6 Serious Article Writing Deficiencies, and 6 Ways You Can Fix Them

6 Serious Article Writing Deficiencies, and 6 Ways You Can Fix Them
As a writer and editor of The Digital Camera Zone, I spend
hours every day scouring the ezine barns for articles to
put in front of an information hungry public.

I definitely find a lot of articles, all right. They number
in the thousands. Because I need content to feed a
voracious audience, I select as many as I can even though
I'm often not really happy with many of them.

"Why," I can hear you ask, "do you publish articles that
you are not happy with?"

Well, the answer lies in several unfortunate deficiencies
in many of the articles published in article barns...

DEFICIENCY NUMBER ONE: INADEQUATE CONTENT

Many articles are glaringly superficial. The author may
start with a good premise, say, the need to research out
digital cameras before buying one, but then drops the ball.

In essence, the only thing the article says, in 500 - 600
words or so, is "Do your homework".

-- There are no concrete suggestions as to how to do the
research.

-- There are no suggested sources where the reader can go
to find information.

-- There are no criteria by which the reader can decide
which camera is best for her.

In short, the article might not as well have been written.
The writer is merely telling the reader what she already
knew and provides no real information. Remember: it's not
"content that is king¨; it's quality content that is king.

DEFICIENCY NUMBER TWO: OVERDEPENDENCE ON KEYWORD ANALYSIS

Just about every article on writing articles for the web
emphasizes that your creation should be "rich" in the
keywords your readership is inputting into the search
engines.

The trouble comes when you try to include all of the right
keywords in your article so that people will find and read
it. The danger is that you actually degrade the content of
the article and make it less useful.

DEFICIENCY NUMBER THREE: NOT GRABBING THE READER'S
ATTENTION AT THE BEGINNING

There's nothing that attracts a reader more quickly to an
article than a short story, anecdote or personal experience
that identifies her with the subject.

This anecdote or short story should be based on experience,
either your own, an acquaintance, or a plausible situation,
and should confront the reader with a problem, immerse her
in a dilemma, or invoke an emotion that directly leads to
the solution posed by the article.

Many article writers start firing facts at the reader and
doggedly go on in the same paragraph to advance the
solution, without really building up the reader's curiosity
or expectations.

DEFICIENCY NUMBER FOUR: NO ORGANIZATION

Many writers, when they decide it's time to pump out their
daily (or minute-ly) articles, sit down and write paragraph
after paragraph until the word count reaches 850 words or
so without any discernible organization to their work.

Then they stop, and fire it off.

DEFICIENCY NUMBER FIVE: NO SUB HEADS OR BULLETS

We load up the article with long paragraphs which exhibit
no logical breaks.

The article has no:

-- Subheads. A pithy subhead for each paragraph will pique
your reader's interest and lead her into it. If your
readers don't encounter at least one subhead after reading
a couple of paragraphs, you've probably lost them.

-- Bullets. If you've got several points you want to make
in a paragraph, create as many bullets as you need. Don't
overdo it of course. Bullets are like salt.

-- Numbers. If you've got sequential steps you want the
reader to take, number them. It makes it so much easier to
figure out what you're trying to say.

DEFICIENCY NUMBER SIX AND THE FINAL HORROR: GRAMMATICAL AND
SPELLING MISTAKES

-- Gramatical Mistakes. Yes, you knew this one was coming
--things like "your¨, when you mean "you're¨; "its¨ when
you meant "it's¨.

--Spelling Errors. Your reader will assume that if you
can't spell, you don't know what you're talking about.

-- Incomplete Sentences. Have a subject, a verb and an
object unless you're being fancy, and know you're being
fancy.

-- Missing Words. Missing words, for example, "I went New
York", are enough to blow any reader away. My question is,
"You went what?"

If your article contains any of these stoppers, your
readership will never get as far as your Resource Box.

SO WHAT'S THE SOLUTION? GO OUT AND HIRE A PROFESSIONAL
WRITER?

No, you are the pro. Here's what you can do to make your
articles sizzle:

1) Read professionally written articles on the web until
you've absorbed their style.

2) Develop your own voice. Do this by writing and writing.

3) Paste a picture of your hypothetical reader on the
computer, and write to that person. What do you need to
say to catch and keep their attention?

4) Break it up. Use subheads, bullets, and numbers. Keep
pulling the reader ahead with your subheads.

5) Edit.

-- Read and re-read what you've written; cut out unneeded
words. Think economy: less is more.

-- Get somebody else to read it -- somebody who neither
loves you nor hates you.

-- Sleep on it. Never send out an article the same day you
wrote it. Your brain will "cook¨ overnight and you'll think
of all kinds of things you needed to say...and change.

-- Read it from the bottom up. This is a good way to catch
typos after you've looked at it for too long.

-- Read it out loud.

-- Do a spell check. In this modern age of spell checking
word processors, how can anybody submit an article that
contains misspelled words?

6) Beware of the spell check. It doesn't catch words used
in the wrong context. .

The bottom line is, take more time with your stuff. Write
something that will make ezines glow like comets and you'll
see your dreams come true.

----------------------------------------------------
John Young has been writing since he was, well very young,
and is now 62. Although he has a scientific background
(degree in Chemistry), and several years IT and Programming
experience, he is interested in a variety of subjects and
is presently setting up a number of ezines. He lives in
California with his wife and pet cat "Bear". Check out his
new ezine "The Digital Camera Zone" at
http://www.pcreveal.com/digitalcamera
and his Informational Marketing site at
http://www.ebook-marketing-software.com
where you'll find a handy free tool (Article Creator) that
really helps with article organization, as well as books
writing.