by Gordon Hamilton

Created on: April 06, 2009

Whenever we consider how to write an effective article, regardless of what subject the article may be upon, we first of all must consider precisely what we wish to achieve by writing the article. This may be to instruct readers upon how to perform a certain task, it may be to describe to them a place which we have visited, or it may even be to tell them of the benefits of a new healthcare product we have discovered. Whatever the aims of writing the article may be, we have to define them and - most importantly - write them down.

We may then proceed to begin the planning of our article structure. We of course require to introduce our topic to the reader and give them an overview of precisely what we wish to tell them during the course of our article. This is generally achieved in the first paragraph, which should rarely if ever be longer than two or three sentences. We may in some senses consider our opening paragraph as the opening credits of a movie. It should grab the reader's attention and make them wish to sit back and watch/read that which is about to follow.

When we have set the scene, therefore, we can begin to let the plot unfold. We have to consider what the reader is going to need to know in the course of our instructional article, want to have graphically described to them in the instance of our place visit article, or benefits they will wish to learn about in the course of our healthcare product article. It is vital that we do not miss anything out yet at the same time stay extremely focused and keep our content concise.

When we have covered all of the information which we wished to include in the article, we must then proceed to draw it all together in to a recognisable conclusion. We may therefore confirm precisely to what level of expertise we have instructed the reader in a particular task and where they may find further information, the extent of the insight we have given them in to the place contained in our article, or even the overall benefits they are likely to receive from the healthcare product and its all round value for money. This would naturally form the concluding paragraph of our article.

It is vital thereafter that we read through our article, several times, and not only edit it for such as spelling or grammatical errors, but compare it with the notes we prepared earlier regarding that which we wished to achieve in the writing of our article. If we are satisfied that our article reads well and that we have achieved all that we set out to achieve, we may be fairly confident that we have indeed written an effective article which is likely to receive favourable reviews from our readers.

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