hour usually and it is the images, tags, slug, trackbacks and links which take the most time.

Any advise would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

September 8, 2008 at 1:38 pm

Thank you for this post. I have so much trouble writing material for my website, http://www.garbarrassing.com . So instead of writing them myself. I started to find friends who wanted to post their stories and tales on my site. A few hundred people visit my site a day so convincing my friends that their posts would be seen was easy. I also love to help people out, so if you have any questions about anything, or need some advice, you can follow me @Garbarrassing on Twitter.

September 9, 2008 at 4:19 am

Aren’t we all looking for ways to improve our time management and this his is a great way to really shorten the time for writing great articles. Congratulations for that insight Have fun and success Yani

September 9, 2008 at 5:59 am

good one 🙂 thanks a lot will try to follow this now onwards

September 9, 2008 at 8:28 am

thanks for this wonderful piece. As you have said, the path to good writing is by writing. It is always amazing how much one can do taking this step.

September 9, 2008 at 9:34 am

Blogging can indeed be quick when one is writing for one’s own blog, especially when so inspired. This being written, it’s been my experience that writing for a client, especially multiple clients across various industries, takes more than 20 minutes. It may even be in the best interests to take more than 20 minutes to write a blog article for someone else. Do you have any tips for “agency” type blog writing?

September 9, 2008 at 11:48 pm

Nice to read your tricks….its really hard for me to do the all practices ….. i always confused when writing some type of article, most of time my attention goes to multiple direction, i mean if i am writing an article on mobile technology, so at that time also thinking some thing about how to interrelate other things with it….ok any way really nice post i try to be like you…thanks

September 9, 2008 at 11:53 pm

Thanks for the suggestions! I actually often write my articles in short sessions (I usually don’t hit publish right away, but that is to make sure it reads well an hour later!) and I sometimes worry that I write them “too quickly” but I definitely am always on a clock and don’t want to spend hours on each article. Take care!

September 10, 2008 at 12:16 am

This is truly an insightful post. This post gave me the idea on how to over come writers block. Most of the time i wonder on how to get started on writing an article for my blogs. Usually i writes articles on a single sit. The tips provided above especially the incubation factor found to be an interesting one.

http://www.simplewayoflife.net

September 10, 2008 at 10:51 am

Wonderful post! You were tips were really good. I need to speed up as I have heard of many people saying they write an article in less than 20 minutes.

September 10, 2008 at 11:25 am

I am not a great writer and I learned a lot from your post as I plan to start writing articles and blogs in the future. I especially liked the part about warm up writing, makes a lot of sense.

September 10, 2008 at 11:16 pm

This is great. For me it’s really hard to get most of my articles completed even within an hour, may be since I’m writing more articles on computer programming.

September 11, 2008 at 10:49 am

Heck, that’s really fast!

September 11, 2008 at 9:15 pm

My personal philosophy on this is drawn from Nick Lowe, musician and former record producer, who was (and I guess still is) called “Basher” as a nickname because his creative philosophy was “bash it out now, tart it up later.” (In other words, just get something out quickly, then fix it so that it’s actually, you know, good.)

I find this works pretty well. The “bashing it out” can take twenty minutes for, say, a 500 word piece. The “tarting it up” is a whole ‘nother story. Don’t know how anyone can do it, but hats off to those who can.

September 11, 2008 at 10:38 pm

I find the whole list style blog post a bit over done. I agree that great posts (for me personally) start with a bulleted list but I find it much more enjoyable to consume when the post is a flowing thought vs. chopped up, ordered list. Here’s why:

1. No thought 2. Over used 3. haha, just kidding.

Great post! Check out my blog at http://ryanagraves.com

September 12, 2008 at 10:26 am

Great advice! I write weekly articles and feel like I’m spending way more time on them than I should…and I am! Thanks for the tips, I’m going to give ’em a try right now!

September 12, 2008 at 2:55 pm

With this advice you promote a Quick & Dirty attitude to blogging. It took me a whole day to write “WordPress BackStage”

http://blogorama.eisbrecher.net/2008/09/12/wordpress-backstage/

and it’s still not finished. I intend to “finish” (in the web nothing is ever finished) it on sunday evening.

Why do I take this much time for an article? Because a good article needs it. Content is King! The article, not the clock tells you when it is well done.

For example: When you’re in bed with a fine woman you love: you finish this also in 20 minutes?

September 27, 2008 at 8:48 am

Impressive. I currently write 500 words at about 40 to 50 minutes total but 20 is definitely one goal I’d love to shoot for. Thanks for sharing how you do it!

September 29, 2008 at 2:43 am

Thanks for a great post. Very inspiring and I can’t wait to put your suggestions to the test!

For those of you who commented that you keep a pad with you, voice recorder, sticky notes, etc., I’d like to suggest a Blackberry. With a BB, you can do all of the above and more without carrying all of the extra equipment. Just a thought. 😉

November 6, 2008 at 2:27 am

Thanks for a great post. Very inspiring and I can’t wait to put your suggestions to the test!

November 17, 2008 at 6:10 am

Great Post.I’m going to give ‘em a try right now!

Regards, Novina Ravi http://novinaravi.blogspot.com

November 27, 2008 at 9:37 am

Nice list. Want to earn from google and you don’t know how to make website visit http://quality-website.blogspot.com

December 1, 2008 at 12:27 am

I love it! Great article! I read every word and still want more!

December 6, 2008 at 5:36 pm

suggestion?

How about write what you like, with a full of passion?

Regards, blogged from Indonesia.

December 7, 2008 at 1:04 pm

Great Tips! Will definitely try when I’m writing

Thanks a ton

December 15, 2008 at 2:18 am

Hi! Great Post Jim! The whole article is wonderful and very helpful, but the most I like is #8. Well good work done! keep it up!

December 22, 2008 at 6:54 pm

Excellent post, I find this to be true with me and my writing, I also just sit down sometimes and write what ever the heck flows from my fingers, takes me 10 minutes to write 400 words then I come back in 1 hour and edit the errors for another 15 minutes and post 🙂

January 6, 2009 at 11:58 am

Firstly, thank you for all tips Jim. When it comes to incubation I suppose you’ve considered it as a matter of time in order to come up with fresh mind productions. But I did not get you well when you said about sorting out your ideas, about reducing them to the smaller number. I’d like to learn how you’ve been managing to filter your ideas. I am not experienced in writing articles, but I would like to learn much and with your tips I have partly accomplished it.

January 8, 2009 at 9:51 pm

Number 4 (“Never Save a Good Idea”) looks sensible, but I wonder how hard it is to really let go! I think I’ll stick with the security of a notebook for ideas, for now.

Thanks for the great tips.

January 10, 2009 at 7:04 pm

Thanks for the tips. I find that reading bulleted information online helps me to get to the point quickly and I especially love it when bulleted topics link to longer treatments, when applicable.

I am new to blogging and need lots of help. Love this site and plan to visit often!

Question: Does anyone know where I can find a class or blog on tightening up your writing?

I tend to talk too much, even when I write…lol!

Brevity…any classes on this?

Why some folks have told me that blogging may be just the thing for me.

January 11, 2009 at 12:02 pm

Excellent, I have to agree with Michael, more goods will always come so don’t hold back, simply deliver it hot off the press! 🙂 Remember people, tips like this help get us going in the right direction, the aim is to be efficient at what ever it is you’re doing, in this case it is writing a blog post. Blog writing isn’t always an easy as we like to think it is. Thanks for sharing!

– Mig

January 14, 2009 at 6:06 pm

Twenty minutes is about right to bang out a quality post. My problem is the flow of ideas. When I’m writing, I tend to come up with 10 other ideas for posts and articles and have to fight to keep my focus on the task at hand. I sometimes go from one post to the next without realizing just how much time I’ve been spending writing instead of concentrating on my real work that pays the bills!

January 22, 2009 at 3:53 am

The thing is this 20 minutes is only for writing your first draft. But there’s lot more things to do after the first draft. Proofreading is one of them that is not mentioned here that takes a bit time.

But overall the post is a good post for the people who want’s to write articles daily.

January 22, 2009 at 6:19 pm

All great ideas. I also like to carry a notebook especially when out riding in the car it seems I always think of something that I want to jot down. I think my best thinking comes when driving.

January 23, 2009 at 7:34 am

Very useful post, huh for me good article creation sometimes take all day, but I enjoy what I do and at first must grow to the knowledge level when really You can teach something.

Until that, I think it’s pretty hard. Would be great to hear why I’m not true. I hope I’m not at least 🙂

January 24, 2009 at 4:26 am

Wow… 20 minutes is damn impressive!

January 24, 2009 at 3:16 pm

Just for fun, here are ideas for a blog to bloggers about blogging:

1. Know and Write About Your Readers (People like to read and learn about themselves)

2. The Power and Persuasion of Sincerity

3. Ghost In Your Computer? (Dealing with your PC’s artificial attitude)

Writing in twenty minutes? Inspiring idea!

Thank you for the read.

January 27, 2009 at 4:40 am

Deadlines are always good inspirations, specially when you are writing somethings, these tips are really useful specially the notebook carrying point as ideas keep striking and if we don’t note them at the same moment they can vanish. This is something i have been doing for some time but after reading here i felt good that other people also follow this.

February 3, 2009 at 2:59 pm

Exquisite writing, how luck I am to have found another word smithy that entertains and informs. Thank You Michael

February 15, 2009 at 12:59 pm

I liked the idea of carrying pen and paper. It’s still a very quick and enjoyable way of jutting things down. Your method is helpful for developing several different ideas when they flow in themselves. Cool … I still think about the 20-minutes …

February 17, 2009 at 2:45 am

Although the act of writing may take 20 minutes, it’s still interesting to see all the background incubation that goes into writing an article – which is why, as freelance writers, we charge an hourly rate.

The common argument from cynics is that anyone can write so why should I pay, but as you can see from the steps above in this post, writing is a process and if you want good writing you need to invest in it.

