Questions about ratings proliferate the Helium community boards everyday. One of the common question we hear is "why is my article dropping in the ratings?" Articles are rated by our peers at Helium.

As members we do our share to make rate with fairness and we try to eliminate the reasons for low ratings in our own work. The more we understand what's involved in rating, the better we can help quality articles rise.

All of us have our articles rated down, but over the long haul, if you write a quality piece, it will rise to the top. Understanding Helium's writing standards goes a long way in making sure that we rate with purpose.

Major reasons for low ratings:

*Under developed articles. Articles should be from 400 to 1500 words to meet Helium standards.
Helium standards combined with good writing practices will eliminate the reasons for low ratings.

*Formatting. Articles that have no breaks, no paragraphs and no space between paragraphs appear as a wall of text on the rater screen and are difficult to read and rate.

*Off Topic. If your employer asked for a report on current sales and you wrote a rant about how difficult it was to make a sale, would your employer accept it? Write to the topic to avoid low ratings.

Criteria I use in rating articles:

400 to 1500 words (Helium standard)

Position Statement: What's the issue?

Supporting information or argument.

Organization: space between paragraphs.

Tone of article

Sentence structure

Punctuation and Capitalization

Web readers want to know where you stand on an issue or where you're headed with your supportive data. When readers rate, they often take an overall look at your article. A passive voice doesn't inspire the reader to slow down and actually take in what you've written.

If you articulate your position and provide an argument for your position, you'll get a better rating. Tone or voice of an article adds or subtracts from the article. Your tone changes depending on the subject matter.

If you write for Marketplace, you will note that the tone is often defined for you by the publisher when they call for formal, informal or light and humorous.

Sentence structure can be a struggle for me, but it's important to the quality of your writing. I admit to rewriting and editing some sentences several times. If you struggle as I do, review your work and pay attention to run on sentences and convoluted wording.

Capitalization, punctuation and spelling are the first elements that a rater notices. If there's a consistent problem with these, the article is doomed however well the body of the article is written. Use spell check, review homophones and remember, the letter "I" requires capitalization.

An article must stand-alone and have value without responding to another writer's article. Self-promotion and posting your name on the article is not allowed.

Although most of us are imperfect, we have the ability to improve. We can work on our grammar, sentence structure and presentation skills. Articles that are well written, well organized, and fall within Helium guidelines eliminate the reasons for low ratings.

Learn more about this author, Mona Gallagher.
Click here to send author comments or questions.

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