Best Ways to Practice Article Writing in 2024 (Updated)

The objective of article writing is to bring out authentic information on various topics like society, persons, rising issues, worldly matters, and technical developments. The reception of your article depends upon the kind of language, vocabulary, and format that you use, for example, the articles on general topics of everyday relevance do not need that much effort on a part of a reader whereas something related to the technicalities of the subject or some matters like scientific writing and information on dynamics or working of something requires concentration on the part of the reader.

What is an article?

An article is a piece of information that is written and published in electronic or print form. The purpose of article writing is to present information in terms of news, discussions, research, interviews, academic analysis, debates, etc. Usually, an article is published in a magazine or a newspaper for guiding a large audience on a particular topic or subject.

Examples of such articles can be found in newspapers like Hindustan Times, Indian Express, the Hindu, and many more. The articles which are found in print form are usually longer than the articles you will find in electronic form, the reason being the attention span of the readers has decreased so you cannot engage someone for a longer period on an online platform as compared to print media.

For example, Facebook which is the hub of information in today’s world requires the eighth standard reading level, so it depends solely on your writing prowess and how easily the reader connects to the information that you provide.

Article writing format

When you are going to write an article it is either going to be fiction or nonfiction, if it is going to be fiction then you have to construct a plot that has to proceed logically, you have to be critical of yourself while writing by looking at it unemotionally, getting into the edit mode and working on each sentence. You have to keep the following points in your mind while writing fiction articles.

• What can you expect your readers to know and not know.
• What do your readers believe and value?
• How do you want to affect your readers by what you say?
• What attitudes and claims will meet their approval?
• What will offend them?

You have to make use of anecdotes so that your readers remain deeply engaged in what you want to convey.

And the art of fiction does not begin until the author decides to show rather than tell. By doing this the story will tell itself. While writing non-fiction articles you will have to do in-depth research on the matter to be presented, by bringing out the facts, figures, and dates and mentioning them by bullet points, you would have to read from different sources so you can compare the information and provide the content which is up to date.

To make your article stand out of the crowd and gain maximum audience traffic some basic article writing format is necessary which is given below.

The format of an article is as follows

1. Heading/title
2. Byline
3. Body
4. Conclusion
5. Heading -It needs to be compiled in such a way that it grabs the reader’s attention and relates to his search term. The length should not exceed 5-6 words. Heading should be written in such a creative way that it should compel the reader to read the whole article.
6. Byline -It conveys the name of the person writing the article, unless asked one should not give details.
7. 3. Body-It is the main part of the article which usually consists of three to four paragraphs.
8. Conclusion-It is the final paragraph of the article where you tell the moral or final conclusion of the article from which readers can conclude what the writer was aiming for in the whole article.

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The following are the steps that will guide you on how to write an article and structure it to grab the audience’s attention and generate maximum traffic for your web-based articles.

• You have to choose your topic in such a way that it is a requirement of your target audience.
• Do in-depth research from various sources, compare the information rationally, and collect it accordingly for your selected topic.
• Mark the facts and figures in a logical way, if possible put them in bullet points.
• Structure your article in such a way that it answers all your reader’s needs.
• Avoid being ambiguous in your views, be specific.
• Proofread your article and repeat the process.
• Cross-check the grammatical and spelling mistakes.

Rules for writing good articles

• Before writing any type of article be it fiction or non-fiction carry out thorough research.
• Have a well-defined structure and form of your article.
• Study other articles from magazines, newspapers, and online to get an idea of what are the requirements for writing good articles.
• Make your views briefly, and clearly expressed.
• In the end, always proofread your writing.

Best Ways to Improve Your Article Writing Skills.

1. Starting it right

If you are writing for newspapers or magazines then you don’t have to worry about the length of the article, but if you are writing it for a web-based audience then you have to be a little conscious about the number of words that you use because the attention span of the readers online is fickle, you cannot engage them for a longer period of time, so you have to structure your article in such a way that it does not take much time and the vocabulary and the language used is also simple which can be understood by a normal reader.

2. The time of writing

Usually, each one of us prefers to write at different times according to our routines and schedules, some prefer to write after lunch, some are night owls and some are early morning birds, but the time at which you can write most efficiently in the morning time reason being that you are fresh and energetic at that time. Moreover, in the mornings you can think so when you can think you can write clearly, so you should inculcate a habit of writing early in the mornings.

3. Read, read, and read

The legendary American writer Stephen King says “if you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. ˮ You have to develop a habit of reading and writing daily, you can read anything be it books, magazines or newspapers the catch is you have to do it regularly, it would help you to develop perspective and would expose your mind to different possibilities, when you read you would not find all the topics of your interest, sometimes the process will be tedious but you would have to be persistent to read it again and again, it will build persistence in you which is must for a writer. In the end, don’t forget your thoughts would be colored by what you read and write.