February 17, 2009 at 12:23 pm

Similar to a photographer always carrying a camera with them – carrying a notebook, digital voice recorder, PDA, etc, to keep track of ideas is essential.

February 18, 2009 at 6:20 am

Very well written. It is a good guide for aspiring article writers or just to anybody. With your helpful tips, it makes article writing more fun. Thanks.

February 22, 2009 at 4:42 pm

This is one of the main reasons I keep coming back to Copyblogger, so I can be encouraged to keep writing every day.

I don’t write as fast as the author of this post but am a lot faster than I used to be.

I really liked the suggestion of using your ideas as you are writing rather than trying to save them. This will help me tremendously because i am constantly coming up with thing as I am creating my articles that I think I should put in a different article.

Thanks for a great post!

March 12, 2009 at 1:33 am

But HOW do you monetize your blog and track the results? I like to write, but it gets daunting writing all the time and not seeing a dime! thanks for your advice, [email protected]

March 14, 2009 at 5:19 am

I find I can write much more quickly when I’m writing an article on something I know about. If I have to research first it takes longer – I’m not referring to research time, just the time taken to reread research notes.

March 16, 2009 at 10:59 am

So, your 20 minutes in fact is much more than 20 minutes.

I understand that you used “20 minutes” only to get readers attention. Anyway, it does not matter if it take you 20 or 200 minutes to write an article.

What really matter is that all your articles are really good.

March 17, 2009 at 12:26 pm

I find #4 particularly important. As a creative writer (poet) who has written daily for a long time I can wholly agree that the ideas will come effortlessly when you’re in the zone. So don’t worry about anything except getting started (the warm up idea is great too) and then capturing the stuff that is delivered.

March 25, 2009 at 6:32 pm

Jim … good ideas. In addition to your ideas of “batching” your articles, or writing several at one time, I find that writing article series helps a lot. I sometimes come up with a list of related or serial ideas that I want to cover. Most of the time I have more content than will fit in one article, so I end up writing a series of articles, which sometimes covers beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Other times it goes part 1, part 2, and part 3.

More recently I’ve started taking pictures as I run around town and using the pictures as ideas or jumping off points for my blog posts. For instance, I just snapped a photo of the adult diaper aisle at the store, and used the concept of “embarrassment” as the key theme in a blog post about helping new people in MLM get past their embarrassment of prospecting. I snapped another pic of a local business person who is really successful, even in this recession, and used him as a topic in another blog post. Right now, photos are keeping things interesting for me, sparking ideas. When that runs dry, I’m sure I’ll find another way to keep things interesting. When I’m interested, the writing just flows, and blog posts to come out in 20 minutes or so.

And, as always, practice, practice, practice. Writing 10 blog posts a week kind helps with that! The Hemingway approach. Cheers, Stephanie

April 9, 2009 at 12:56 pm

Well Brian, I’ve never managed to write a complete article without spending of about 20 to 30 minutes of research unless I’m particularly obsessed with the topic.

And I found that it’s a lot easier to write when I have had enough sleep 🙂

April 19, 2009 at 1:56 pm

I have hundreds of topics ready to go, but often I work on one at a time. It takes me HOURS to get a whitepaper finished. Maybe I’ll try this method for a while…

Have a look at the free whitepapers, and let me know if they are doing the job well….

April 22, 2009 at 1:46 pm

This is a great article, and I’m of the opinion that everyone should make a point to write fast. I wrote a book about it several years ago called Writing FAST: How to Write Anything with Lightning Speed which looks at some of the ideas in this article and systematizes the process.

Writing an article in 20 minutes is only half of the equation. The other half is to make sure it reads fast, too.

May 6, 2009 at 10:52 pm

thanks for all the comments (including the challenging ones because I believe in some of them)

May 8, 2009 at 11:22 pm

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this subject. Very helpful.

How to come up with New Idea for articles ???

1. Find a (need) problem faced by a targeted market 2. Do a research on the issue at hand 3. Provide a solution by writing a post

Everyone loves a solution provider. I think we just need to find some issues , fix it and share with the readers in an entertaining way. In simple terms, find a need and fill it. Cheers

May 11, 2009 at 7:49 am

I usually work the same way, but i didn’t realize that i work systematically.

May 12, 2009 at 12:51 am

I really admire your self-discipline, because I realise that writing blog posts in a fast and productive way and providing quality ideas at the same time must require a lot of patience and skill.

I think we should all learn from your routine so that we can become more efficient at being bloggers, because the most important part of this activity is to enjoy writing and to provide lots of good content for our readers and subscribers.

May 14, 2009 at 9:00 pm

Wow, you write so fast, it takes a lot of time for me to write anything.

May 21, 2009 at 11:33 am

Lovely, i like a lot these tips and i will use it on my articles

June 2, 2009 at 8:06 pm

You are dead ON!! So many times, I have been tempted to “save my best ideas”… even thinking I was “wasting” them on my blog BEFORE I had a bunch of readers!! NOW, I “love on” my list through my blog and e-zine.. really trying to serve them and bring them tangible solutions to build their business. My FAVORITE blog post is the one in which I “debuted” by “Rated R marketing” report… the only one of its kind based on the marketing tactics of drug dealers and prostitutes! Fun Stuff! Thanks for the great post!

June 17, 2009 at 1:58 pm

For me its the opposite.Lots of ideas but so hard to write without spending hours with changing and editing.

June 19, 2009 at 6:04 am

3. Ghost In Your Computer? (Dealing with your PC’s artificial attitude)

June 20, 2009 at 10:41 pm

Very well said… It is the best approach to practice article writing at the start and eventually, you wouldn’t know that your writing skills have developed in no time and become a pro.

June 25, 2009 at 7:49 am

An interesting guide of tips to writing a an article in just 20 minutes. It will help me to write more content in a short time.

June 26, 2009 at 6:39 am

I’m actually not sure if I really would be able to work on multiple articles at the same time – I think I would lose time in switching – by losing concentration on the topic.

June 26, 2009 at 9:30 am

Sam Steiner identifies a genuine challenge to multi-tasking which is called “task switch loss”.

July 3, 2009 at 1:08 am

The momentum factor really helps as i have noticed with my writing. When i get started with just some random writing, or comment on other articles/blogs or twitter, i tend to get more ideas and a better flow is induced and hence the ability to put up some nice articles.

July 3, 2009 at 7:21 am

Yeah right said, Time management is the key . i used to waste 2 hours atleast to research re-research and then writing. thanks, you owe me

July 7, 2009 at 10:48 am

Great List! Your thoughts on incubating ideas was a good one, so often we try to do it all in one sitting…but prepping and then cooking is sometimes the better way to go. I’ve written in my blog about “being creative”…getting ideas, similar thinking…

http://maverick-dean.com/tamora/index.php/archive/how-to-be-creative/ Thanks again! Tamora

July 7, 2009 at 12:12 pm

great article, I always have time problems in writing articles

July 16, 2009 at 8:35 am

very informative article! I need to do several articles and I have no idea how I am going to do it! Now i am more knowledgeable and I hope I will do a great job! 😉

July 25, 2009 at 2:15 pm

I was searching for ways to write faster and came across this entry. These are some good tips, thanks. I guess I just need to get a bit more organized and practice.

August 1, 2009 at 11:34 am

Thank you very much for writing this wonderful article about how to write article and believe me I have learn something wonderful things from here.

Thanks Again Alam twitter.com/alamest

August 7, 2009 at 5:25 pm

Some great tips in here for article writing 🙂

I am just about to indulge in writing 10, so these tips could save me quite a bit of time.

I particularly like the point about writing more than one at the same time, and writing it in chunks.

Some great tips

August 10, 2009 at 7:35 am

Very good list. I have been using a few of these tips myself and find that writting in batch is very helpful and now that I read this when things are flowing. spend 5 -7 minutes a couple articles at a time also works well. I usually work on my stuff in 3-4 stages.

Idea’s > Deeper dive > Find some Revelate links and picture > Final Edit proof and review.

Very helpful post.

August 23, 2009 at 1:02 pm

Thanks for the simple and useful tips. I am also working full time and still trying to follow writing as a second carrier. It is nice and releiving to see that there are other people like me and they are finding ways to get over the problems.

September 1, 2009 at 10:13 am

Excellent article. I’ve been trying to come up with ways to write quicker that would actually work for me, and this sounds do able. Thanks.

September 11, 2009 at 10:08 pm

I’m in line with the great thinkers like you. I use to have ideas-useful enough, but never in written form for other to glimpse. I need to sit down and learn to put ideas down, having come across these wonderful tips from Jim Estill. Pls, accept my warmest regards.

September 12, 2009 at 8:31 am

Nice post. thanks – I just started writing articles – non-corporate and I have so much information and I normally write 3-6 articles and somehow combine them, this makes me feel much much better – thanks.

September 12, 2009 at 11:53 am

Really helpful tips, indeed. The point that writing an article in 20 minutes is amazing because it saves time and utilize the brain while it’s fresh. But, on the other hand if you nothing flows out of the latter, then it doesn’t work. That is why, I liked your idea of putting down ideas that might come anytime and anywhere. For instance, I get very creative and inventive among people or in the street. I even wrote some poems while being amongst people. That is also obvious when we put good ideas in an article better ones come later and that is how we get richer and riches in their production. Thanks a lot for your tips.

September 19, 2009 at 5:32 pm

Since I committed myself to contribute weekly articles to an online magazine, I find it harder and harder to get things done. I read your article and find your tips are very helpful.

September 21, 2009 at 11:42 pm

Great advice for sure. I am looking to boost my daily writing output as a freelance writer and I love the tips about “get X amount done by X time” and the “warm up writing.” I may try the warm up writing trick soon. Thanks!

