Here are 8 tips for writing articles on blogs so that the writing attracts more readers’ interest and is also easier to understand.
If you’re just starting out with blogging and struggling to produce something you’re truly proud of, don’t get discouraged.
You don’t need to take a writing class or join a content marketing team to be a good blogger (although there’s certainly nothing wrong with that). You can hone your writing skills online – and these blog posts can be one of your bookmarking resources.
Listed below are eight writing tips that will show you how to engage your audience with clear, concise, and engaging content.
8 Essential Writing Tips for Developing Clear, Concise, and Engaging Content
1) Streamline Content.
The more unnecessary words you remove from your writing, the easier it will be for readers to understand.
2) One sentence only covers one idea.
Clear sentences that are easy to understand include one main idea. But sometimes writers focus too much on trying to look smart rather than conveying information in a simple way.
This can lead to complex sentences that confuse readers.
You have to remember your readers don’t care about your writing abilities. They want to quickly understand the solution to their own problems, and simple sentences can fulfill that need.
3) The sentence does not stand alone.
If you want to create an interesting sentence, you need to take the surrounding sentences into account first. Using the same words in consecutive sentences or including similar ideas in two different sentences is excessive.
To create a more stimulating experience for your readers, change up your language and cut out repetitive information.
4) Vary sentence length and structure.
Humans like variety. And just like how short, medium, and long sentences complement each other, simple and compound sentences complement each other.
Your writing becomes repetitive and boring when your sentences have the same structure or length. Diverse sentences make your writing fun to read.
5) Discard cliche sentences.
Cliche sentences will sap the originality of your content. A good way to test the corniness of a sentence is to ask yourself if you’ve heard it before. If so, aim to express your ideas in a fresh new way.
6) Stimulate the reader’s five senses.
Good fiction writers can make their readers experience the stories they write. By using concrete details that appeal to readers’ senses, they can paint a vivid picture with just words.
In a 2012 Emory University study, researchers monitored participants’ brain activity as they read metaphors involving texture.
Metaphors like “He has rough hands,” fire up their sensory cortex, which is responsible for perceiving texture through touch. When they read similar phrases like “he has strong hands,” their sensory cortex was inactive.
“Skin” is a concrete detail that is interesting to touch. And it puts the reader into the exact scene the author is describing. Metaphors and similes also help people visualize things by comparing concrete images with abstract ideas.
Business writing is definitely different from creative writing, but you can still harness the power of sensory language in your blog posts. If your readers can see, hear, touch, smell, or taste your ideas, then they will be hooked to your content.
7) Let everything go smoothly.
Sometimes When you write paragraphs or sentences that don’t even fit the scope of your content, you can still try to force them to use them. You can be too attached to let it go.
Paragraphs or sentences that don’t deepen your reader’s understanding of the topic, provide new information, or interest in the next section are simply distractions. And that will mess up your writing.
Instead of building around the fluff, it strips away and starts something new from scratch. Leaving behind beautiful writing is always difficult, but if it doesn’t provide value to your readers, so be it.
8) Rest
Have you ever reread your final draft so much that you can’t tell whether it’s good or bad? You can even convince yourself that a bad design looks good if you’ve been working on it long enough.
Before sending your final draft, it’s important to leave it behind. Forgetting about your work will help you develop a fresh editing eye that can spot missed mistakes and new creative opportunities.