Article #2 \u2013 Structuring Your Blog & Presentation<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Article #3 \u2013 Style<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Article #4 \u2013 Common Pitfalls<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Article #5 \u2013 Opening Your Blog<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Article #6 \u2013 <\/em>Closing Your Blog<\/strong><\/em> And<\/strong><\/em> Explaining Difficult Concepts<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n ***<\/p>\n\n\n\n For a well-written article, you should expect the attention of a reasonably interested reader to hold for about 700 words. Anything beyond that needs to justify the extra length with a solid reason \u2013 you really<\/em> need to be conveying important information. Articles over 1000 words will have to be very strong and\/or highly topical for readers to actually stick with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Naturally, the majority of the readers who click on your article will just be browsing, and are likely to enter with the intention of skimming over the first few paragraphs alone and then leaving. These readers are irrelevant to the question of how long your article should be, as they are unlikely to read the whole thing anyway. We will discuss how to spark and grab the attention of inattentive readers later in this series, but for now let\u2019s gloss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Blogs under 700 words will struggle to offer anything more than very basic information \u2013 but if you can<\/em> provide value in such a short space, then by all means go for it, and don\u2019t extend your article any more than is strictly necessary. If the content stays solid, then the shorter the better.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n While the ideal range for most articles will fall somewhere between 700 and 1000 words, there is an important exception, which I will refer to as consultation articles<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A consultation article is one that is not meant to be read from start to finish, but only consulted for those specific parts that the reader is looking for. It stands to regular articles the way that a dictionary stands to a novel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Consultation articles are also not meant to be read just once, but to be returned to and referred back to frequently (including by the author themselves). Typical examples of such blogs include guides and how-tos divided into several, discrete steps, or lists of various important objects, tools, or concepts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Consultation articles can afford to be as long as they like, and in fact they will often benefit from being 2000+ words. The one thing you should remember is to include a clear table of contents (ideally hyperlinked) explaining where each part of the article can be found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The structure of your blog will be decided in the planning phase. If you already have a crystal-clear idea of what you want to communicate and how, you can try sitting down and writing the blog without a plan. This does sometimes work out, especially if you feel very inspired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the overwhelming majority of cases, however, you\u2019ll just find yourself running out of steam halfway through, and\/or turning your entire draft inside-out during the revision process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is much more advisable, before diving into the writing process itself, to make a plan<\/em>. To do that, follow these steps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To start making a plan, begin by identifying the key points you want to discuss in your blog. You can do this either by going over your research and your notes and finding parts that stand out to you<\/strong>, or by asking yourself the question \u2018What\u2019s something that my blog can\u2019t afford to not<\/em> say?\u2019<\/strong>, and answering that as many times as necessary until you can\u2019t come up with anything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, summarize each key point in a single sentence. This doesn\u2019t mean a single sentence has to say <\/em>everything there is to be said about that point, only that it has to remind you what<\/em> that point is and how<\/em> you\u2019re going to develop it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example (and going a bit meta now!), in my plan for the article you are reading now, the sentence I wrote for this section reads like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Planning \u2013 find key points, organize, sections & sub-sections<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The sentence won\u2019t mean anything to a reader, but it gives me as a writer a.) the key point itself, i.e. \u2018Planning\u2019, b.) the elements by which to discuss that key point, and c.) the order in which they should be discussed. Based on that, I can then go ahead and write these more extensive paragraphs you are reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSTRUCTURE<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
1. HOW LONG SHOULD MY BLOGS BE?<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
2. PLANNING<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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