Easy Article Writing – Create an Article Outline First
This evening I was looking at the WAHM Articles author list. More people are signing up every day, but a lot of them have yet to submit their first article.
This suggests to me that, while home business owners know the value of writing and submitting articles online, actually writing them is quite another thing.
There are still people who would rather eat piping hot coals than write articles… like this guy.
If that sounds like you, developing your own method and procedure for writing articles can make all the difference.One of the best methods you can use to prepare yourself for writing an article is to create an article outline.Creating an outline for all your articles will help prepare you to write any article. You have an idea of what to do first and can make a plan for each step. Being prepared and organized will make article writing easier, faster… and maybe even fun too!
An outline can act as the design or blueprint for your article; it guides you in creating the introduction, body and conclusion of your article. Creating an outline for all your articles will get you ready to write that next (or first) article and help breeze through writing an article in no time at all.
Here are some tips and guidelines on how to create an outline for all of your articles.
1. Before you do any article writing, always do your research first. Become an expert in your topic area, so that writing about it will be easier, and you will have valuable information to share with your readers.
2. Choose a time when you can relax and write down all the ideas that you can use for your articles. Do some brainstorming and jot down all your ideas. Think of some ways to attract the interest of your reader.
At this point, no idea is too silly to write down. You just want to get all your ideas out of your head and on paper.
3. After you’ve spent some time brainstorming, look back through the ideas you wrote down. Which topics are most appealing to your target audience? Which ones do you have enough information on to write a few paragraphs about? Those are the topics you will turn into articles in the following steps.
4. The next step is to develop your subtopics and subtitles. List the main points you want to include in your article, and write an interesting topic sentence about each.
5. You just developed the frame of your article. Now it’s time to flesh it out and create the body of your article. Add more information to each point you made in the above step so that you have written a short paragraph about each point.
6. Finally, write the conclusion. The conclusion wraps up your points and drives home the main point of your article. An easy way to write a conclusion is to restate what you said in the introduction, but in different words.
7. You now have a draft of your article. Before you publish your article, you’ll want to rewrite it so it communicates your ideas clearly.
When you rewrite, refer to your original outline so that you won’t drift away from your initial goal. Your outline will help you keep on track and will serve as your guide in writing articles.
February 19th, 2008 at 7:27 am
I thought I couldn’t write for many years. Then I began writing articles a year ago and I have written 468 since then. I have built my entire business through article marketing and now I teach others how to write articles and ebooks. Article writing and marketing works!
February 19th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Hi Connie, that’s so encouraging! I love hearing success stories like yours.
February 19th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
I was totally self-conscious and petrified when I wrote my first article about ten years ago. The more you write, the easier it gets and that fear eventually goes away. My style of writing is a little less formal…I mull ideas over in my head for awhile and generally just sit down and basically write the article, going back over it to fine tune it. If you write from your experience and what you already know, the articles come easily!
February 20th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
You’re exactly right, Rachel! It’s really important to write in your own voice and to write what you know. Not only does it make it easier for you to write the article, your readers will appreciate it too, and they’ll feel like they’re getting to know you.