Qualities of Good Writing

Meaning: A writer's message

•  There is a point to my writing - I can answer the question: "What do I want to say?"
• There is a reason I am writing this - I can answer: "Why am I writing this?"
• I can tell enough about my topic so that others can understand what I am writing about. - I can answer the questions: "Who, what, where, when, why, how?" 

Form and Structure: A way of putting your ideas together so that it makes sense and is easy to follow.

• I have a beginning, a middle and an end.
• I group similar ideas/things together.
• I group similar sentences together to form paragraph(s).  
• I stick to my message without going off track.

Language: Word choice - words should be carefully chosen so that they paint a picture in the reader's mind.

• I try not to use the same word(s) over and over.
• I try to use descriptive words and/or phrases.
• I use good vocabulary. 
  

Voice: This is the "sound" of the writer/writing. It is the YOU coming through the writing. It is your style and personality.

• Your voice shows how you feel.
• It makes your writing "sound" like you.

Conventions: Grammar

• My words are spelled correctly.
• I started each sentence and all names with a capital letter.
• I put a punctuation mark (. ? !) at the end of every sentence.
• I checked each sentence to make sure it made sense. All sentences should tell two things - WHO  or  WHAT is it you are talking about, and WHAT ABOUT IT. 

By

Kris Maruno
Photo by Fire-Poi

How to Write Good

1. Avoid alliteration. Always.

2. Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.

3. Employ the vernacular.

4. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.

5. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.

6. Remember to never split an infinitive.

7. Contractions aren't necessary.

8. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.

9. One should never generalize.

10. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."

11. Comparisons are as bad as cliches.

12. Don't be redundant; don't use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.

13. Be more or less specific.

14. Understatement is always best.

15. One-word sentences? Eliminate.

16. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.

17. The passive voice is to be avoided.

18. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.

19. Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.

20. Who needs rhetorical questions?

21. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.

22. Don't never use a double negation.

23. capitalize every sentence and remember always end it with point

24. Do not put statements in the negative form.

25. Verbs have to agree with their subjects.

26. Proofread carefully to see if you words out.

27. If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing.

28. A writer must not shift your point of view.

29. And don't start a sentence with a conjunction. (Remember, too, a preposition is a terrible word to end a sentence with.)

30. Don't overuse exclamation marks!!

31. Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences, as of 10 or more words, to the irantecedents.

32. Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided.

33. If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.

34. Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors.

35. Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.

36. Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their writing.

37. Always pick on the correct idiom.

38. The adverb always follows the verb.

39. Payed attention to your verb tenses. Readers were usually less forgiving of  assaults on tense rules.

40. Last but not least, avoid cliches like the plague; They're old hat; seek viable alternatives.

Wait! Not really last. Don't forget this most important tip of all.

41. Never write on a subject that is so trivial if you want people to take your work seriously. Write about something more profound. Write about things that would make your readers stop and think  like what you had for dinner or maybe your grocery list.  If you can have plenty of photographs to go along with it, that would really be fantabulous. That should attract hordes of readers and boost the number of subscribers to your RSS feed. 

Now, if you do not need these tips then you must be doing pretty fine on your own. Congratulations! You must be one of those bloggers who write GOOD and among the countless proud recipients of that prestigious  Noble Blogger Award.

Photo  Credits
Laughing Walrus

5 Steps To Write Effective Articles In Less Time

Do you sit in front of computer for a long time to create a single blog post or article? Does it take too much thinking for you to come up with an effective article? If your answer was ‘yes’ to any of these questions, you should continue to read the post. Whether you are a blogger or a freelance writer or an article marketer, you need to write effective articles quickly. If you are doing one of those as a full time job, you must really use your time properly and try to write more articles in less time. Here are few things you should do when you sit to write an article or blog post.

1. Close Every Other Application

Ever installed any software? Few of them ask you to close other applications when installing it. The same should be followed when you sit to write an article. Close the chat client first. This is probably the one which eats up most of your time. Next, close your email client. Don’t have any other application open, other than your writing software. You should not open any of the applications when you are writing the article. You can open your browser when you want to look for some reference, but close it again as soon as you are done. Don’t check your blog traffic stats, AdSense earnings or anything else as well.

2. Do Research Before Writing

It is always better to do a little research before writing the article. This will help you to write an effective article. The quality of the article will show clearly that you have researched. Almost every blog post that hits the front page of social bookmarking sites is well researched and structured. By doing research, you also make your article longer and in depth.

3. Prepare a Schedule

Preparing a schedule will help you in saving time. Set a time for each and everything you do for the article. You can allocate 30 minutes or whatever you are comfortable with, for writing the article itself. Set 5 minutes for selecting an image. Also have 10-15 minutes for collecting references and coming up with a catchy headline. Within an hour, you should be able to create some top notch content.

4. Proof Read At Least Once

This is very important and most people skip this due to lack of time (or patience). This will prove to be costly when you are writing for some other person or for a client. Once you finish writing the post, read it once. If you have written many articles and don’t have time to proof read all of them, hire a person to do the work for you.

5. Do the Editing Till You Are Satisfied

Once you have completed writing the article, do the formatting works. Place the image at the right place. Give credit to the image author if needed. Preview the article. If it is what you wanted, publish the article. If not, continue with your editing and formatting. Add quotes to the post to make it more effective. Tie any loose ends.

Writing quality articles in short time is not an easy task, but if you prepare yourself and use a structured process soon you will be cranking paragraphs like there is no tomorrow!

Author: Ramkarthik

He authors Blogging Tune a blog which was started to serve the needs of new bloggers or intermediates by giving tips on blogging and making money online. It gives regular tips on unique ways to get traffic to your blog.