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Helium's official instructions for rating and comparing articles are quite straightforward: Choose the one with the better quality, and decide how much better it is compared to the other article.

In practical terms, however, things are not as easy as that. One needs to have some objective criteria and standards in order to determine and assess the quality of other people's writing and articles. It will not be fair to the writers if we were to adopt an arbitrary or random style of rating.

Although still relatively new to this site, I have devised a rather primitive way of rating articles. I can't claim that this system is perfect, but I try my best and hope to have you share your comments and suggestions on how to make the system better.

1. Guiding Principle:
My approach to rating is to do it the way I would like others to read and rate the articles I have written. It takes time and effort on the writer's part to produce the article, so each article deserves more than a cursory glance followed by a click of the button before moving on to the next rating.

2. Adherence to Topic/Theme:
I constantly keep the topic/theme in mind when I rate articles. If one of the article is totally off-topic while the other article adheres to the theme, I will rate the latter article as being far better than the former article.

If both articles adhere to the topic, the one which does so more and consistently throughout the article gets my vote.

3. Strong Logical Arguments:
A good article develops logically from the introduction to the conclusion. In addition, the body of the article is filled with Strong, effective and to-the-point arguments supporting the writer's stand and perspective on the topic.

4. Use of Examples:
Where applicable, elaboration of the arguments with some relevant examples makes the article a more interesting and informative read.

5. Grammatical, Typographical and Punctuation Errors:
If two articles are equally good in terms of content, the article with fewer - or better still, no - grammatical, typographical and punctuation errors gets my vote. An error-free article shows that the writer took genuine effort while writing and typing out the article, and that a spell check was done prior to submission of the article. This is the writer's way of showing that he/she is considerate and that he/she respects the readers.

6. Good Layout and Formatting:
All else being equal, the layout and formatting of the article makes or breaks it. I would vote for the article that is well laid out, with proper spaces in between paragraphs and numbered or bulleted lists. Such articles make it easier for the reader to look at and understand. On the other hand, an unformatted article with long, over-flowing sentences and paragraphs is an eyesore, and does nothing but to give readers a headache.

7. Leap Frog Articles:
These articles are a separate class of their own. Before I read the two articles in detail, I will glance through their overall structure and compare the basic formating such as the paragraphing (see Point 6 above).

If both articles are visually similar, down to the location of the paragraph breaks and the last word of each paragraphs, then it is obvious to me that both are the same (although I am not sure why a writer would submit the exact same article for the purpose of leap frogging).

There are instances when minor words and/or phrases are added. If there are no substantial improvements made to the contents of the article, I would click on the 'Same' button as well.

After that initial stage of assessment, I will similarly apply the criteria stated in Points 1 to 6 above to rate leap frog articles.

Learn more about this author, Kris Lee.
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