Writing an article can be daunting, especially if you are not used to writing them. When it comes to writing an article, you might find yourself staring at a blank screen for a few hours. This can be incredibly frustrating.
Don’t worry, most of us have been in this position. Learning how to write an article is like learning how to ride a bike. It takes practice and it can be scary, but once you know how to write one, you’ve got that skill forever.
To help you on this journey of learning how to write an article, we have created a guide. In this guide, we are going to walk you through important steps to take when writing an article and some top tips to make the process easier for you.
How To Write An Article
Here are the steps you should take when writing an article.
Choose Your Topic
The first step to writing an article is deciding what you are going to write about. If this is your first article, then it is better to write about something that you are passionate about as it will help to keep you engaged and focused on writing.
It is important to spend some time coming up with different topics. Try to think about what would interest people. If you are writing for a business, keep your customers in mind. As soon as you have chosen your topic, you can start to plan your work.
Who Is Your Audience?
Before you start to research your topic, you need to identify the audience you are writing for or the audience you are trying to reach.
By identifying your audience you can start to research them. This research will help you identify trends that might impact your target audience.
When it comes to identifying your target audience, it is important to consider their age. For example, if you are trying to target a younger audience such as teenagers and young adults, there might be certain phrases you can put in your article to grab the attention of this audience.
Another thing to consider is that audiences of different ages have different purchasing patterns.
If you are writing an article to help sell a product, you need to keep in mind the purchasing patterns of the target audience, so you can promote the best ways for that target audience to buy your product.
Understanding the purchasing patterns of your target audience means you can write content that aligns with how they shop.
Research Is Key
After you have your topic and target audience in mind, you need to do some research around the topic that will also fit with your target audience. This means researching facts to support what you are saying about the topic.
Having statistical figures in your article that support what you are writing about will make your article seem more credible. This can help you to get more traffic as you would be considered a good source of information.
Researching certain facts can also help you reach your target audience especially if you include media or cultural references that resonate with your target audience.
This includes stories that your audience might be familiar with. Research also ensures that you are keeping up to date with the latest news about your chosen topic.
Plan Your Article
After you have done your research it is time to plan your article. This means determining the structure of your article.
It is always a good idea to have the structure of your article sorted before you start writing as it prevents you from getting stuck halfway through your article and it keeps you on topic.
In order to effectively structure your article, you should plan the main parts of your article. We recommend starting with the title of your article.
Although this might seem like a simple task, the title of your article is the first thing your audience will see. This means it not only has to be engaging, but it should also contain keywords that will help your article be at the top of the search engine results.
Next, think about what you want to say in your introduction. This paragraph needs to state what your article is about clearly. If this is not clear, it is likely that your audience will exit the article.
The introduction also needs to be engaging so that your audience wants to know more about what you have to say on the topic.
Planning the main body of your article is a bit more difficult but one way to help you organize this section is to think about your headings and subheadings.
These should help guide what you are going to write about. The last part of your article is the conclusion, this should summarize any major points you have made.
Write Your First Draft
Once you have all of the research and your plan ready, you can start writing your first draft. It is important that you remember that no one gets it completely right the first time.
So, write everything down, so you have an idea of where you are going to take this article.
Edit
After writing your first draft, the next step is to edit. At this point, you will probably need to rewrite sections of your article. When you are happy with your article, read it out loud to check for mistakes.
Top Tips
If you have a deadline, set a timer so you are conscious of the time.
To write quickly, edit after you have finished writing.
If you are writing to a wide audience, keep the language simple.
Conclusion
Learning how to write an article is something that requires practice. However, by planning your article and taking the time to do some thorough research, you should be able to write good-quality articles.
We hope that this guide has helped you feel more confident about how to write an article. Please share this article with others who might be interested. Thank you for reading!
Hi, my name is Justin Shaw, I started my career with a Masters in Computer Science but found writing to be my forte'.
I'm now the Principal Tech writer for GshiftLabs.com as well as a few other well known publications. I help make the complex world of Tech-Jargon easy to understand.