September 25, 2009 at 2:00 am

Wonderful post! You were tips were really good. I need to speed up as I have heard of many people saying they write an article in less than 20 minutes

September 28, 2009 at 2:31 am

I enjoyed to see this site and I am searching for this kind of site if available .pl. mail me. thank you. Majid

October 2, 2009 at 10:58 pm

A really short time for a good article! Which means that the preparation matters a lot…

October 6, 2009 at 10:36 am

You said it, “coming up with the ideas is the tough part.”

October 12, 2009 at 9:07 am

Thanks for the information. This was very helpful. It is hard to write articles, specially when you ran out of ideas.

October 15, 2009 at 3:00 am

Typinator Spell Catcher Diigo Ulysses And working on three or four articles a week are does it for me. But I’m still not down to 20 minutes. Seems like I spend more time with rewites and careful revisions.

October 19, 2009 at 3:15 am

I suffer from punctuation and organization my ideas I appreciate any professional one want to help mea

October 20, 2009 at 7:33 am

Thanks for your tips, I usually take at least 2 hours to make one article.

October 20, 2009 at 12:59 pm

Great piece and one I recommend to friends who want to try blogging and also in my blog on procrastination. What I like about this is that it forces one to start writing without getting stuck on structure. Editing is always going on but once you take that leap and write the first draft, it becomes easier to finish the project. Thanks! Cheers, E

October 25, 2009 at 9:42 am

Thank you for your great tips! I thought it is very hard to write article and spend much time on writing but it’s not bringing the good results be cause idea is come and gone so quick.

November 2, 2009 at 2:38 pm

I’ll be honest – As an article marketer, I hate pumping out article after article. Can get very boring, BUT – the info you’ve outlined here is something that anyone can follow to bang out informative articles quickly! Good post 🙂

November 6, 2009 at 10:46 am

This was very helpful. It is hard to write articles, specially when you ran out of ideas. And when you are not that good writer!

November 14, 2009 at 9:52 pm

20 minutes…!!!Really after reading that I agree with that may be not definitely it’s possible to write an article in 20 minutes… But don’t know about me..I could do that or not!!

November 17, 2009 at 5:42 pm

I get my ideas from read ing other blogs. I have a backlog of blog posts that need to be fleshed out–the 20 minute part.

I liked this post by the way.

November 20, 2009 at 11:03 am

Thank you for tip number 5.

It’s so hard to get past writer’s block. I’m going to start doing it. Most of the time, when I see something interesting on the net I just bookmark the page so when the time comes that I need it, it’s just right there on my toolbar.

Excellent post! Love it.

November 27, 2009 at 12:33 am

20 minutes? That’s amazing. I spent at least 1 hour due to editing and making sure my grammar and spelling works.

November 27, 2009 at 12:30 pm

I like this , keep it simple and let it flow. I often do what I call priming writing when I lack courage( that is what my problem is most days when I am afraid to write.) When I just writing anything to get the juices flowing. Good deal!

December 2, 2009 at 12:55 pm

Probably one of my biggest stumbling blocks is writing. Perhaps I am too much of a perfectionist. Great tips, I hope to incorporate them into my regimen.

December 17, 2009 at 6:56 pm

I love the fact that you break it down into a couple 5-7 minute sessions on each blog. When the juices aren’t flowing it is very easy to daydream or procrastinate. If you hit a block you can come back to it later and do something else more productive. Great advice!

December 18, 2009 at 7:50 pm

I do love bullet points, I think it’s the way forward in sharing information on how to get stuff done. It’s always harder to massive chunks of text. Saying that, I’ve never written in bullet points – unless it’s the planning part. Maybe I should try it out.

I love this website, glad I found it =]

December 22, 2009 at 11:48 am

I start with bullet points and expand from there. Most of the time the finished article format is not in bullet structure when it’s posted. I think of it more as an outline of what I want the information to cover.

My ideas seem to come in waves so I’ll scribble down several topics and hold for later when my mind has gone to mush.

January 10, 2010 at 6:10 am

A top 5(or whatever) list like this is easy in 20mins because the format is already given. You simply take your idea points and add a couple sentences. Where as a narrative type article will and should take you longer. There’s more editing to get the concepts in proper order and your ideas to flow. Just my 2cents. Cheers.

January 10, 2010 at 11:50 am

January 14, 2010 at 7:31 pm

Thanks for the tips. I think the bullet points are especially useful to get the ideas outlined.

January 15, 2010 at 3:25 am

I shoot for 20 minutes, but somehow it always seems to take a couple of hours. Haven’t been at it long though so I’m hoping it gets easier and faster with practice. I read recently that the secret to article writing was simply to 1. Tell them what you are going to tell them 2. Tell them 3. Tell them what you told them.

January 22, 2010 at 8:56 am

I like this article and it’s good to get an insight into how other copywriters work. With regards to #7 I would struggle to jump from one article to another like that, I much prefer to concentrate on one at a time.

January 27, 2010 at 2:19 pm

The way you write is great enough. Although it varies man to man. I can’t write on this way as it’s not possible for me to concentrate my mind on a topic if i leave it now.

January 28, 2010 at 6:41 pm

Great list. Maybe this will help me over come my inability to finish an article on time.

February 1, 2010 at 5:40 pm

You just inspired me to write a new newsletter article in under 20 minutes – so yes, it can be done. Great blog – wonderful information here.

February 9, 2010 at 8:34 am

The incubate idea works. I do that all the time. 🙂

February 19, 2010 at 6:38 pm

20 minutes! i wish i could get my articles done in 20 minutes, takes me hours to get each one to a state that i feel ok publishing it, and even then ifeel the article could do with more time spent on it to make it flow better. wish i could afford a proof reader but i hear they charge almost £20 per article and i can’t afford that much

February 21, 2010 at 12:23 am

Those are some great tips for writing!

February 22, 2010 at 4:31 pm

I can write it in 20 minutes too – no problem. But translation to english takes me hours.

There is a big trade off for foreign writters since english is not our language. How can we compete against native speakers? Hmmm it’s impossible.

February 25, 2010 at 1:33 pm

Writing 3 – 4 articles at one time is so helpful. I take it you mean on related themes. And, yes, the idea of “incubating” an article is so necessary.

So you carry around a notebook? Principles for organizing ideas will never change.

March 3, 2010 at 12:41 pm

I can sometimes get a post written in 20 minutes but the editing always takes me a lot longer. The tips you give in this article are really useful. But even more useful is the example you set by your behaviour.

March 26, 2010 at 1:25 am

Thanks for the “quick tips” – I’ll implement these right now and pump out some content 🙂

What about getting ideas from reading other blogs?

What about building content from prior blog posts?

What about rehashing old content, updating, revising?

March 30, 2010 at 9:21 am

This is so somple for me to practice. I have practice half of these techniques its great for my time and the quality of my articles.

April 6, 2010 at 12:29 pm

great article thank you for share

April 12, 2010 at 6:26 pm

When I first read the title I was like, “No way!” But then I guess if those steps were properly implemented, you are a living proof that it can be done.

April 12, 2010 at 9:16 pm

Thank you for sharing your thoughts about how to write posts or articles quickly. They help a lot even though the goal of 20 minutes is a tough one to achieve.

I wanted to find out that if you take into consideration writing down good ideas and incubating the ideas and then finally writing it down how much time do you think that takes on average.

Thanks in Advance.

April 13, 2010 at 7:33 am

im going to write my first article thanx for ur suggestions

April 13, 2010 at 2:57 pm

Thanks for writing this! After reading it I decided to try writing my first blog article, and I think it turned out fairly decent. (I spent 23 minutes on it … shh! Don’t tell!)

May 5, 2010 at 10:42 am

Great ideas, thanks! I just recently discovered a great tool that has helped me cut down on my writing time.

http://writeordie.drwicked.com/

Write or Die is a web application that encourages writing by punishing the tendency to avoid writing. You start typing in the box. As long as you keep typing, you’re fine, but once you stop typing, you have a grace period of a certain number of seconds and then there are consequences.

Check it out.

May 14, 2010 at 7:49 am

Thanks for the tips. Great starter for writing articles I have recently started looking at writing articles to make money on the internet, and happened to stumble across this product. It helped me to improve the standard of my writing, and over time, the speed of my writing as well.

May 24, 2010 at 8:26 am

May 25, 2010 at 12:10 am

I don’t think so that, it is possible for everyone to write a article in 20 minutes. The way you have mentioned in your post takes more then several hours. You excluded the brainstorming period from your 20 minutes. It’s embarrassing.

May 31, 2010 at 5:25 am

I was never very good at writing, so 20 minutes for an article is better than I could ever dream!

June 3, 2010 at 3:27 am

20 minutes? That’s amazing.Thanks for the great tips

June 7, 2010 at 10:54 am

Well pretty much spot on. It is also very important that you do not linger into a single thought when you’re having a hard time digesting it, proceed to the next thought than waste so much precious time in a single thought that could have been drowned with various others had you spent your time wisely on proceeding.

June 12, 2010 at 10:48 am

Thank you, it is very useful.

June 13, 2010 at 8:59 pm

Thank you for the guide. I hope one day it will take me only 20 minutes to write an article.

I am fairly new to blogging and it seems to take me forever to write an article. I think the time also depends on how much research you have to do.

June 15, 2010 at 5:59 am

Thank you for the guide!

Ebizdame, there are all sorts of ways to train yourself into writing quickly and concisely: I have in the past found Julia Cameroons small course ‘the artists way’ ( http://www.theartistsway.com/ ) particularly useful, especially as a way of training yourself to produce larger volumes of material.

June 18, 2010 at 4:40 pm

I have to recalibrate my blog expectations. After reading this, I’m spending waaay too long on my posts.

June 23, 2010 at 9:04 pm

The way you write is great enough. Thanks

June 30, 2010 at 10:07 am

thanks for the tips. it’s really helpful. great!!

July 5, 2010 at 7:27 am

Thanks for the interesting article 🙂 20 minutes sounds pretty reasonable.

July 9, 2010 at 2:30 pm

This is really superb, and it is very useful for me.

