One man's prose is another man's poison! My top ten of ratings losers is of course, highly personal to me, and not always going to be the same for all raters. However, I think enough of them are standard quirks for them to be useful shared, so here goes:

1. Shape

When you're rating, particularly when it's late at night and you've already read more than you were ready for on how to lance a bunion, if you are then greeted by two pieces of work, one a densely packed Eton Mess and the other which is spaced appropriately and easy to read, the latter is always going to get the better rating. I don't know why people do it. Paragraphs are our friend, treat yourself to some.

2. Size

I'm not a great lover of over-long articles, but at least it shows that the person writing it was greatly interested or passionate in their subject, perhaps just a little light on the editing skills.

I try very hard to be concise with my words, and sometimes have to 'find' a few for an article I feel is perfectly acceptable a few words under the 350 word limit. However, people who submit 60 words or so stump me frankly. Actually now I think about it - they are often also the people who don't make friends with paragraphs too.

3. Attention Grabbing

I know, attention grabbing should come first in the list right? Well no, not really, because I've already seen the article I'm rating long before I ever come to read it, and the size and shape thing is definitely an element of decision making that comes before the content starts affecting me.

Do, by all means pay attention to the title and refer to the subject matter at hand early on, in fact it's dealt with in my next point. However, what will make you stand out to me is something interesting that you've done early on, some word play, an appropriate quote, a lexical trick that will help you make your argument.

4. Not Making Your Argument

This may be a more personal point than some of the others, but for me having spent a lot of time studying history, you don't know your subject unless you can present a cogent argument for your opinion on it. Even if I don't agree with it, I will rate you highly if you make one.

To make an argument you have to attack it within your first couple of paragraphs, making your assertion early and then going on to prove your point throughout. Perhaps not all articles have subject matters suited to such treatment, but the majority do benefit from that rigorous structuring.

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