Top 5 Article Writing Mistakes that Must be Avoided
January 2nd, 2008 | by Nick Mutt |Writing is no doubt an art that comes with practice. It can be enhanced not only with practice but also by avoiding some common mistakes that one normally do unknowingly.
By keeping few points in mind we can make our article more powerful and visible to the readers. Every writer wishes more and more readers for his articles. And for this the articles must be optimized so that it comes more often in search engine’s search results. There are many cases when even the best article fails to get traffic or in other word readers. Here comes the experience that crease out several of the initial jitters in writing articles. It is with this experience that I have here compiled the top five article writing mistakes that must be avoided.
Title and First Paragraph
Introductory paragraph of an article plays a significant role in creating interest in the readers. So success of the article largely depends upon how it makes its beginning. Similarly the title of the article is of paramount importance. Title must be attractive enough for the reader to consider clicking the link to your article from the search results and reading it. Here are some easy tips on writing good title:-
- The title of the article must be a short summary of the article itself. It should clarify to the reader what the article is about.
- Do not make long titles. It will not show fully in the search results and will be wasted.
- Do not use puns and other figures of speech in the titles. It is possible that the reader will not understand the play on words and will be misled.
- Always use the keyword in the title. This is very important for the article to show in the search results. Ideally, the keyword should form the first words of the title.
The first paragraph of the article must be short and attractive, and must goad the reader on to read further.
Information in the Articles
Your article must be honest about the topic it is talking about. People read articles on the net with the sole purpose of getting information. So your article must provide good information on the subject. This is where the initial research on the article helps. You must always spend time on research for the article and make point summaries of what you have learnt. Only when you get an adequate number of points you begin drafting the final article.
Apart from the information itself, one good idea is to put in your own ideas and observations on the issue. This will give the article a unique identity and will also help the reader arrive at a better decision. However, several websites do not use original ideas. So, you will first need to check with the website owner if it is permissible.
Grammar and Narrative Approach
Content writers should have good grammatical knowledge, or they would not be in this field at all. But it does not harm to hone up the grammar a bit. Especially if you are a non-American citizen, it pays to learn American grammar and write your articles in that language. Most users of the internet are acquainted with American English. Use their method of spelling. There is a ‘Set Language’ option on every word processing program. You must set your language to US English.
Do not create any inconsistencies in your article. Always write in the same person pronoun, check your article for tenses, numbers and genders.
You should always read your articles after it finish. There might be some mistakes that you wouldn’t have dreamt possible. When reading, you can also check the flow of the language and make rectifications if needed.
Do not repeat the topic again and again
Your articles must not contain any illogical nonsense. Do not repeat the same point again and again. If you are stuck up for word count, then you should do more research and fill in one more paragraph with the results of the research.
One more important thing is not to stray from the point you are making. Keep your article in a focused direction. You must always know where the article is leading to. This can be done by thinking in advance what all points you will be writing in the article.
Do not overstuff your article with product praising
If you are writing a promotional article that is to be submitted in article directories than it must bind the readers to read the complete article and click to the resource box where you have placed your website links. Do not cajole the reader into buying your product through your article. This will never happen. Instead, you might lose a good reader also. If the reader is interested, he or she will certainly come back to buy from you.
These are some of the common mistakes that article writer makes. I hope you will keep the above points in mind before writing a new article next time.