Thanks alot for this great post.

Thanks dude.

July 11, 2010 at 4:34 am

Great article and interesting approach. The only flaw for me personally, I am convinced tip 2 ‘incubate’ would work for most people though, is that ideas about work need to linger around in your mind for incubation to happen. My preference is on switching off completely after activities I consider ‘work’. Thank you.

July 20, 2010 at 5:23 am

This is exactly what I need! I’m an Asian guy and my tongue is trained with a different language which cause me to have some difficulty writing in english because constructing words in english is so different from my native language. This entry gave me the best idea on how to make it right. Thank you!

July 24, 2010 at 6:31 am

Great Post, I am a article writer and i write articles from last 1 year. Your post is very helpful. It has helped me lot till now i cant write articles in 20 min but it takes less time compare to previous. All the best for writing more same kind of helpful blogs.

Regards, Ana Watson

July 26, 2010 at 8:17 pm

Thanks for sharing! Your ideas will really help me.

July 31, 2010 at 7:30 am

Thanks so much for these great tips, please how can I achieve this feat from the scratch, I would like to start article writing seriously.

August 3, 2010 at 8:07 am

i liked your concept of writing the article in only 20 min and appreciate the way you do it. Altough i am not that intrested in writing articlz but love readin it.

August 3, 2010 at 12:32 pm

I write one article at a time. I just don’t like to divert my attention towards something else because it will easily mess up the thought flow.

August 3, 2010 at 1:29 pm

Hi, This is a very nice and informative post. When we write articles in 20 mints it may have some errors and grammar mistakes, can you tell us the way to be perfect in such a short span of time.

August 5, 2010 at 5:18 am

Nice Post, This is one of the best article writing tip. It will really help all the article writers specially freshers. Thanx for such a good information. All the best for future.

August 6, 2010 at 9:34 am

When you’re on the web, writing well but also writing quickly is a good skill to have. I’ve outsourced a lot of my articles but I never quite get the quality I expect, so I’ve reverted back to writing my own articles. This will certainly help. Thanks!

August 6, 2010 at 9:54 am

Whilst I fully agree with most of your points, and have written several articles on this subject myself over the years, I do disagree with what you say about writing several articles at the same time:

“I often write 3-4 articles at the same time. Spending 5 minutes on one, 7 on another etc. When I am really in writing flow, this works well.”

How can this be a recommended approach to writing? Do you see renowned authors switching from one novel to another every few minutes? Do people communicate well whilst having 3 or 4 different conversations simultaneously?

Write one article at a time, starting at the beginning and ending at the end, as this will certainly produce a much more fluid and properly structured article rather than the fragmented and confused articles likely to be generated using this method of writing.

September 1, 2010 at 7:06 pm

Hi, Justin. My experience leads me to disagree with you. I’ve served as an executive speechwriter for eight years and a journalist for seven years . With three to four speeches/articles all due by (the same) day’s end, I wrote as I thought. I happen to think in multiple streams of consciousness (is that just a nice way of admitting I must have ADD?). I rapidly switched among the projects as ideas occurred and bits of research surfaced. That’s how the writing got done.

And no, “starting at the beginning and ending at the end” is not the recommended way to go for me — it tends to stifle my creativity. Does anyone else find this true for them?

Case in point — when I wrote this reply, I started with what is now the last paragraph — ’cause that was the point I wanted to make originally. This paragraph is the last one I will write before I hit “Post Comment.”

Now let me be clear: when editing, I focused on one piece at a time. That’s where the cohesiveness and fluidity get built in, after the fact.

Having said that, I do think 20 minutes is more useful as a challenge to beat procrastination/writer’s block than it is an encourager of quality work. I’ve read a lot of writing on the Web that enticed me with their titles but let me down at article’s end. It’s obvious the writers spent a lot of time thinking about SEO for the title and gave short shrift to the content.

August 6, 2010 at 10:38 am

I’m with you, Justin. There is no way that writing 3-4 articles at the same time will produce quality work. Come to think of it, perhaps using that technique is why outsourced work is so awful.

August 10, 2010 at 11:12 am

This has to be the best writing advice I have received. I have always detested writing but after maintaining a diary, I find it easier to start writing. Writing blogs are different from standard college writing and business writing. Once I leave college, the process will be a lot easier.

August 12, 2010 at 5:57 am

I take no more than 30 mins to finish an article, but the extra 15mins I spend every time intentionally to work out the things I’ve missed out in my article.

So an overall article daily takes 45mins of my time. I would need to reduce my article writing time so that I could lessen the time taken by me to write an in-depth article.

August 15, 2010 at 12:49 pm

Hi, and thanks for the brilliant idea about writing 3-4 articles at the same time. I’m certainly going to give this one a go because I suspect it will greatly reduce the ‘down’ time I need to give to my brain between writing and editing by introducing a write/edit/write/edit regime.

Thanks for all your fantastic articles.

September 1, 2010 at 11:11 am

Love these! I too employ some of these tips and will definitely try out the rest! I’m interested to see how the tip of writing for a few minutes, then stopping, later coming back for a few minutes.. will work out for me!

September 2, 2010 at 1:03 pm

Very nice but not really practical as what works for you might not work for the other person at all, and i must say I find it very difficult for my self to achieve writing an article even in 2 hrs.

September 4, 2010 at 5:36 pm

Wow you are quite a multi tasking person.. doing several articles at the same time… I don’t think many can do that but nice to know how a real writer works ..A lot of thinking is involved.

Nice article 🙂

October 6, 2010 at 4:46 pm

Hi! I love the way you write your article. I will try to write like the way you did. I am a newbie in writing and I need a tips like this. Thank you

October 26, 2010 at 7:12 am

Bullet points and lists help me a lot too.

I’m much faster at writing articles than I used to be, but your tips may help me cut my writing time down a lot more. Fantastic list! 🙂

One thing that really slows me down with blog posts is finding images to include. I know that people like to see pictures in posts (I do too, when the pictures are good and/or interesting) but finding free images that are okay to use (yes, I follow the rules! :)) can be tricky sometimes.

October 27, 2010 at 2:53 pm

Thanks for the great tips about the bullet points. I need to work on the amount of time I spend on writing articles.

October 31, 2010 at 4:42 am

Thanks for the tips…Yeah, the time to write a 500 word article usually takes 20-30 minutes… But once I have written an article I get a sense of accomplishment which stops my desire to write another article immediately…

Also, articles with 400-500 words are ok for the blog posts..I prefer writing long articles sometimes even up to 2000 words.. I have got better results with longer articles than the short ones..

Here is an article that I wrote which agrees with all of the points you have discussed here: http://www.bukisa.com/articles/384745_how-to-write-an-article-a-step-by-step-guide

October 31, 2010 at 11:43 am

Is it possible to be so centered in your business that it’s hard to think of new and interesting ways to convey your information? That pretty much sums it up for me! I need someone who is good at writing articles, posts, blogs, whatever it takes. My site has lost rank since we redesigned it. Help! Taking offers!

November 3, 2010 at 10:58 am

This is an excellent article. Now it takes me about 1 hour to write an article. I need to implement the above plan to be able to write more articles in less time by making me a list of like ideas for few days writing as many details as possible. Then write the article.

November 5, 2010 at 3:10 am

That’s a great little guide, always writing articles, but this really help me in regards of time efficiency.

November 8, 2010 at 1:04 pm

Thanks for the tips. I do believe that planning to write and having ideas and points in your mind is the road to success

November 17, 2010 at 3:12 am

Nice post you have here. I know it’s tough to write especially if you’re not really a writer. I always carry a notebook and a pen with me. So, once an idea popped in to my head, I would write it down. Ideas usually come in when you are more relax.

November 17, 2010 at 9:44 am

Wow! No wonder that this page hits five in page rank. This is a great article with a very interesting tips. Keep on posting man.

November 26, 2010 at 9:16 am

Great Post. I am studying article writing at the moment and best ways to achieve more productivity. Great info on the site. Thanks.

November 30, 2010 at 11:11 am

I just wrote an article this afternoon, but unfortunately, it took me even more than 1 hour. It seems that I do have long long way to do.

December 8, 2010 at 11:43 am

Bravo! finally someone agrees with me, articles; particularly when written for the web no not have to be mine novels. Readers rarely have time to read articles which are multiple thousands of words long, better to create shorter four to six hundred( even 300 or 400 hundred words) word articles, which are informative and authoritative.

January 1, 2011 at 10:53 am

Awesome article! Read this and produced a great article in around 30 minutes. Have to shave 10 minutes off somewhere still 🙂

January 3, 2011 at 4:39 pm

How about this? #1 Audience (writing for whom?) #2 Why they would be interested? Content is King, Yes! #3 Keep it short, Yes!

Question, how to attract an editor’s attention?

January 11, 2011 at 2:39 am

This is a very helpful post on article writing. Article writing is the most challenging task if you are a blogger, and you’re not a writer, it’s really difficult. Thanks for the tips, this definitely will help me get through.

January 13, 2011 at 2:11 pm

Thanks for a very helpful post, I also liked your concept of writing the article in only 20 min and appreciate the way you do it. Thanks 🙂

January 13, 2011 at 9:00 pm

Spot on! Even before I had read this, I have already been doing my own version of coming back to it later when I’m stuck, and trying to discipline myself to stick to the 20- or 30-minute rule. Otherwise, you won’t be able to churn enough articles to pay for a cup of latte.

January 18, 2011 at 9:56 pm

Bullet points are my favorite way to shorten things up and make it easier to read.

January 19, 2011 at 3:31 pm

Wow very good tips from everyone that posted here about article writing this will really help me i am not much of a writer however need rticles out here to brand my business and expertise.

January 19, 2011 at 6:14 pm

I love all the tips about writing articles quickly. I can certainly use these tips.

Thanks for sharing.

January 28, 2011 at 12:41 pm

“…don’t try to force the words to come”. Good idea! But what do you do when you are running out of time?

