10 WAYS TO REACH THE PERFECT ARTICLE
Having the perfect article within your reach or submitted to an Editor may not be the easiest task with factors like too many things to write about, writer’s block, loss of inspiration and fear of criticism. There is in particular no perfect article, an article is an expression of thought in the best way possible. Perfection lies in your definition so taking note of these steps, the focus is to reach the point where you are satisfied with your work.
Everyone gets stuck but working with this key points, you can reach your perfect article.
1. Gather resources: Every article has a topic and you can’t rely on the surface knowledge you have on various topics. You have to understand that sometimes you have depth in some areas and a shallow knowledge in others—in this case, you have to gather resources, examples and sometimes statistics to build your article for reference purposes (this is a plus). So when you are to develop an article on a certain topic you know little of, do not just get excited about one view when there are a thousand more.
See both sides to your article and create a balance.
2. Make written notes: You can be sure that you cannot make a mental note of all your resources so next is to write them down. As you write down the points that capture your attention, you consequently meditate on them too and when this happens you give birth to your own ideas—write them down too.
3. Take a break: You might not have time to do a 1 hour break or more but the truth is the longer you incubate a thought the better, mind you, this is and must not become procrastination. Premature ideas may not really come out as the perfect article you desire. In other words, ponder a bit on your notes and write.
4. Start Writing: When you have your resources at hand, the next step is to face your note pad (digital or manual), and start writing.
Procrastination has a way of making you lose energy and steam for the process. So begin as soon as possible.
5. Use Quotes and Facts: Quotes and facts from relevant sources gives your article credibility even when you read it to yourself. Try adding this at the beginning, middle or end of your article.
6. Avoid ambiguous terms: The reason most editors may reject your work is ambiguity or words that are too sophisticated thereby causing cofusion.
7. Understand your reader: Communication, oral or written involves concreteness, correctness, conciseness, clarity, respect for culture, etc. In other words, when writing you must learn to communicate in the right terms with your reader.
The last point was avoiding ambiguity, you also have to be clear enough to your reader. You don’t speak fashion to a foodie except by making food fashionable etc. There must be synchrony to whatever topic you choose.
8. Be original: Understandably, you have lots of resources available to you at the moment, however plagiarism is a No-No, don’t pick and paste, generate ideas from what you have gathered and be original about them.
Some of the key skills in English Language is how to make a summary. The course is taken to sharpen your ability to be original. Make a summary from what you have read. Create your own stories, describe your experiences and be original!
9. Proof read: Cut your article to the bone, and edit it mercilessly. Read through your work and be sure you are satisfied.
10. Read Wide: This is an extra tip that works for writers who write daily. Work schedules might be choking but reading wide saves you the stress of going over these steps over and over again except in some cases.
Reading wide also involves taking notes of the things you read. This in total helps you fight off the writer’s block.
Would you like to get an editor’s advice or talk about something not discussed in the article above, drop a comment or send us a message at hisrulepublications@gmail.com or info@hisrulepub.com.ng.