The title kind of reminds me of that Seinfeld episode years back when Kramer was marketing his new invention – a book about coffee tables, and the book itself folded out into a coffee table.The title kind of reminds me of that Seinfeld episode years back when Kramer was marketing his new invention – a book about coffee tables, and the book itself folded out into a coffee table. Ridiculous at first glance, yes, but interesting and useful nonetheless. All right, weak comparison, but I am going to make my column this week an article about how to write an article. There is a need for this, because I feel there are plenty in our industry with intense knowledge – in areas many of us don’t know anything about – that certainly have the ability to share at least minor tidbits with everyone else, but either lack the time, the desire, or the ability to put something together into a comprehensive ‘how to’ or ‘for starters’ article.
A few weeks back I ran a poll on the YNOTmasters homepage dealing with article writing. The question was “Have you ever written an article for YNOT News?” Over 30% of our visitors said that they hadn’t but were interested, and closer to 40% said that they don’t write articles. That’s a lot of people! I am hoping that not only will this article help people to understand the process a little better, and get those that are interested in writing to start submitting articles to us, but also to maybe motivate those that don’t write at all to maybe come out of the shadows. In our industry it seems that some of the smartest are also the quietest.
Now, there are many ways to write an article, and you should always do what works best for you, but I will share with you what works best for me. Following is a basic outline of how to write an article that could be on anything…
1. As soon as a thought hits you, write it down! It doesn’t even have to be a ‘good’ thought. No article idea is stupid or unimportant. Of course you should focus on something you know about, but regardless, you might have an idea or something that inspires you, so just get it down on paper, in a word document, on your arm, whatever. Good ideas can come and go in a split second and be gone forever, especially if you are like me and have less than a five second short term memory. There have been countless times where I’ll have a good idea for an article, song, business deal, whatever, and it’ll hit me while I’m in the shower of all places! You can bet that I run to my computer while I’m still dripping wet to get the basics down before it is gone forever. (Just make sure that your hands are dry before you type if this happens to you.) A mini-tape recorder is a must for the very serious journalist, but certainly not for everyone.
2. Don’t worry how your first draft looks. Just get it all out. Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation, structure, content… anything. Deal with all of that later. Just start writing or typing and don’t stop! You will be very surprised at how much a free flow of thought and fifteen minutes will produce. Once you are on a roll, you can actually get out hundreds of words that you can make sense of later.
3. Make sure there is some meat to your article. Throwing 200 words together with a couple of bullet points does not constitute an article. Even 500 words is borderline in my opinion. Shooting for 750 – 1000 words is an excellent goal, but they should be quality words. Wordiness in an attempt to fill up space is transparent and unprofessional. Take a look at how much you got out on your first-draft attempt, and keep in mind that while you shape up your article from this point on, you will most likely be adding more than you will be taking away.
4. Transform your rough draft into an article! This will take more time than anything else, but is not as difficult as it sounds. All you are really doing here is making sense out of that big mess of words you are looking at, and making sure that you didn’t leave anything out. Start by breaking everything down into paragraphs. Staring at hundreds of words not in any kind of order or structure can be very intimidating – sometimes worse than a blank page even! A paragraph can be anywhere from one sentence to several sentences, but should always maintain a unifying idea or theme. Look for common threads in your article and string them together. Envision the article as three parts if it helps – an introduction to start, a body to describe, and a conclusion to summarize. Naturally, the body will be your biggest section, and can be divided up into perhaps dozens of parts. Everyone develops their own writing style, but structural rules like these are basically the norm.
5. Be as descriptive as possible. When looking over your final draft, it’s important that nothing critical to the basic idea was glossed over. You know how the old saying goes about assumption, right? Well keep in mind that you need to not assume that everyone reading will have even a rudimentary knowledge of what you are talking about. After all, you are the expert, and simple jargon or skipping over seemingly minor details can lose even the average reader. You definitely don’t have to give away everything, but try to think like you did before you knew so much!
6. Use your spellcheck and get another set of eyes. You should have all of the tools to polish everything up, so use them! Proper grammar and spelling is not a priority for some in our industry, but it is for me and it should be for all publications, because it certainly is everywhere else. Personally, written and oral communications have always been a forte of mine, as I have a background and degree in it, which is why I write. The exact opposite is true for me and programming, which is why I only read about it. You certainly don’t need schooling to write effective articles (even though it helps), but if you feel insecure about your abilities, find someone who can help you. Everyone in our industry has some kind of specialty, so it should never be about feeling superior or inferior since we can all help each other out. Anyway, proofread your article a few times to make sure that it makes sense and that you didn’t miss anything. When you are sure you are happy with what you’ve got, read it through one more time.
7. Trust the editor! After submitting your article to the editor, they may edit for length and clarity, but you should always insist on seeing what, if any changes were made to your article before it gets published. If you are willing to write for someone, then obviously you must care about and trust the publication that you are looking to get published in. For a publication to be reputable and have integrity, it basically boils down to the editors. Shamelessly using YNOT News as an example, you have a collection of people that understand good journalism, and have published plenty of excellent articles from many knowledgeable people over the years, so your article will be in good hands with us. In addition to sharing your pearls of wisdom with the world – or at least upwards of 7,000 webmasters and other industry types – you get to promote yourself for free. How can you beat that?
So there you have it. If you can find a few hours to throw down some thoughts and be a contributor to the YNOT News (or any publication for that matter) it’s a win-win situation for everyone involved.