February 4, 2011 at 12:27 pm

This is great! This really helps me as I just started writing articles and blogging. Thanks!

February 6, 2011 at 4:42 pm

I can write 4 articles an hour – it takes practice but entirely possible. The best I have done is 38 in one day…..which really helped my earnings!

February 12, 2011 at 12:39 am

Simple and effective technique for writing article in short time. Quite impressive. Really we need to follow something of this sort if we want to write many articles. Thanks for putting together all these ideas.

February 17, 2011 at 4:11 pm

Great tips especially to the novice writer like me. I always bring a notebook with me wherever I go because ideas often pop up when you least expect them.

February 17, 2011 at 10:27 pm

I’ve written a fair number of pages for my website and I am pretty sure I have never been able to complete a page in 20 minutes, from first keystroke to publication. And then there are other steps that I have to perform to bring attention to my newly completed page – updating Delicious bookmarks, site map, xml file to tell Google to come find the new page, announcing it on Facebook and Twitter. I suppose automation tools would be helpful. Furthermore, when I write new pages, I take the time to cross-link internally – this provides guidance to the reader to stay and read more plus it is important for SEO (internal linking is important for Google).

February 25, 2011 at 6:56 am

Can’t quite see me getting an article done in 20minutes yet, but your guide is certainly something to put in practice and see how I go. I am new to article writing, and haven’t thought of listing my ideas, I just struggle for ideas at time. Great tip , thanks.

February 25, 2011 at 8:17 am

I went back and read my original comment to this post, in September of 2008. It’s amazing to see how far I have come since then because of my articles. I encourage everyone to use article marketing to build a business online – it works!

February 26, 2011 at 11:49 am

I’m taping this to my wall.

Naturally, I assume that I have to create a masterpiece every time I write. I am addicted to over thinking and perfectionism.

Your awesome article forces me to focus on what matters, not what I think matters.

(Written in two minutes. Working on cutting this down.:)

March 3, 2011 at 5:52 pm

Great tips, I actually make a list, but I don’t really stick to it as always new ideas come up and I keep changing the list. What I’m finding useful recently is saving the drafts on my site so that I feel the article is started and I can go back to it easily. Not sure I can write it in 20 minutes though…

March 4, 2011 at 8:38 am

But, how long did it take to write this article?

March 4, 2011 at 2:41 pm

Wow, the universe does work with you when you are suppose to do something. I was preparing to write an article to submit to a article directory when I stumbled upon your article. Talk about great timing, it does not get any better than this. I believe this is my confirmation that I suppose write this article.

Thanks for all the helpful tips.

March 8, 2011 at 4:14 pm

I’m applying this article as we speak and came back to it for additional insights. Thanks for the list, thanks for keeping short, sweet, and to the point, and thanks for continuing to share great content!

March 20, 2011 at 2:45 pm

Wow, man! No way that I can write an article in 20 minutes, even if I’ve been prepared for it. But great tips, thnx for sharing and inspiring us.

March 22, 2011 at 9:12 am

I will have to be the proverbial exception. In the past 13 months, I have written, at a rough estimate, something approaching two million words in the nearly 3,000 reviews I have done on StumbleUpon.

My methods can’t be summarized because they’re organic and vary enormously from review to review. Some articles essentially write themselves: Some connection is made, some inspiration found, some metaphor dictates the flow, and the whole emerges fundamentally in its final form in anything from 20 to 40 minutes (that’s for a 900-word article, and I’m not a fast typist). Others are grueling: I need to seek half a dozen sources to cite and from which to add images, the information I’m presenting has to be checked and cross-checked with sources on both sides of the issue, and the resulting 3,000-word draft article must then be condensed to fit the space available; in such cases, an article may require several hours, but the result is often of such worth that those who read it are moved to commend my efforts, and — for me, anyway — that is enough to justify them.

Of course, I’m a notorious perfectionist. 😀

April 7, 2011 at 12:41 am

these are simple yet profound tips. I have found that I am spending way too much time and energy pumping out article after article. I am certain that I can write quality articles is around 20 minutes by following these tips.

April 8, 2011 at 8:34 am

This is great! I can certainly use these tips.

April 13, 2011 at 6:38 am

This post is great. Thanks for the information. It really helps me because I’m trying to write fast to be able to cope with my tasks.

Keep it up and good luck!

April 15, 2011 at 5:50 am

I always find that I have brilliant ideas for blog posts just as I fall asleep. Now I have a pen and paper by the bed, to jot them down. I have had some great ideas, and thought “oh well, it is so good I will remember it in the morning” and by morning they are well gone, never to return.

I write any ideas I have in the drafts page on my blog, so that when I have some writing time, I also have some topics ready and waiting. By having a collection together, it is easier to spend an afternoon writing up enough posts to last a week, and much more efficient than doing one each day.

April 21, 2011 at 12:19 pm

Excellent advice. I particularly enjoyed #7- “Never save a good idea”. That’s brilliant. I’ve found that if you strike while the iron’s hot, the best ideas flow fast and furiously. But if you wait for later, you may find yourself wondering ‘what was I thinking exactly anyway?” Thanks for sharing such sound advice in a world full of rehashed clutter.

April 25, 2011 at 12:23 pm

This is amazing…these tips really work. My writing skills are improved upto 20% after reading this article 🙂

May 2, 2011 at 12:39 am

This is excellent suff. 20 minutes certainly would be an excellent goal to aim for. Unfortunately for me I need more time so I can make sure my content is quality and not boring with fluff.

I like the idea to let my thoughts and my ideas to sit for a 3 days. Who knows what inspiration can start flooding through.

May 5, 2011 at 9:32 am

I have been spending altogether too much time on each article. I’m not going to bookmark this post. I’m going to print it, tape it up where I’ll see it, and memorize the ideas. Then my productivity will shoot through the roof. Thank you.

May 5, 2011 at 10:27 am

Thanks for these tips. I’ve been lucky if I can finish an article in an hour. I’m not going to bookmark this post and lose it among all my other bookmarks. I have printed it and intend to study it daily before I start to write anything. If I can even get down to half an hour (for my 1000+ word articles), my productivity will skyrocket.

May 5, 2011 at 10:29 am

Oops. Sorry for what looks like a duplication. I refreshed the page a couple of times and didn’t see my comment, so I tried again. But I mean it. These ideas will help me a lot.

May 9, 2011 at 12:19 am

I totally need to limit myself to a certain time frame to finish writing as I so easily get distracted and always ended up spending more time than it actually needs!

Thanks for the great article!

May 16, 2011 at 1:08 pm

Excellent article on how to write article in 20 minutes

June 13, 2011 at 10:44 pm

Sigh. I’m an economical writer, but there’s just no way I could write an article in 20 minutes, but now I’m starting to think seriously about this. One thing he mentioned that I’ve always done is to draft something up, then come back to it–preferably the next day, though I don’t always have that luxury. There’s something about a thought having time to percolate that provides clarity.

I also keep a list of ideas that I develop and repurpose on my blog, articles, newsletter and social media posts. I get a lot of mileage out of my writing. Many of these are pulled from the marketing newsletters and website to which I subscribe. Spend an hour/day perusing these sites to stay on top of what’s going on, sign up for webinars and best of all, steal ideas.

June 29, 2011 at 2:44 am

This short article proves the author is a real genius. Several text lines resulted in a long discussion. That’s what I call “alive text”. Don’t you think that most of the words we write should force human minds to work. Not to agree or disagree with us silently, but to think it over?

July 19, 2011 at 1:22 pm

wow, 375 comments… I just read your other post – top ten blogs and that is also nice…. this number of comments is a true evidence that your blog deserves the top spot.

July 19, 2011 at 1:31 pm

Great article, I really appreciated the main points of your writing. I’m always looking for ways to better my content, and this has helped immensely.

July 20, 2011 at 10:26 pm

I also happen to have a very tight schedule, so this post really lifted up the burden in my shoulder, as the quote strikes me: “Writing quickly doesn’t mean compromising on writing well, though.”

Thanks for the great post!

July 28, 2011 at 6:05 am

Thanks you so much for that list – I am the worlds best at saving my best content for later – to be honest I have around 20 pages of content on my computer right now (not to mention videos) just waiting for “the right monent”. What a douch 🙂 Great advice – Now I’m hooked on your blog, the next hour will be spend going thru your stuff – thanks man 😀

July 28, 2011 at 12:17 pm

Wow! I bookmarked this post a year ago but until now it’s still receiving so much traffic. No wonder because we can find so much jems in digging an old post like this. Cheers mate!

August 9, 2011 at 5:01 am

Well with the entry of more bloggers and creation of new blogs with innovative ideas readers now focus on a blog that gives them comprehensive, authentic and fresh content. According to me 20 minutes is unrealistic but to achieve success as a blogger one must spend at least 45 minutes in writing a blog post.

August 11, 2011 at 4:45 am

Thanks for sharing the tips for writing the article in 20 mins. I am very slow in article writing your tips will help me in writing the article fast .

August 23, 2011 at 12:19 am

Great Post and love how you broke it all down to 7 basic steps that are easy to follow. This should help me speed up my article writing.

August 24, 2011 at 1:37 am

I love the point of not forcing words just to complete the article. It’s wise to save that as draft and finish it once you get some more inputs on the topic.

September 8, 2011 at 4:02 am

Great Tips. I have to say, I was a little apprehensive when I first saw the title of the article, but after reading it, it all makes sense. Not saving the seemingly easy articles for later really hit home. I need to save time NOW not later.

September 8, 2011 at 7:28 am

Thank you so much for this article. It helped me to organise myself better. Now I follow the steps and it speed up my writing. I am so happy to have more time for my business.

September 8, 2011 at 10:22 am

This is very great, you have allot of information and have encouraged me to write better and faster than before. Thanks again

September 8, 2011 at 7:17 pm

That was pretty helpful!

