So, you're cooking up a swank little article for Wikipedia. Or, you're compelled beyond measure to post your latest insights with respect to the squid and peanut butter sandwich (a delicacy among some gastronomes). Likelier still, you're creating a search marketing article to pump up the PageRank for your website and make search engines like Google and Yahoo! call you Daddy. Whatever you're doing, if you're going to write 500 words, write 500 words worth reading. Badly written, Web 2.0 self-absorbed brain babble isn't helping anyone. Take a few extra minutes, write something coherent-the Universe will thank you.
Here are two steps toward writing articles that are better, clearer and more engaging.
1. Your lede (lead) is your article's lynchpin.
Lede or lead, take your pick. (Many writers use lede to disambiguate it from lead-as in "Stop drinking lead paint" or "She can lead her horse to a bucket of lead paint but she can't make him drink.") Your lede is your opening line. Without a strong one your article is dead and buried before it ever had a chance to draw breath.
Your lede should be compelling, something that seizes our eyeballs and makes us say "Wait a second, here's an article that might be worth ingesting." Moreover, your lede should give us a sense of where we're going. Being as concise as you can, dangle something provocative in front of us, something that makes us salivate to read sentence two.
Here's an example of a bad lede: "It has been suggested by some people that the overall quality of the typical Internet experience is declining due to the fact that a great many people are writing large numbers of poorly written articles and then posting them online."
A small improvement might be: The Net is dying and bad writing is its killer.
2. A good transition helps render a readable article.
So, you came up with a killer lede, followed by two or three sentences that reinforce and expound upon your original premise. We're at the end of paragraph one and off to the races, right? Um, no. An article can't depend solely on its first paragraph any more than a chef can rely upon only her appetizers to satisfy voracious diners expecting a full-course meal. Now you have to entice us into paragraph two and the real meat of your article. We like what you did in paragraph one, and we're willing to tag along further, but only if paragraph two promises flavors similar to paragraph one, but somewhat different and substantially more filling.
As an example, let's say your lede says, "If you take the time to learn how to write a sweet article, you too could be dining on filet mignon as opposed to surviving on tripe." Since we're hoping to one day learn how to write a sweet article (that's why we're reading this sweet article, and by extension, your hypothetical sweet article that you will hypothetically write some day in the future) and because we're sick of surviving on tripe all the time-we are in! We'll tag along if we think we can get some filet out of the deal.
But then, for example, in paragraph 2, you do this: "Take heed, sweet article writing isn't for everyone, including my cousin Darla who looks like a supermodel only with a great many fewer teeth."
Conversely: "Take heed, sweet article writing isn't for everyone; some of you will go on writing lousy articles and surviving on tripe because that is the way of the universe."
These 2 steps, applied to your articles consistently, can only help improve markedly the quality of life itself.
Here are two steps toward writing articles that are better, clearer and more engaging.
1. Your lede (lead) is your article's lynchpin.
Lede or lead, take your pick. (Many writers use lede to disambiguate it from lead-as in "Stop drinking lead paint" or "She can lead her horse to a bucket of lead paint but she can't make him drink.") Your lede is your opening line. Without a strong one your article is dead and buried before it ever had a chance to draw breath.
Your lede should be compelling, something that seizes our eyeballs and makes us say "Wait a second, here's an article that might be worth ingesting." Moreover, your lede should give us a sense of where we're going. Being as concise as you can, dangle something provocative in front of us, something that makes us salivate to read sentence two.
Here's an example of a bad lede: "It has been suggested by some people that the overall quality of the typical Internet experience is declining due to the fact that a great many people are writing large numbers of poorly written articles and then posting them online."
A small improvement might be: The Net is dying and bad writing is its killer.
2. A good transition helps render a readable article.
So, you came up with a killer lede, followed by two or three sentences that reinforce and expound upon your original premise. We're at the end of paragraph one and off to the races, right? Um, no. An article can't depend solely on its first paragraph any more than a chef can rely upon only her appetizers to satisfy voracious diners expecting a full-course meal. Now you have to entice us into paragraph two and the real meat of your article. We like what you did in paragraph one, and we're willing to tag along further, but only if paragraph two promises flavors similar to paragraph one, but somewhat different and substantially more filling.
As an example, let's say your lede says, "If you take the time to learn how to write a sweet article, you too could be dining on filet mignon as opposed to surviving on tripe." Since we're hoping to one day learn how to write a sweet article (that's why we're reading this sweet article, and by extension, your hypothetical sweet article that you will hypothetically write some day in the future) and because we're sick of surviving on tripe all the time-we are in! We'll tag along if we think we can get some filet out of the deal.
But then, for example, in paragraph 2, you do this: "Take heed, sweet article writing isn't for everyone, including my cousin Darla who looks like a supermodel only with a great many fewer teeth."
Conversely: "Take heed, sweet article writing isn't for everyone; some of you will go on writing lousy articles and surviving on tripe because that is the way of the universe."
These 2 steps, applied to your articles consistently, can only help improve markedly the quality of life itself.
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