How To Write Articles That Make Sense

Even if you aren’t that good

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

Language Has 4 basic components namely listening, speaking, reading, and writing. A child first listens to conversations around them and then repeats the sounds and words which have been learned from the environment. Thus, the next step is learning to speak. Thereafter, the child begins to recognize alphabets and words and starts to read. The last skill to be mastered is that of writing. Beginning from writing alphabets, then words, moving on to sentences, paragraphs, and finally producing complete written compositions on their own, the process takes many years for the individual to master.

The reason is that writing is a complex activity that requires vast vocabulary, knowledge of varied sentence structures, and correct grammatical usage. Presenting content in a logical and sequential manner is another essential aspect of writing. Multiple areas of the brain are used in creating text, organizing words, and sentences sequentially so that they make sense to the reader.

Why would one feel the need to write?

• Writing is an important medium of communication, used to express ideas, opinions, and exchange information.
• It is essential to content development and composing any kind of text.
• Official and personal records are maintained in written form.
• Creative Writing brings us valuable fiction and non-fiction work in the form of novels, short stories, and the likes.
• Writing has become the source of earning a livelihood for many people.
• Writing down ideas helps bring clarity to the thought process.

Writing an article, essay, or even a blog post isn’t an easy thing to do by any means but there are a few steps to writing a good piece. These are as follows:-

1. Selecting a topic: The process of writing begins by selecting a topic to write on. The selection might be made by a teacher, a manager, or by the writer themselves. The first step is to have an idea, theme, issue, or any subject matter clearly stated.
2. Brainstorming: The next step is to brainstorm. Once you know the topic you want to write about, random thoughts, ideas, information related to the topic begin to crowd your mind. You may also search for content related to the topic and note down all the points that come up.
3. Organizing your content: This is the framework on which your written work stands. First, make a list of the main sub-points you wish to include. Thereafter, put all the subject matter that can be included in that point, under the subheading. The only thing that is left to do now is to decide the sequence of these points.
4. Writing: The most important step is writing. The choice of words, an interesting beginning of an article, the framing of suitable sentences, division of paragraphs, the inclusion of anecdotes and dialogues, the use of illustration and examples, decide to weather your written content makes an impact on your readers. This is a time consuming and laborious task. You write, delete and rewrite before the final product is ready.
5. Revising: Take a break before you revise your text, this gives you a fresh perspective, and an enhanced ability to notice errors. At this stage, you can add or delete content, reorganize matter, and improve upon certain sections of your work.
6. Editing and Proofreading: Once the text is ready, it is time to proofread it for spelling, grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure errors. This can be done by an expert in the field.
7. Publishing and Printing: Once the final document is ready, it can be sent for printing, put up on a website for readers, or be used as a resource document.

“Now, that you know about the steps to write something, let us look at the different styles something can be written in”

The above statement is something you might be able to get away with when speaking to someone but the same thing in a written form would not make utter and complete sense to someone because there is a better way to say the same thing.

“The steps to writing something that makes sense are simple but hard to follow if the same is not implemented the correct way it might as be a speech in written form. That is why something known as a style or type is required to provide structure”

The above statement is structured even though it does not fall into a particular style of writing because it is just a statement it, however, is not all over the place either. It provides a direct conclusion to the topic and swiftly but purposefully introduces a new but related topic. Here are the

Styles of Writing

1. Expository

Expository writing, also known as exposition, is writing the seeks to explain, illuminate, or expose something or even someone. The main purpose of this writing is to spread information. This style of writing attempts to relay facts for a purpose. It is objective in nature meaning that the writer’s opinions, emotions, biases, or points of view have no place in it. A few examples of this style of writing can be seen in textbooks, research papers, news stories, encyclopedias, and the likes.

2. Argumentative

Argumentative writing, also known as Persuasive writing, aims to convince and influence a reader of a certain idea or position on an issue. The writer persuades the reader to accept his point of view through arguments supported by reasoning and facts. Persuasive writing is commonly seen as editorials, speeches, reviews, and advertisements.

3. Descriptive

Descriptive writing involves a description of a particular action, object, person, place, event, or sense. The expository and descriptive writing both entail describing what is being written about, but a description is more detailed, personal, and subjective. It is vivid, uses figures of speech, and allows the reader to sense, see, and feel everything that a particular phenomenon evoked in the writer. To distinguish between an expository and descriptive explanation, the reader has to assess whether the writing is more subjective or objective. Expository writing is impartial and based on facts, whereas descriptive writing is a more personalized account by the author. Descriptive writing truly attempts to captivate the reader. A few common examples of descriptive writing is poetry, diaries, novels, and travelogues.

4. Narrative

Narrative writing is all about storytelling, complete with characters, action, dialogue, plot, and setting. It is usually fictional but can be non-fictional as well. Narrative writing is mostly personal and imaginative. It is original and self-expressive. Writer’s attempt to relate universal truths through poetry and telling stories. A few examples of this style of writing would be novels, screenplay scripts, plays, autobiographies, and the likes.

In conclusion, writing is an exquisite craft, hard to master, but it is not the one who has mastered the craft that always has the most readers.