I’m having one heck of a time trying to get my blog up on the right foot. But, what’s even worse than writers-block is a pile of forced, cruddy content. Quite frankly I’ve become a victim of both.

So, thanks for the tips. I’m about to use them right now..

September 24, 2011 at 10:02 am

If you scroll to the top of this list you will see that I first commented on this post in September of 2008. My business has changed dramatically over these past 3 years, but the one thing that has been a constant is my article writing and marketing. I encourage you to take this seriously, and know that you can do extremely well with this marketing strategy. And yes, it still only takes me about 20-30 minutes to write and submit each article.

Connie Ragen Green

October 14, 2011 at 3:17 am

Very interesting and useful post on 20 minute article writing. The problem I experience most of the time is finding quality content for research to enable you to put a quality article together, especially if it’s a subject about which your knowledge is limited. Finding sources of good info can be challenging and time consuming. Once that’s been accomplished then yes, it shouldn’t take too long to write the article. Great post though. Thanks.

October 18, 2011 at 2:06 pm

Nice Article!! I think we can add brainstorming as an important factor. Brainstorming ideas and comeback later would results in a high quality article!!

October 19, 2011 at 11:15 am

Apart from my personal blog, it takes me hours and hours to write articles for clients for peanuts! Any tips for that?

October 19, 2011 at 2:50 pm

Your blog is like a breath of marketing fresh air. Nice, clean and well written, thanks for the articles advice and keeping an ideas list simple but effective

October 22, 2011 at 10:13 am

I can’t write an article in 20 minutes but I sure will try will the help of these tips. I certainly can’t publish an article to my website in 20 minutes because there are other house-keeping tasks to perform such as SEO link-building.

October 30, 2011 at 9:17 pm

Wow! brilliant post.. 20 min is such a short time for me to write a single article. How I wish I can do that 🙂

November 13, 2011 at 3:30 am

I often find myself struggling to come up with relevant topics related to my blog, but in the end I always find something. Lately, I have been writing a lot of stories and that too is proving difficult at times and it can take me days or weeks before I come up with anything. I never know what to do with myself when this happens, but jotting down ideas in a notepad is very effective.

November 14, 2011 at 4:55 pm

Very useful post. Writing to the point articles have a lot of benefits.

November 26, 2011 at 6:06 pm

Writing an article is like writing a piece of music. It has to sound right or its useless and waste of time. I take a lot more than 20 mins when writing as I keep toying with the words and keep replacing till I strike the correct note to convey my piece. Makes me proud of my artwork when I look at it later.

November 30, 2011 at 8:48 am

Wow! Writing an article in just 20 min is quite too little of time. Better be organized!!!!!!!!!

December 23, 2011 at 11:26 am

i want to write article for my website and this tips will really helpful. keep going on…

December 29, 2011 at 6:17 pm

“so it’s time to be brutal” – that cracks me up.

Very good info!

February 17, 2012 at 3:26 pm

The article is delicious. Great points and some I had thought of. I approve this message! As a long time book coach, who published “Write your eBook or Other Short Book–FAst!” sill on Amzon, I’m now wriiting blogs to educate my audience. One blog that echoes this blog’s how to’s to help you spend less time ==>s http://bookcoaching.com/wp/blog-marketing-how-to-write-500-word-posts-in-7-steps/

Just thinking–it took me almost 10 minutes to scroll down the huge numbers of comments! What a successful blog and you are the one who serves coffee?

February 24, 2012 at 4:14 am

Something must be wrong with me- it takes me forever to write a blog post. And I feel like I get off on so many tangents. Then spend forever trying to figure out what to edit out- there’s that funny pun that shows my customers my personality, but does it draw too far from the point of the post?

I’m keeping a running list of posts and agree that this is the #1 way to save time writing blog updates. One of my favorite craft business bloggers posted this great post recently with a free printable for brainstorming and scheduling blog posts. Maybe someone will find it useful:

http://www.meaganvisser.com/2012/02/biz-challenge-schedule-1-month-of-blog-content/

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5 Science-Backed Ways to Write Clearly

If you want to become a better writer, ignore the lore and follow the science..

Posted June 24, 2024 | Reviewed by Devon Frye

• We read sentences written with active voice faster and comprehend content better than passive sentences.
• Studies document that we read and recall sentences with less effort when they turn content into micro-stories.
• Pronouns as subjects send readers backward, but readers comprehend sentences through prediction.
• Action verbs activate the brain's motor systems, creating semantic richness and enabling rapid comprehension.

Most writers assume they write well. Yet most writers grapple with the reality of writing as a black box.

That is, we know that writing works, but we’re a bit fuzzy on what makes readers grasp the meaning of some sentences instantly and without noticeable effort, while we find others difficult to understand after repeat re-readings. And contrary to popular belief, clear writing has virtually nothing to do with content, sentence length, or writing style.

Instead, we perceive sentences as clear when they map onto the methods our reading brains use to make sense of writing. Knowing the most important ones, including the below, could help make you a better writer.

1. Active voice makes sentences easier to read.

In dozens of studies, researchers have found that readers comprehend sentences more rapidly when sentences reflect the causal order of events. Two factors determine these outcomes.

First, human brains naturally perceive cause and effect, a likely survival mechanism. In fact, infants as young as six months can identify cause and effect, registered as spikes in heart rate and blood pressure.

Second, English sentence structure reflects causes and effects in its ordering of words: subject-verb-object order. In key studies, participants read sentences with active voice at speeds one-third faster than they read sentences in passive voice. More significantly, these same participants misunderstood even simple sentences in passive voice about 25 percent of the time.

As readers, we also perceive active sentences as both shorter and easier to read because active voice typically makes sentences more efficient. Consider the difference between the first sentence below, which relies on passive voice, and the second, which uses active voice.

• Passive: Among board members, there was an instant agreement to call for a pause in negotiations.
• Active: Board members instantly agreed to call for a pause in negotiations.

2. Actors or concrete objects turn sentences into micro-stories.

We read sentences with less effort—or cognitive load—when we can clearly see cause and effect, or, “who did what to whom,” as Ina Bornkessel-Schlesewsky puts it.

Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University of South Australia, used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), to spot brains reacting to meaning and word order in sentences. Unsurprisingly, when the subjects of sentences are nouns clearly capable of performing actions, readers process sentences with greater speed and less effort. For actors, writers can choose people, organizations, publications—any individual, group, or item, intentionally created, that generates impact.

In addition to our unconsciously perceiving these sentences as easy to read and recall, we can also more readily identify actors in sentences. Furthermore, these nouns enhance the efficiency of any sentence by paring down its words. Take the examples below:

• Abstract noun as subject: Virginia Woolf’s examination of the social and economic obstacles female writers faced due to the presumption that women had no place in literary professions and so were instead relegated to the household, particularly resonated with her audience of young women who had struggled to fight for their right to study at their colleges, even after the political successes of the suffragettes.
• Actor as subject: In A Room of One’s Own , Virginia Woolf examined social and economic obstacles female writers faced. Despite the political success of the suffragettes, writers like Woolf battled the perception that women had no place in the literary professions. Thus Woolf’s book resonated with her audience, young women who had to fight for the right to study at their colleges.

3. Pronouns send readers backward, but readers make sense of sentences by anticipating what comes next.

Writers typically love to use pronouns as the subjects of sentences, especially the demonstrative pronouns this, that, these, those, and it , believing that these pronouns help link their sentences. Instead, pronouns save writers time and effort—but significantly cost readers for two likely reasons.

First, readers assume that pronouns refer to a singular noun, rather than a cluster of nouns, a phrase, or even an entire sentence. Second and more importantly, when writers use these pronouns without anchoring nouns, readers slow down and frequently misidentify the pronoun referents. In fact, readers rated writing samples with high numbers of sentences using demonstrative pronouns as being less well-written than sentences that used actors as subjects or pronouns anchored by nouns.

Pronoun as subjects: [Katie Ledecky] estimated that she swims more than 65,000 yards—or about 37 miles—a week. That adds up to 1,900 miles a year, and it means eons of staring at the black line that runs along the bottom of a pool. Actor as subject: [Katie] Ledecky swims up to 1,900 miles a year, mileage that entails seeming aeons of staring at the black line that runs along the bottom of a pool.

4. Action verbs make sentences more concrete, memorable, and efficient.

For years, old-school newspaper and magazine editors urged writers to use action verbs to enliven sentences.

However, action verbs also offer readers and writers significant benefits in terms of their memorability, as revealed in one study of readers’ recall of verbs. Of the 200 verbs in the study, readers recalled concrete verbs and nouns more accurately than non-action verbs.

In fact, when we read concrete verbs, our brains recruit the sensory-motor system, generating faster reaction times than abstract or non-action verbs, processed outside that system . Even in patients with dementia , action verbs remain among the words patients can identify with advanced disease, due to the richness of semantic associations that action verbs recruit in the brain.

• Non-action verbs: That the electric trolleys being abandoned in Philadelphia were greener and more efficient was not an insight available at that time.
• Action Verbs: Philadelphia scrapped its electric trolleys, decades before urban planners turned to greener, more efficient forms of transport.

5. Place subjects and verbs close together.

Over the past 20 years, researchers have focused on models of reading that rely on our understanding of sentence structure, a focus validated by recent studies.

As we read, we predict how sentence structure or syntax unfolds, based on our encounters with thousands of sentences. We also use the specific words we encounter in sentences to verify our predictions, beginning with grammatical subjects, followed by verbs.

As a result, readers struggle to identify subjects and verbs when writers separate them—the more distance between subjects and verbs, the slower the process of identifying them correctly. Moreover, readers make more errors in identifying correct subjects and verbs—crucial to understanding sentences—with increases in the number of words between subjects and verbs, even with relatively simple sentence structure.

