Article #2 \u2013 <\/em>Structuring Your Blog & Presentation<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Article #3 \u2013 <\/em>Style<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Article #4 \u2013 <\/em>Common Pitfalls<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Article #5 \u2013 <\/em>Opening Your Blog<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Article #6 \u2013\u00a0<\/em>Closing Your Blog<\/em><\/strong> And<\/strong><\/em> Explaining Difficult Concepts<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n The opener of a blog is generally much more important and difficult to pull off than the blog\u2019s conclusion. You may feel like you have a very clear idea on the topic you want to write about, only to sit down to get started and find yourself gazing blankly at an empty Word document.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To avoid that, let\u2019s look at the most effective ways to open your blog. Bear in mind that it is not strictly necessary for openers to be powerful hooks that will lure the reader in, or \u2018promises of value\u2019, or anything like that \u2013 you\u2019ve got the blog\u2019s title and the subtitle for that. If the reader is already in the article and looking at the opener, that\u2019s the time to put concerns about traffic at the back of your mind and focus more closely on matters of writing style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So \u2013 how do we open an article?<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re writing a technical article, or something else that requires a strictly objective register (see our article on writing style<\/a> for a deeper dive into that topic), then opening your article becomes relatively simple. Pretty much all you have to do is state what your article will be about, as simply and as clearly as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, let us imagine that you want to write an article that will teach people how to use Python\u2019s libraries for Data Science. It\u2019s as easy as this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this article we will introduce you to the main Python libraries that are necessary for Data Science. In particular, we will look at Scikit-learn and pandas, and we will explore the various ways these let you visualize and manipulate data. We will also look at their applications for machine learning.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us begin with\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026And you\u2019re off writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Openers for objective register articles may vary in their phrasing, but usually they do little more than provide a mini-summary of the blog (or what academic writers call an abstract<\/em>), allowing a reader to know what they\u2019re in for. They are therefore by far the easiest openers to pull off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you are still struggling, however, here are some other sample sentence openers you can use:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The purpose of this article is to\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Today we will\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The topic of our blog will be\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n This blog is intended for readers who want\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n For today\u2019s article, I have\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n There is really no need to make technical articles any prettier or more complex than that. People don\u2019t come to this sort of text for a chillout reading session while drinking coffee, they come to find specific information for something they are presently trying to do, and that is all you need to deliver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As we shift away from technical articles to other blogs, openers become more variable and more difficult to execute. Generalizations also become less applicable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nonetheless, let us look at a few valuable techniques that should be of aid to any writer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s a fun fact: in most cases, the way we start conversations and keep them going is by saying out loud that something is, looks, or feels different<\/em> by comparison to a perceived norm<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is why the weather, for example, is such a recurring conversation opener \u2013 saying \u2018Pretty cold out there today, isn\u2019t it?\u2019 remarks on something feeling different than it usually is, and therefore offers people something to discuss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Written articles do not follow the same rules as spoken conversation, but the principle of stating difference<\/em> can be very useful when looking at how to open an article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Indeed, a classic essay opener that is taught in high school operates on exactly that principle:<\/p>\n\n\n\n There has been a lot of debate surrounding [introduce your blog\u2019s topic].<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n It doesn\u2019t really matter how much debate there has been, what matters is that you are pointing out a difference relative to an implied normal (people not<\/em> debating), and thus setting up the reader for the \u2018conversation\u2019 to continue. In fact, you can pull off what is formally the same opener by saying exactly the opposite:<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is no longer any debate on whether<\/em> [introduce your blog\u2019s topic].<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n As long as you are simply stating a difference, you can come up with an almost infinite supply of universal openers simply by keeping the terms sufficiently vague.<\/strong> Here are a few examples I just thought of off the top of my head:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Proficiency with PHP is becoming more and more valuable in tech.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Recently, professionals in Sylicon Valley have shown increased interest in embedded systems development.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a new JavaScript library that is all the rage.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n People have been asking questions about the true potential of the Unity engine.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Naturally, rather than just making these things up, you want them to be accurate! If you are staring at an empty document and you don\u2019t know how to start writing, an easy solution is to just type the topic you are writing about in Google News or Google Ngram Viewer<\/a>. The results in those search bars are based on difference by default, i.e. on new events happening or on the frequency of word usage changing over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once you have introduced your topic by stating a difference, you can then get the ball rolling in numerous ways. For example, you can expand on said difference (if it is relevant to your topic, of course):<\/p>\n\n\n\n There has been a lot of debate surrounding Facebook\u2019s new privacy policies. People have expressed concerns about how much control they have over their personal data, which leads some to believe [etc.]