8 Simple Tips to Improve Your Articles
By: Rodely Espina
Tags: Writing, For Beginners, Helping Others, Writing Tips, How To

Are you starting a blog? Or maybe you got recently hired for an online writing job? Perhaps a project at School? Or you just want to try and publish your very first online article? Regardless of why you are here, I will do my best to help you improve how you write your articles.

Now, let’s get down to business. I have prepared eight simple tips for you, starting with Tip #1: Quick and Easy.

Quick and Easy

When you are writing an article, it is good to know who will be reading your article. Is it the general public? Or maybe a specific group of technical savvy audience?

If your audience is the general public, you should make your articles quick and easy to read.

Photo by Fabrizio Verrecchia on Unsplash

For the general public, an article with a 4–6 minute reading time has around 600 to 700 words, which is sufficient enough for a quick read during their commute or between work without making much of an impact on their time. Nowadays, people want everything to be fast: Online Shipping, Fast Food, and even Dating. Reading articles is not an exemption. So keeping it within a minimal reading time is a good practice.

You should also make your article easy to read. A simple way to do this is by avoiding confusing examples and anecdotes and writing overly long sentences.

In some cases, you can also add a TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read.) section at the top of your article before your first section. A TL;DR is handy for readers looking for a quick answer and do not have time to read the full article immediately.

Now that we have finished our first tip, let’s move on to our Tip #2: Structure Content.

Structure Content

Structuring content is the simple practice of breaking your single main subject down into sections and subsections.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

It might sound simple, but it is essential when writing articles. Some suggestions for structuring content:

Clearly define your main topic in your Title. Some might argue this, especially those that practice click-baiting. If you want to write good and quality articles, then you should clearly define your main topic in your Title. Make sure sections and subsections are distinctly relevant to the main topic. Use proper headings for sections and subsections. Push your most important high-value section at the top to grab the attention of the reader. Include a meaningful point to your final section to have an emotional sentiment on your article — note that this is not your conclusion.

When you structure your content well, your articles will be cleaner, organized, and more readable.

Let’s move on to our next tip, Tip #3: Research Content.

Research Content

In a time of memes, rampant misinformation, and fake news, it is becoming more difficult for people to distinguish fact from fiction — grandparents and the U.S. President included.

As a writer, you can contribute to fighting against the spread of false information by writing factual and well-researched content. To accomplish this, you should:

Learn the difference between Fact and Fiction. Always use reliable sources for research. Opinion posts are not reliable sources. They are NOT wholly accurate. Double-check research content for multiple sources. Avoid checking the first page of Google only. Aim to achieve thorough research on your subject.

Research your content and keep your articles factual and reliable.

That’s it for Research Content. Our next tip is Tip #4: Spelling and Grammar.

Spelling and Grammar

Probably the most overused or most underrated writing tip is: Check your Spelling and Grammar.

Spelling, grammar, punctuation, and formatting accuracy are the primary indicators of quality for any published work, whether it is a novel or a How-To article. When a reader spots a typo or reads a clear grammatical error, all trust and confidence the reader has for the article, are immediately thrown out of the window.

Avoid spelling and grammar errors and significantly improve your articles.

Our next tip is somewhat supplementary to our Spelling and Grammar tip. Tip #5: Ask For Help.

Ask for Help

This tip might sound to make you reliant, but in practice, it is always better to have a second pair of eyes.

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

Don’t be afraid to ask someone to proofread your work before publishing it to avoid those tiny errors you might have missed — even a best-selling author has one. Remember, “to err is human.”

You can also ask for their opinion on what they think about your work. It might trigger some spontaneous inspiration for you.

So far, we talked about how to improve the quality of your content. Our Tip #6 will talk about: Focus on Value.

Focus on Value

There are a million reasons why a person would click on a link and read an article. It takes only one reason for them to decide it was a mistake.

When you write your article, try to make sure that it serves one primary purpose: to provide value to the reader. Profit, search ranking, and other factors should be secondary.

I know this is very arguable for some, especially when you consider the business side of things. In my opinion, as a writer, you should primarily focus on the value for the reader in your article. If you create content with profit in mind from the start, value for the reader gets lost in the process.

As a writer, your article’s job is to tell a story, to educate and inform people, or, at the very least, answer their google search. If you profit from it at the same time, then it is a win-win.

My next tip for you will focus more on improving your overall writing skill. Tip #7: Be a Reader.

Be a Reader

Great writers are great readers. If you disagree, just think about it for a second. Is it possible that you can be a good writer without having to read a single book or article? Why did you even start writing at all? Was it not because something you read inspired you so much to say, “I want to write too,” or maybe, “I can write better than that person!”

Photo by Eliott Reyna on Unsplash

Reading is how you improve your work and learn to be a better writer. It does not matter if you read a book from the best selling author of the century or the first link google throws at you.

If you want to be better at writing and improve your Articles, then be a Reader. Technically, it’s what you are doing right now. I bet you feel your writing skills are growing at this very exact moment. 😉

Finally, we have reached our last and most important tip. Tip #8: Just Keep Writing.

Just Keep Writing

A forgetful, but very wise blue fish once said, “Just Keep Swimming.”

Dory from the Disney and Pixar Movie “Finding Nemo”

Like swimming, writing is also a skill that you can perfect by practicing it as much as you can. Some people would say they do not have the gift of writing, which is why they are not good at it. I honestly believe the only reason they are not good at writing is that they have not practiced writing enough.

Professional writers would write every day, whether it is a small part of a book they are working on or a quick blog post or two.

The more you write, the more you improve your articles. If you plan to improve your articles, then the best and most effective thing you can do is to: just keep writing.

Wrap up

You have finally reached the end of our article. I hope you found the tips I shared helpful. Keep scrolling down and check the comments. Maybe you can tell me what your favorite tip is. If you have any suggestions to share, please write them in the comments.

Stay safe, and remember, just keep writing!