Ironically, as writers tackle increasingly complex topics, they typically modify their subjects with phrases and adjective clauses that can place subjects at one end of the sentence and verbs at the opposite end. This separation strains working memory , as readers rely on subject-verb-object order in English to understand the sentence’s meaning. Consider, for example, this sentence from an online news organization:

In Florida, for instance, a bill to eliminate a requirement that students pass an Algebra I end-of-course and 10th-grade English/language arts exams in order to graduate recently cleared the Senate’s education committee.

On the other hand, when we place the subject and verb close together and use modifiers after the verb, we ease readers’ predictions and demands on working memory:

In Florida, the Senate’s education committee recently cleared a bill to eliminate two graduation requirements: an Algebra I end-of-course and 10th-grade English language arts.

Jane Yellowlees Douglas, Ph.D. , is a consultant on writing and organizations. She is also the author, with Maria B. Grant, MD, of The Biomedical Writer: What You Need to Succeed in Academic Medicine .

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Where third-party candidates could spoil 2024

Getting on the ballot has enormous stakes.

Independent and third-party candidates are potential disruptors for Joe Biden and Donald Trump in a race expected to be decided by razor thin margins.

But before these candidates become true threats, they have to first get on the ballot.

“And if you are not on the ballot, your candidacy does not exist,” Ralph Nader’s 2000 and 2004 presidential campaign manager Theresa Amato wrote . “No ballot access, no votes.”

Getting your name printed on the ballot in enough states to theoretically win the Electoral College earns a third-party candidate not only political legitimacy, but also satisfies one of the requirements to appear on debate stages — which Robert F. Kennedy Jr. failed to meet for the first presidential debate . Biden and Trump have high unfavorables, raising third-party candidate appeal and potential vote share in states that are often decided by thousands of votes.

Polling and historic trends single out the well-established Libertarian and Green parties’ nominees, Kennedy, who has historically high polling for an independent candidate, and academic Cornel West as the most influential candidates

Getting on the ballot is arduous, expensive and bureaucratic, and every state has different requirements.

If you’ve ever tried to circulate a birthday card around your office, Amato wrote, “you may have a ten-thousandth of an idea how difficult it is to collect this many signatures across fifty states and the District of Columbia.”

That’s why we’re tracking who’s on the ballot, where and why it matters.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. ,  independent

The scion of one of America's most famous political families, Kennedy has never run for public office before. The son of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy previously worked as an environmental lawyer and anti-pollution advocate before turning his attention and litigation work to vaccine skepticism and anti-vaccine mandate promotion. During Covid-19, Kennedy was a major anti-vaccine influencer and had his social media accounts taken down as a result. Now questioning vaccines safety, questioning government agencies and fighting censorship are core to his pitch on the campaign trail.

State to Watch

Texas — Kennedy's campaign turned in more than double the 113,000 signatures required in the Lone Star state. The state's margin of victory has been shrinking since 2012 as demographics also change, and Kennedy's candidacy could plausibly draw enough votes from the major candidates to further slim those margins. Kennedy's anti-vaccine stance may come into play here: The state uptake of Covid-19 booster shots was one of the lowest in the nation, according to CDC data .

Cornel West ,  independent

The popular academic and professor is no stranger to the campaign trail, but this is the first time West has ever been the candidate. West was an active Barack Obama surrogate in 2008, who turned to Sen. Bernie Sanders in 2016 and 2020, before finally giving up on the Democratic Party when he announced his campaign last year. As a political novice, West has struggled to find his place in the 2024 race: he's changed political parties twice and has limited funds to fuel his long shot bid.

Michigan — West frequents pro-Palestinian protests and has found a base of support by those angered by the conflict. West's message is resonating with young voters and the large population of Arab American voters in the state. West has been making overtures to these communities, which mostly backed Biden in 2020 but may break from him over his policy in the Israel-Hamas war.

Jill Stein ,  Green

Stein, a third-time presidential candidate for the Greens, was labeled a spoiler in 2016. Stein is leading the party ticket to support Green Party ballot access and push the party's environmental protection priorities. Stein, who is a medical doctor by training, wasn’t deterred by being labeled a spoiler and has re-entered the political fray.

Pennsylvania — In 2020, a lawsuit from the Democratic Party of Pennsylvania successfully removed the Green Party from the ballot — removing an alternative choice expected to hurt Biden's vote total. Stein’s 2016 vote share was greater than Trump's margin of victory in the swing state. Her return to the November ballot is largely viewed as a threat to Democrats again.

Chase Oliver ,  Libertarian

Best known for forcing a run-off in the 2022 Georgia Senate race (that Democrats ultimately won), Oliver’s 2.1 percent vote share has already demonstrated how even single-digit support can have multi-million-dollar election consequences. Oliver became the Libertarian nominee after seven rounds of balloting at the national convention with a pitch to grow the party in all 50 states. His campaign plans to focus on young voters who could be drawn to his anti-war position on college campuses, Twitch and social media.

Georgia — This is the third time Oliver will be on a Georgia ballot in as many election cycles. While the Libertarian base is comparatively small, voters will already be familiar with Oliver from his Senate run and he could continue to draw voters who find both major party candidates undesirable. As he showed in 2022, even single-digit support is enough to sway elections in the Peach State — and Biden won by less than 0.3 percent in 2020.

Which states will swing the election?

The two major-party candidates are focused on seven states that were closely contested in 2020 — all of which were decided by less than 3 percentage points. In some states, Trump and Biden were separated by just tens of thousands of votes.

Trump won Michigan by about 10,000 votes in 2016, when third-party candidates collectively garnered more than 200,000 votes, plus write-ins, all together earning almost 6 percent of the vote share. Third-party turnout dipped in 2020, but the Greens, Libertarians and Natural Law Party, which nominated Kennedy , will all be on the 2024 November ballot.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Chase Oliver

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania requires just 5,000 verified signatures, but it’s accessible for outside challengers to petition. The Greens collected enough signatures in 2020, but were thrown off the ballot on a technicality. Only the Libertarian Party has an existing ballot line this November. In both 2016 and 2020, the vote shares for all the minor parties and write-ins were greater than the margins of victory.

Wisconsin requires just 2,000 signatures to be collected in roughly one month between early July and early August to get on the ballot. Biden won the state by just 20,000 votes, which was less than the vote share received by the Libertarian Party candidate in 2020.

The Peach State was decided by just 12,000 votes in 2020. The Libertarians have had the strongest showing of minor parties in the state, garnering 3 percent of the vote in 2016. Its presidential nominee, Oliver , won 2.1 percent statewide when he ran for U.S. Senate in 2022.

This swing state had the narrowest margin of victory in 2020, but only the Libertarian candidate made it on the ballot. But in 2016, when both Stein and then-Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson made the ballot, they earned more than 5 percent of the vote share — and another 2 percent that came from write-ins.

Nevada has the greatest historical propensity of third-party and independent voting on the list — and it's the only one that became more Republican between 2016 and 2020. The state also has a "none of these candidates" ballot line that could siphon off votes from the major-party candidates.

North Carolina

The only battleground state Trump carried in 2020, North Carolina, is typically a very close state. No presidential candidate has won a majority of the vote since George W. Bush in 2004 — meaning third-party support matters at the margins. The Green and Libertarian Parties already have ballot lines, but it's very easy for outside groups to challenge the validity of signatures.

Which candidates are on the ballot in which states?

Attaining ballot access is a multistep process, starting with signature-gathering efforts, which are then sent to state election officials verification procedures. Outside groups, including the major parties, also have the opportunity to challenge those independent and third-party candidates. This table shows where Kennedy, Oliver, Stein and West are in the process.

A candidate must collect signatures and submit a petition before a state’s deadline passes to have a shot at being on the ballot. Otherwise, they won’t be on the ballot in November.

Cornel West

• The D.C. Brief

Can Joe Biden Be Replaced as the Nominee? Here’s How It Could Happen

C oncerns about President Joe Biden’s age and ability to win a second term have churned within the Democratic Party party for more than a year. Those fears became much harder to ignore after Thursday night, when he struggled through a presidential debate against former President Donald Trump. The 81-year-old Biden fumbled his words, trailed off at points, and repeatedly lost his trains of thought.

Republicans mercilessly mocked the showing and Democrats spiraled into open panic.

At present, there is no clear-cut mechanism to replace Biden as the party's nominee—he already won more than enough delegates during the primaries to secure his nomination ahead of the Democrats’ national convention in August.

Still, there are ways for Democrats to end up with someone other than Biden at the top of the ticket, especially if Biden willingly steps aside—but the timing, and the Democratic National Committee’s own regulations , has a lot to do with what’s possible, let alone plausible. (Not to mention the challenge of settling on a replacement.)

Here are some of the scenarios for how a Democrat other than Biden could become the party's presidential nominee.

Biden withdraws from the race before he’s formally nominated

In 1968, Lyndon B. Johnson, then-President and the frontrunner for the Democratic Party’s nomination, shocked the country by announcing that he would neither seek nor accept his party’s nomination. The announcement came after he almost lost in the New Hampshire primary to Eugene McCarthy. 

Then-Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who was nominated for President at the convention later that year, eventually lost to Republican nominee Richard Nixon after a campaign season that saw Robert F. Kennedy gunned down in Los Angeles and George McGovern briefly joining as a stand-in for that vein of liberalism. 

Biden has made no such announcement. But if he does decide to withdraw from the race in the coming weeks, delegates will be able to nominate a new candidate, though rules that vary by state will govern who they can back instead. 

According to Rule 13, Section J, of the DNC’s delegate selection rules , “delegates elected to the national convention pledged to a presidential candidate shall in good conscience reflect the sentiment of those who elected them.”

This scenario would formally set off an intense fight for the party nomination among those with the name recognition and reputation to sway enough delegates in a very short period. Along with Vice President Kamala Harris, people who may actively vie for the nomination could include Governors Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Gavin Newsom of California, and J.B. Pritzker of Illinois

Biden rejects the virtual nomination

Because of a quirk in Ohio law which had required all candidates to be legally certified by Aug. 7—more than a week ahead of Biden’s scheduled nomination at the convention that opens in Chicago on Aug. 19—Democrats are set to formally nominate Biden in a virtual roll call weeks before the convention. (Ohio lawmakers recently passed a law to iron out that quirk, but the DNC has said that the virtual roll call will continue just to be safe.)