4. Be as simple as you can

Earlier we discussed in our article that Facebook which is the hub of information these days needs a reading level of the eighth standard, so by this you have to keep one thing in mind is that if your reader knows nothing and you have to explain yourself to your reader in layman terms, good writing is not the one where your vocabulary is exclusive and the language used is sophisticated for example

Anthony Burgess in his novel a clockwork orange uses the word tolchok, now this is a word for which you would have to open the dictionary, tolchok means to punch or hit somebody, so ask yourselves which word your reader will relate more to? , is it tolchok? Or is it punch or hit?

So you have to keep it as simple as you can, that would make your readers connect deeply to what you write.

5. Stages you have to follow while writing.

Analysis-First you have to carry out the analysis of the topic that you are going to write, that how much authentic information you can collect on that topic, and where you have to be ingenious and innovative enough to bring your writing style into play.

Structuring-Secondly you have to structure your article by looking that how many paragraphs are you going to write, what figures and facts are you going to insert, are there going to be any image depictions for the article or is it going to be plain text, also you have to keep in the mind the suitable length of the article, thirdly you have to edit it and use the appropriate words that can be used to shorten the whole sentence and make it easily readable.

Proof reading-Though when we read its usual that we get to know the meaning in general that what the writer wants to convey, the condition is that you know the words by spelling and meaning which have been wrongly spelled, but if you don’t know the meaning and the spelling of the word then it can change the whole meaning of the article if you don’t cross-check, so proofreading is must after finishing the article to ensure that there are no mistakes left.

To write a proficient article with worthy content you have to make sure that these three stages are executed successfully, for which specific time and schedule are a must, which would result in healthy content.

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6. Location

One of the most important things to consider while you are writing is the settings you expose yourself to, this fact cannot be disputed that our best thoughts and ideas come to us when we are alone, so that makes it a point to keep a small diary and a pen in our pocket all the times, also whenever you sit to write you should ensure that the sitting place has the peaceful atmosphere as well as you have either switched off or put the devices on silent which can distract you while you are writing, you can also make use of some distraction-free software like WordPress distraction-free writing option.

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7. Be natural

When you sit to write let your thoughts flow freely and naturally, it is your first draft where you have to let it go the way it flows, keep the editing and proofreading part for later stages reason being when you jot down your thoughts and when you check your content to find the mistakes your mind works differently, so while writing initially don’t let your mind be a prey to the ambiguity of writing and correcting at the same time

8. Do the necessary research

One of the most necessary parts, while you write an article, is the research, whatever you write you have to go through thorough research that can be in the form of clippings in the newspapers, knowledge from the relevant books, research papers, and journals. One thing which will set you apart in your writing is the depth of your knowledge on the topic that you are writing which will tell about your ability to cover the facts and figures which are there in the article and it would build a rapport of authenticity in the reader regarding the information you provide every time.

9. Always have a timeline                                    

You have to think in this way that whenever you are assigned any assignment of writing you would have stipulated time to complete it, that would build your management skills and also prepare you to finish your work before deadlines, you would have to be specific in time for gathering knowledge, writing articles and then promoting them.

10. Have a notebook handy while you research

When you are reading, many a time you come across the information which can be used in the articles that you are going to write related to your niche or one’s that the audience demand, so you must keep a notebook handy to record all that information which can be used anytime you feel the need, this is one of the handy skills the article writers should have.

11. Write every day

To be a successful article writer you must have a habit of writing regularly on daily basis, for that you need to follow the ways that have been described above, and with a little patience and persistence and regular writing, you would one day turn yourself into a successful writer.

POINTS TO KEEP IN MIND WHEN YOU ARE GOING TO WRITE ARTICLES FOR SEO AND RANK ON GOOGLE

• Use the keywords that are related to the main topic, make use of the tools like ubersuggest, google keyword planner, google analytics to get to know the search difficulty, search volume, and which keywords are getting the traffic on search engines, use long-tail keywords.

• Try hard to write content that is high quality and is having details in depth, for example, the average content ranking on Google has over 2000 words so you have to write accordingly to rank on search engines.

• Use tools like smallseotools, duplichecker to check the percentage of plagiarism in your content, and moderate it accordingly to write 100 percent authentic content.

• Keep in mind what are the questions that your readers have in your mind and need to be addressed, point them out, and answer them accordingly to grab the attention of your readers.

