Tuesday 29 May 2012

How to Structure an Article - 6 Elementary Elements

Writing a good article starts with a solid structure. Before you start writing, you need to have a general idea of the flow of your information and having a structure in mind can help you organise your thoughts more easily. Here are some important things to consider about your article structure.

Introduction
Before you delve into the meat of your article, you need to prepare the reader for what they're about to find. Think of it as a warm up to ease your reader into your article. Give them the broad strokes of the article, and why the information is important to know.

Word count
When readers see pages and pages of writing, they're not very motivated to start reading. So keep it short - between 250 and 500 words. You don't need to waffle on about the topic, just get the main points across as concisely and effectively as possible.

Paragraphs
Paragraphs make readers more comfortable when they approach your article. Little bits of information are much easier to get through than a solid block. And you can use paragraphs to maximum effect by dividing your information into the different ideas you're introducing. Try not to expand one idea over more than two paragraphs.

Sub-headings
Sub-headings make readers even more comfortable by pointing out which idea you're developing in the paragraphs that follow. Choose a subheading that highlights the information that will follow. It's better to decide on your sub-headings before you start writing, that way you'll know exactly what each section should say. This makes the flow of information more organised.

Bullet points
Bullet points are sometimes a good way to present information. They appeal to the reader visually and they hold the promise of easy reading. But you need to make sure that bullet points will work for the information you want to list. You also shouldn't have too many bullet points in your list - 4 or 5 would be ideal. And always make sure that all of your bullet points are in the same grammatical format.

Title
I left the title for last, because it's usually better to think up your title after you've written the article. That way you have a much clearer idea of what the reader can expect from your article. The title is possibly the most important element of all - it needs to draw your readers in. So use your keywords and let the reader know what your article will be about, but make it inviting.
Article writing can be a highly specialised field - you can always make use of a professional article writer to take care of it for you.


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