Biden may choose to reject the virtual nomination, which was meant to be a formality, setting up delegates to select a new nominee at the Democratic Party’s in-person convention, where delegates will still participate in a traditional roll call.

Delegates have second thoughts about Biden before nomination

Despite some loud protest votes in primaries, Biden has won a strong majority of the delegates: of an estimated 3,937 pledged delegates assigned in the primaries held so far, Biden is slated to arrive at the DNC confab in Chicago in August with 3,894 promised to be with him on the first vote. The extent to which those delegates are obligated to stick with Biden varies, based on state-by-state rules.

Also in play are 739 automatic delegates—or so-called superdelegates. Those are the party insiders like ex-Presidents, union chiefs, and mega-donors who can vote for anyone they want. In 2018, the party chose to reduce the influence of superdelegates on the nomination process, agreeing that superdelegates would not automatically get to vote on the first ballot.

On paper, the math remains in Biden’s favor if he continues to want the nomination. Absent Biden releasing the pledged delegates and state rules allowing such flexibility, they’re with Biden through at least the first round of balloting.

But there are still ways for delegates to, essentially, stage a revolt. This is where Convention Chair Minyon Moore comes in. Under DNC rules, a ruling from the chair can shut down almost anything. Bypassing the ruling of the convention chair would require 25% of the delegates demanding a roll call vote. 

Confused yet? It’s about to get worse: every DNC jurisdiction—that’s each of the 50 states, Washington, D.C., American territories, and a jurisdiction representing Democrats who live abroad—has slightly different rules for how to handle thorny convention issues like bypassing a rule of the chair or making changes to their delegation. So how a brokered convention plays out could get incredibly complicated with the world’s eyes trying to make sense of arcane rules being adjudicated in real time on live TV.

Biden decides after the convention that he has second thoughts

This would actually be the cleanest scenario in terms of process and most opaque in terms of—lower-case D—democratic values.

Under Rule 8, Section G, of the Call for the Democratic National Convention , if the presidential and/or vice presidential nominee dies, resigns, or becomes disabled after the convention, “the National Chairperson of the Democratic National Committee shall confer with the Democratic leadership of the United States Congress and the Democratic Governors Association and shall report to the Democratic National Committee, which is authorized to fill the vacancy or vacancies.”

Once the nomination is decided at the convention, though, only the nominee can choose to bail. The party can’t do it. The party may have second thoughts about their nominee, but if Biden refuses to drop out, there’s little to be done other than perhaps applying extraordinary pressures like cutting off the DNC’s bankroll and other resources to urge him to change his mind. Once the gavel falls, Democrats are stuck with Biden if he still has a pulse.

Biden wins a second term—but decides to step down or becomes otherwise incapacitated before Inauguration Day

If such a scenario unfolds before the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025, the Vice President-elect would become President, according to the 20th Amendment . (This assumes those in the electoral college acted faithfully —that is, the electors voted for the winner of the election in their states, which have varying levels of stringency in enforcing this behavior.)

If that happens after Biden is inaugurated for a second term on Jan. 20, Kamala Harris would become President, and would be eligible to run for the top job in 2028 for a full four-year term.

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Thomas L. Friedman

Joe Biden Is a Good Man and a Good President. He Must Bow Out of the Race.

By Thomas L. Friedman

Opinion Columnist, reporting from Lisbon

I watched the Biden-Trump debate alone in a Lisbon hotel room, and it made me weep. I cannot remember a more heartbreaking moment in American presidential campaign politics in my lifetime, precisely because of what it revealed: Joe Biden, a good man and a good president, has no business running for re-election. And Donald Trump, a malicious man and a petty president, has learned nothing and forgotten nothing. He is the same fire hose of lies he always was, obsessed with his grievances — nowhere close to what it will take for America to lead in the 21st century.

The Biden family and political team must gather quickly and have the hardest of conversations with the president, a conversation of love and clarity and resolve. To give America the greatest shot possible of deterring the Trump threat in November, the president has to come forward and declare that he will not be running for re-election and is releasing all of his delegates for the Democratic National Convention.

The Republican Party, if its leaders had an ounce of integrity, would demand the same, but it won’t, because they don’t. That makes it all the more important that Democrats put the country’s interests first and announce that a public process will begin for different Democratic candidates to compete for the nomination — town halls, debates, meetings with donors, you name it. Yes, it could be chaotic and messy when the Democratic convention starts on Aug. 19 in Chicago, but I think the Trump threat is sufficiently grave that delegates could quickly rally around a consensus nominee.

If Vice President Kamala Harris wants to compete, she should. But voters deserve an open process in search of a Democratic presidential nominee who can unite not only the party but also the country, by offering something neither man on that Atlanta stage did on Thursday night: a compelling description of where the world is right now and a compelling vision for what America can and must do to keep leading it — morally, economically and diplomatically.

Because this is no ordinary hinge of history we are at. We are at the start of the biggest technological disruptions and the biggest climate disruption in human history. We are at the dawn of an artificial intelligence revolution that is going to change EVERYTHING FOR EVERYONE — how we work, how we learn, how we teach, how we trade, how we invent, how we collaborate, how we fight wars, how we commit crimes and how we fight crimes. Maybe I missed it, but I did not hear the phrase “artificial intelligence” mentioned by either man at the debate.

If there was ever a time that the world needed an America at its best, led by its best, it is now — for great dangers and opportunities are now upon us. A younger Biden could have been that leader, but time has finally caught up with him. And that was painfully and inescapably obvious on Thursday.

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4 takeaways from the first presidential debate

Domenico Montanaro

President Biden and former President Donald Trump participate in the first presidential debate of the 2024 elections at CNN's studios in Atlanta on June 27. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

If some people who listened to the radio in 1960 thought Richard Nixon won the presidential debate with John F. Kennedy, then maybe people reading the transcript of Thursday night’s match-up would think President Biden won.

But elections aren’t won in transcripts. The reality is, fairly or not, debates are often about optics — how the candidates present themselves, defend their records and parry attacks.

Fact check: What did Biden and Trump claim about immigration in the debate?

And that’s why so many Democrats are ringing the fire alarms after the first general-election presidential debate of 2024. The Biden campaign said the president had a cold to explain why he sounded so hoarse and weak. But Biden’s stumbles right from the beginning played into his biggest vulnerability — his age and whether the 81-year-old is up to the challenge of handling four more years in office.

There were issues for Trump, too, as he continued to spread falsehoods and bathe in the kinds of conspiratorial grievances that have turned off many voters.

Not much has changed the dynamics of this race; will anything that happened Thursday night make a difference either?

Here are four takeaways from the first Biden-Trump debate of this campaign:

1. First and foremost, let’s talk about the elephant in the room – Democrats have to be wondering if they’d be better off with someone else as their nominee.

Neither candidate is the official nominee yet. The national political conventions haven’t happened — but it’s next to impossible that Democrats would replace Biden.

Still, given he delivered the kind of performance Democrats feared, party leaders, strategists and many voters, frankly, had to be wondering during this debate what it would be like if any of a handful of other Democrats were standing on that stage.

Biden got a bit stronger as the debate went on, especially on foreign policy. He had some one-liners, like calling Trump a “whiner” when Trump wouldn’t definitively say that he would accept the results of the 2024 election. But Biden often wasn’t able to show vigor or consistently convey what he wanted to say. He simply couldn’t deliver the kinds of happy-warrior blows with that toothy smile audiences have seen from Biden in years past.

“Sometimes the spin don’t spin,” one Democratic strategist texted midway through the debate when asked for reaction.

2. If how Biden sounded wasn’t bad enough, the visuals might have been equally as bad.

An important rule of thumb for candidates — and moderators — in debates is to be conscious of how things look, of how you look, of what people are seeing at home. And what people saw — and this was predictable — was a split screen.

What to know about the key policies that got airtime in the presidential debate

Biden wasn’t able to use that to his advantage at all, even as Trump doled out falsehood after falsehood. Instead, he looked genuinely shocked and confused, which is never a good look.

Trump and his base might not care about late-night comedy, but this week’s monologues are going to sting Democratic voters.

3. The format — and hands-off moderators — benefited Trump.

The muting of the candidates was likely intended to make the debate calmer and not allow Trump to run roughshod over the moderators or his opponent. But it had the effect of making Trump seem more sedate than usual.

Trump employed rounds of verbal jujitsu, in which he threw back his own vulnerabilities and directed them toward Biden. He was even able at one point, during a strange exchange about golf handicaps, to say, “Let’s not act like children.”

The moderation, or lack thereof, also allowed Trump to spread falsehoods and hyperbole without being interrupted or corrected. CNN indicated before the debate that the moderators were not going to play a strong role in fact checking the candidates, and they lived up to that.

They left it to the candidates, essentially, and with Biden unable to deliver in real time and the moderators declining to, the audience was left with a salad bowl full of rotten eggs and moldy lettuce that passed for facts.

4. This debate might not move the needle much, if at all.

Despite Biden’s struggles, which will understandably get the headlines, Trump had some difficult moments, too, especially in the second half of the debate.

In addition to spreading myriad falsehoods, he did little to credibly defend his conduct on and before the Jan. 6 siege on the Capitol; he used the kind of hyperbolic and vituperative language that has long turned off swing voters; and showed why many are concerned about some of his positions on the issues, especially on abortion and how the U.S. should be represented on the world stage.

So despite Biden’s shortcomings, millions will still likely vote for Biden, anyway, because he’s not Trump.

The bottom line is: Americans have said they are unhappy with their choices, and, in this – the biggest moment of the 2024 presidential campaign yet — it was clear why.

Correction June 28, 2024

A previous version of this story referenced this week's live SNL episode but in fact the show is on its summer hiatus.