• Use facts and figures in your content by making bullet points and writing them in a format that is prominently visible with headings, insert catchy headlines in your articles if you can.
• The article should be structured in such a way that it should contain 2-4 sentence paragraphs, with backlinks and if you use any images don’t forget to mention the credits for them.
• Construct a well-designed site with an interesting call to action which compels your readers to look for your content in the future.

TOOLS AND APPLICATIONS TO USE WHILE YOU ARE WRITING

Draft-This tool allows you to invite people to review your work and provide feedback and suggestions, you are free to accept and reject them.

Shareist– It allows you to capture and save any type of content that you find on the internet, then you can tag and comment on them to utilize it later for inspiration when writing your content.

Grammarly– Here you can check the spellings and edit and look at Grammarly mistakes all in one, which helps all in all to improve your writings.

Unstuck– This app allows you to structure your work in an organized manner so that you can reach solutions and execute a plan to achieve your goal.

Zen writer– This tool takes up your entire computer screen and eliminates distractions.

Mindnode– It allows you to create graphical mind maps and tables of contents so that you can easily refer back to them while writing.

Dragon dictation-It is the best voice translation tool that you have ever used before.

The readability score-This tool allows you to know what level your content fits into, which helps you to ensure that you have easily readable content.

No matter whatsoever you write, you always have some habits that make you a good or bad article writer, below is the difference

Often when you are writing you can run out of ideas and inspiration, below are the places where you can go for such ideas.

Forums- Visit the forums that focus on the niche or the category of your writing.

Simple google search- See what keywords are used for your area of focus, utilize them while writing.

Quora- Search and review the questions you are going to ask.

Utilize the following tools

• Keywordtool.io
• Creativity-portal.com

Use these websites to find their most linked-to pages

• Moz.com
• Buzzsumo.com

To meet the deadlines while you are writing an article time management is necessary, following are the steps that you need to take to ensure that you are on the right path.

• The place where you write should be free of any distraction, so you can focus fully on the task at hand and put all your concentration on your craft.
• Write whatever first thoughts come into your mind while writing without any editing, just go with the flow of writing.
• While you are writing you would have an urge to distract yourself to the internet for the research part, but keep that urge to yourself, take notes and come back to the research part later, with more focus and concentration.
• Keep your language as simple as you can, just ensure that your writing style does not ask the reader to open the dictionary, again and again, try to keep your words as simple as you can.

How to write articles for your readers?

If you are writing articles for yourself then you can write whatever you wish to, but if you want to write it for search engines then you would have to do search engine optimization by using the right keywords choosing the topics with a high volume of search and many more things.

But if you are writing for the readers here are a few tips that you should keep in mind before you proceed.

1. Know what your visitors expect

As you go ahead with your writing process you have to find out which are the topics that your readers are interested in, what grabs their attention. Study their comments that what are they discussing about, what is fuelling their curiosity, also you can write your personal experiences related to your niche, which would make your readers connect to your content and would love to read your articles.

2. Use simple language

You have to be certain about the fact that the language you are using while writing is easy for the readers to understand, use of difficult phrases and vocabulary will not be entertained by the mass readers, also you have to ensure that you don’t have grammatical mistakes. These practices will make readers appreciate the content that you will produce.

3. Style of writing

If you read the editorials in the newspapers by learned persons, you will notice that all of them have a personal touch in their ways of presenting the information that resonates with you every time you read their articles, so you need to have that personal touch to the articles that you write, readers should get the feeling that you are interacting to them in person, so ensure that you follow your style of writing every time you are going to produce some content.

4. Your conclusion

Whenever you are providing any information in form of news, articles you should also share your views about that information, which would make readers connect to your writing more deeply, so it is necessary to always have your point of view regarding the information you are sharing.

5. Be authentic

One of the most important qualities that a writer can have is being authentic about the pieces that they write especially if they are non-fiction. Readers are often shallow, they don’t want repeated information, you have to produce something authentic and unique every time you write to ensure that readers remain interested, in your style of writing with the changing trends.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ON ARTICLE WRITING PRACTICE.

1. What is the proper format for article writing?

There are four steps that a writer must keep in mind so that the article gets a good structure and also generates the required traffic to get to the wider audience base, so you have to publish it in that form to gain the reader’s confidence and approval. The format is as follows.

• Heading/title
• Byline
• Body/paragraphs/content
• Conclusion

2. Where can we get the huge option of article writing topics?

You can get the various article writing topics on various social media platforms, answer the public, and ubersuggest.

3. What are some best tips to write good articles?

• Your content should be unique and authentic.
• The article should be written in the right format.
• It should be easy to read.
• Use bullet points to give facts and figures.
• Avoid repetition.
• Avoid being vague in your information.
• Write a good and logical conclusion.

Well, above are all the practices that you can employ to write good articles if you have any insight to offer you can add it in the comments section.