How many times have you searched for something on the Internet and seen an article right at the top of the search results? Happens a lot, doesn’t it? Now, how many times have you opened that article, started to read it, and either thought this isn’t what I expected, or this is just a load of garbage?
If you are writing your own articles, or looking to learn how to write your own articles, in my opinion, you have a responsibility not to produce a load of garbage when you write. This article will give you some guidelines forhow to avoid writing bad articles.
Before we look at how to avoid writing bad articles, let’s explore what makes an article bad.
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What Makes an Article Bad?
Too complicated – a lot of writers like to flex their vocabulary muscles, showing off those big unusual words that you have to look up in a dictionary to understand, and this is almost always a mistake.
In general, unless you are targeting a very specific audience whom you know will understand your choice of words, the best approach is to dumb it down a little, and write at a 5th grade level.
It’s not that your audience isn’t smart, but the more difficult your articles are to read, the less people will bother to read them. Kind of defeats the point of writing articles, doesn’t it?
Poor spelling and grammar – what goes through your mind when you read an article and you see a spelling mistake, or a run-on sentence, an incorrectly used verb?
It’s not a good impression to leave your readers for one thing, and it’s often distracting enough to the reader for them to lose focus on the point you were making in the article, long enough to kill any emotion you had created, or any inspiration to take action you were building up.
Lack of value – even if your article is perfectly crafted, every sentence is grammatically correct, there are no spelling mistakes, you’ve made good use of formatting, kept your paragraphs short and easy to read, and your article flows flawlessly from beginning to end – if there is nothing of value being related your efforts have all been for naught.
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How To Avoid Writing A Bad Article
Now that you know some of the major issues making an article bad, all you have to do is make sure your article:
- Provides value in some way (answers a question, solves a problem, provides good instructions how to do something, etc)
- Contains no spelling and grammar mistakes (use the spell check feature, and proofread your article before you submit it)
- Is as simple to read and follow as possible
If you find yourself struggling, maybe making the same mistakes over and again, make a checklist to follow and use it every time you write an article.
If you need help with the layout and structure of your articles, look for article templates that give you a basic outline to follow so you don’t miss anything important.
Make sure to check and recheck your articles before you distribute them, and use the guidelines above to make sure you know how to avoid writing a bad article!