How to Improve Your Article Writing Skills
Article writing is probably one of the most accessible forms of professional writing available today. You don’t have to have a Ph.D. in English to write informational pieces, but you do have to be able to stand out from the crowd in a marketplace that seems to welcome every writer that comes along. There are several ways to improve your writing without having to take a class or make use of an editor.
If you have a favorite news website or blog that you regularly read, try to do articles in the same style. By this, I mean try to write in the same voice as the writer. I’ve taken articles and printed them out, rewriting them in my own style. This helps to give me practice in writing articles in a style I enjoy reading. When writing fiction, I read everything from the Beat Poets to Gore Vidal and learned something from all of them. I learned how to describe things that paint a picture in the mind of the reader, to write believable conversation, and keep the story line interesting as the plot unfolds.
For example, from Gore Vidal, I learned to write interesting description, but his characters are shallow and uninteresting. Kerouac wrote very good characters, so much so that he seemed to have an emotional attachment to each one. This gives a realism to the story that brings it alive. If you are writing factual articles, present clearly and concisely the information that you want to convey, but do it in an enthusiastic way. I’m not really excited about sitting down and building a website, but I can make the process sound fun and interesting – a real adventure!
Another way to improve your article writing is to stick to the good old-fashioned five-paragraph essay. A short essay, with an introduction, conclusion, and three supporting paragraphs is so simple that it is taught in elementary schools. It is also a wonderful formula for doing short, informative articles. First, describe the subject you are going to address and your take on it. Second, take three paragraphs and talk about the subject and add supporting comments. Third, write a conclusion that supports the arguments you’ve made in your essay. If you do it right, it will come out to roughly 300 words and will get your point across very clearly.
There are also many books and online articles to help you improve your writing, but practice is always the best means to increase your skill. Be sure and pay attention to your skill level and work on grammar, spelling and syntax until you are at a level of proficiency that you are comfortable with. Don’t forget, most newspapers and magazines are written at a level to be accessible to the greatest number of readers. This means your articles have to be clear and interesting, but they don’t have to be written for an English teacher to review and correct. Write simply, enthusiastically and clearly, and you’ll be ahead of the pack.
