Article Writing 101: The Art of Writing Sensational Articles
Maybe it’s the idea of writing an article that has been giving you sleepless nights. Or the fact that you’ve spent forever bumbling from blog to blog foraging for a piece that will help you demystify article writing.
Regardless of how you ended here, the good thing is that you’re here anyway. Let’s cut the chase and get to deconstructing article writing.
First things first, article writing isn’t complicated.
This is an art that’s as old as time itself and one that many before you have perfected. That said, there’s no reason why you too can’t master it.
This piece will tell you about article writing, examples, techniques and everything in between.
As a quick primer, check out our blog on the 5 different types of articles explained and how to write them.
What is an Article
An article is a piece of purposeful writing that you craft for a large and specific audience. You’ll find most articles in newspapers, tabloids and journals.
Why Write an Article
This definition leads us to the question, why?
There are several ways to spend a Friday or Saturday evening; there’s wine, pizza and Netflix. Why on earth would you spend it writing some article?
There are several reasons why you might be trying to write one currently as you stand.
It could be to raise issues on a given concern, shed light on a neglected issue or awe your audience with the latest emerging technology.
One way or another, an article is one way to get your thoughts out there to the world, and today, we’ll teach you how to write one as good as these ones right here.
The Difference Between Content Writing and Article Writing
Are you writing an article, creating content, or doing both? This is one dilemma you can’t run away from as you embark on your article writing journey.
Despite the many parallels between them, there is a thin line between article writing and content writing. Some of these include:
On that account, here are two of our blogs that you should definitely check out:
11 Insanely Helpful Blog Post Ideas for Your Business Blog (With Examples) Writing a Feature Article? Here’s Everything You Need to Know
What is the Format of an Article? The Anatomy of an Article
Articles have a select format that differentiates them from other types of content on the web.
Unless you make some terrible mistake (or the whiskey was too strong), your article will mostly follow this format:
1. Heading
The header is the title of your article. Besides any hero image that may accompany your article, the header will be the first impression you make on your audience.
And that’s not all. It’s the only part of your article with a 95% guarantee of readership from your audience; the same can’t be said about your conclusion, for example.
Your title has to be spectacular for these reasons-you can’t afford to mess this up and tank your whole article while at it.
Here are a few tips for crafting a compelling header:
2. Writer Byline
After the header, you will proceed to write your name as the writer on its line. This small detail is essential as it separates article writing from other forms of content writing.
Unlike in articles, on most blogs, your name will surface at the bottom, often after everything else.
Well, let’s get to writing your name because, as simple as it seems, there is a wrong way to do it.
Here are a few things to cross of your checklist while writing your name:
3. The Date
The date of your article should come right after your name on the byline and never on the same line.
It’s also crucial to remember that this is the publication date, so it doesn’t matter if you took three days or a week to finish writing your article.
Some of the considerations to put in place while writing your date include:
4. Body
Your body is the part of your article where you argue your case with the reader. This is where you write whatever information you intend in a language that your target audience can understand.
While writing your body, ensure that:
5. Conclusion
You’ve made it. Now what’s left is developing a conclusion that ties up everything you’re argued in your article this far.
Look at it this way; if your entire article were a joke( hopefully it isn’t), the body would be its setup and your conclusion the payoff.
Your conclusion is like a ribbon that ties everything neatly together before you present it to the reader; it’s not essential, but God does it help.
Here are a few tips that will come in handy as you write your conclusions:
Steps in Writing An Article
For every exceptional article you meet on the web today, there are days upon days of preparation that made it a reality.
This includes hours spent doing research, conducting interviews, and making inquiries. Preparation goes a long way, and here are a few steps to guide you through it:
1. Come Up With A Topic
There isn’t a better way to kickstart your article other than settling on a topic or something to write about.
In some instances, you may be forced to write about something you’re not passionate about entirely-cough cough Covid.
However, every other time, you’ll never go wrong with writing about a topic that you’re passionate about or interested in.
While coming up with a topic, find a pen and consider the following steps:
2. Identify Your Target Audience
Now that you have a topic in hand, you have to shift focus to your audience. What good is an article if you can’t find people to read it and ways to reach them?
Some of the questions you can ask yourself while identifying your target audience include:
To answer these questions, you’ll have to develop buyer personas. A buyer persona is a graphic representation of your reader.
It covers who they are, where they work, their political views, passions, dreams, and aspirations. That said, a fundamental understanding of your reader will go a long way in helping you find the way forward in your writing.
3. Find Your Intent or Purpose
That’s enough looking outwards. It’s time for some inward-looking, soul searching, and self-awareness.
Our question of the day revolves around the reasons for you writing an article in the first place. What are your intents and motivations?
This may come as a surprise, but there are many writers who write entire articles without knowing why they started writing in the first place.
Here are a few reasons you might have wanted to write an article in the first place:
To Inform
Most articles on the web today are informative pieces. Their writers wrote them to provide answers to questions people have about exciting topics.
Here are a few tips when writing to inform:
Critique Conventional Ways of Thinking
Such articles are created to challenge people’s perspectives. Often, they have ideas that contradict conventional reasoning and don’t waste time raising them, sometimes as early as the title.
Here are a few tips:
Raise Awareness of a Given Issue
If you’re writing an article, one of your primary motivations might be to shed light on a neglected issue by society.
As mentioned earlier, don’t waste any time and start raising awareness as early as your header or title. Here are a few tips when raising awareness:
Gather as Much Information as Possible
What’s left is gathering as much data and information about your chosen topic as possible. Here are a few excellent places to start:
- Interviews
- Reading existing articles on your topic
Your 3-Step Guide To Writing Amazing Articles
We’ve covered all there is to writing an article. However, something tells me that you’re here for more than just writing the average article.
You want perfection, and this section is here to help you with just that. Here are some tips:
1. Make Information Useful to Your Reader
Apologies for the flashbacks to 9th-grade computer science, but explaining the difference between data and information is necessary for this section.
Data is raw facts.
Information, on the other hand, is meaningful data.
When writing your article, it’s important to create context and make the data meaningful to the user.
For example, it’s one thing to create a title informing the reader about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
However, it’s another to create a title informing the reader about the extra bucks they’ll be spending at the pump due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
One is data, the other information.
2. Brevity
In all forms of writing, less is always more. That said, if there’s a shorter way to pass information to your reader, don’t waste time; take it. And there’s more.
It’s becoming apparently clear that readers no longer read articles, to the alternative, they skim through looking for what they deem important.
For this reason, you have to start writing for both readers and skimmers, and you can do so by:
3. Use Writing Tools and Technology
Fortunately, writing articles isn’t what it was ten years ago. There’s now software that can make all your difficulties a thing of the past, and let’s not even mention the fact that you can outsource it entirely.
Here are a few software tools that will make your article writing more enjoyable:
And oh, there’s also the incredibly important bit about SEO. Check out our guide on article writing SEO here.
That’s a Lot of Work, But it’s Nothing Zoey Can’t Handle
Did you know that there are people out there who can express your ideas, thoughts, and passions in better ways than you can? Think about it for a moment.
And while at it, stop to consider that there will never be enough time to put all your perspectives into words and put them out there ( at least not on your own).
That’s our specialty here at Zoey.
Originally published at https://zoeywriters.com.