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n A very simple way of following up this sort of opener is with a question, which then allows you to go straight into your topic:<\/p>\n\n\n\n There has been a lot of debate surrounding Facebook\u2019s new privacy policies. How much of this represents well-grounded, sensible concerns, and how much instead is just plain old alarmism?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Naturally, you should remember that all of the above is useful as a way to get started when you don\u2019t know what to write. It\u2019s not intended as a blueprint that you should always follow, and you definitely should look for other ways of opening your articles, especially those that sound most natural and organic to you and which work best with your voice<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A powerful way of opening your blog is to relate the topic you are writing about to a personal experience you had. Let us look at how the Product Lead for our Data Science bootcamps Guillem Perdig\u00f3 opened his article \u2018Can A Data Scientist Do Good For The World<\/a>\u2019:<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have recently been <\/em>hosting some Q&A sessions<\/em><\/a> on the subject of Data Science. One of the attendants surprised me with a question that was so important \u2013 and so stimulating! \u2013 that I responded with a wall-of-text email. Indeed, so close to the heart did that question strike me, that I am going to dedicate this blog to answering it as fully and as aptly as I am able to.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is what is called an anecdotal opener, and it works because it immediately grounds the reader in a concrete experience. Data Science is a complex, often abstract topic, and kicking off by immediately talking about that might put off a casual reader. Here, instead, we are first introduced to Guillem, to what he does, to how he feels, and we are also teased about the high stakes of the topic being discussed (\u2018a question that was so important\u2019). The intro is nice and smooth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anecdotal openers also have the benefit that they are relatively easy to come up with \u2013 if you are writing about a topic, you probably have some experience with it, so you immediately have a starting point. It can even help in finding your voice<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, there are two things you should bear in mind when writing an anecdotal opener.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Firstly, unless your personal experience is the central topic of the blog itself, this opener has to be brief<\/em><\/strong>. You are using something that happened to you as a way to ease a reader into another<\/em> subject, not to dwell on your personal memories. One short paragraph is about as much as you can get away with before the reader loses interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Secondly, it has to have a tangible relation to the topic you are talking about. \u2018I was walking my dog in the park yesterday, and as I threw a stick around for him to catch, I started thinking about how Data Scientists can do good for the world\u2019 \u2013 this is not<\/em> a good anecdotal opener, because who cares that you were walking your dog? What does it have to do with the ethics of Data Science?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anecdotal openers can be your best (pen-)friends, but always keep them brief and to the point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some of the more complex tech blogs you can write are those which tell somebody\u2019s story, either your own or somebody else\u2019s. Examples may include \u2018How I learned to code in my 60s\u2019, or \u2018What it was like to work for Apple for 5 years\u2019, or \u2018My journey through and out of burnout\u2019. It takes a strong sense of narrative to really make these blogs stand out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They are also notoriously tricky when it comes to writing openers for them, not least because in this case creativity works better than following a format.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nonetheless, one principle is worth bearing in mind: it is usually best to start from the particular and go to the general, rather than the other way round<\/strong>. What do I mean by this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Consider how you would normally introduce, say, a new colleague to your team-members. You would probably start by describing their most general traits, like their background, and then move on to the specific reasons why they are here, like the project(s) they will be working on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is a natural instinct, but it doesn\u2019t work as well in story-telling, and I would recommend that you do exactly the opposite \u2013 start by describing the protagonist of your blog (whether it is yourself or somebody else, or even an abstract entity like a programming language) in the middle of something extremely specific and concrete, without providing any context. Make that image as vivid as possible \u2013 specify when this is happening and describe the surroundings. Then<\/em> move on to providing the general details that will contextualise what is going on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This all probably sounds rather abstract, so let\u2019s look at a concrete example. This is the opener of one of the best works of journalism I have ever read, Jon Mooallem\u2019s \u2018American Hippopotamus\u2019<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Frederick Russell Burnham didn\u2019t like public speaking, but he arrived at the Maryland Hotel, in Pasadena, California, on the night of September 19, 1910, determined to communicate a few clear and uncontroversial truths.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Burnham was 49 years old\u2014a frontiersman and soldier of fortune who\u2019d spent his life leaping into conflicts with American Indians and colonial wars in Africa. [\u2026]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n See what Mooallem is doing? The first paragraph puts us somewhere highly specific and withholds much more information than it provides.<\/strong> This is how the reader is anchored<\/em> to the story, and how they are hooked<\/em> \u2013 the desire to read more stems from the desire to know where we are exactly and what is going on. With anchor and hook in place, Mooallem can then kick off a more general overview from his second paragraph onwards<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTechnical articles \/ Objective register<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
![\"Crumpled](\"https:\/\/www.wbscodingschool.com\/files\/AdobeStock-by-Brian-Jackson_43917775-1024x682.jpeg\")
Other articles \/ Subjective register<\/em><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
a.) Establish Difference<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Red](\"https:\/\/www.wbscodingschool.com\/files\/AdobeStock-by-Jo-Panuwat-D_289950653-1024x450.jpeg\")
b.) Anecdotal Openers<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Four](\"https:\/\/www.wbscodingschool.com\/files\/AdobeStock-by-fizkes_250402523-1024x682.jpeg\")
c.)<\/em> Opening Blogs Which Tell A Story<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Caucasian](\"https:\/\/www.wbscodingschool.com\/files\/AdobeStock-by-AntonioDiaz_385542630-1024x682.jpeg\")