Criteria for Quality Articles

Background

After seeing lot of interests in people looking to write more and more article for go4expert.com I thought I would post some points that would be good for people writing good Articles. The most important factor would be valuable information and interesting to read for the readers. According to me a great article makes the reader sorry that it has ended but remember you can’t apply all the formulas each time because it’s far too complex than some points. If it could be formulized, machines would spit out wonderful articles in reams and article writers would be on the streets but that is not going to happen.

Introduction

Any article should have an enticing title because you want to make the reader want to click that link. It should be catchy and there is no need for long one, 4-5 words is enough. I prefer having the title same as I would put the words in Google to find the content related to Article. I have seen examples like an article on today’s women. First Paragraph started from women and after 5-6 line it moved to politics and ends in the history of that country. So be to the point and choose the title wisely.

At the end, put a conclusion which should be related with your first paragraph for uniformity.

Normal writing (offline) conventions suggest you should have 5-6 or more sentences per paragraph. In writing online, we should have small paragraphs often write 2-3 sentence paragraphs. Sentences should also be short and to the point. Avoid complex sentence structure and excessive commas. Dashes are your friend - they help emphasize points and break longer sentences up into smaller bits. Do not concern yourself with the length of the sentence if it covers a single point and is easy to understand.

No grammatical errors - If you are not good at grammar then user Microsoft Word to correct your grammar and also try to use short and simple sentences. As a reader I would definitely not continue reading it and nor would you. So be extra careful about these mistakes.

Do not use short form like you chat with your friend. Example: I found one article which looked more like a Yahoo Chat Script because it had something: ... "bcause ur" ...

Make it Interactive

Give some samples or even asking questions and answering them will also work great.

Something like:

Are you tired from the prices of gas? Convert your car into electric now. And so on

Uniformity

We follow standard format and even provide this default sample when you try submitting new Article:

Introduction

What the article / tutorials /code snippet does, why it's useful, the problem it solves etc.

Background

Some Background about the article.

The code

A brief description of how to use the article or code. The class names, the methods and properties, any tricks or tips.

Blocks of code should be set as style "Formatted" like this.

Code:

// Any source code blocks look like this. 
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
    cout<<"Hello world"<<endl;
    return 0;
}

Do not add syntax colorizing to your code snippets. Our scripts will colorize your code automatically if you specify the language name.

References

Any External / Internal references for the article / tutorials /code snippet.
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Also the font type, the font size and colour are very important. You don't want your readers to tire their eyes out and also different subtopics within are easy to locate and so you should use

bbcode to mark the subtopics and even you can link to the sub topics with .

Article should also includes a little bio about the author and also link to the websites / portfolio of author because it helps to make a one to one bonding of author and the reader and also helps the reader to know about the author.

Points to note

• Make it easy to understand, not everybody will be an expert on the subject matter like you (might?) be, so if there are any ambiguous terms, explain them but if possible avoid technical jargons.
• Easy to read - Basic language that anyone can understand.
• Link to other articles and this should not be a lonely article.
• Make it Interesting - If it's boring and doesn't hold your reader's attention, he's going to hit the back button.
• Use bullets if you can convert your statements into points.
• Make it fun. Even a touch of humour or a smilie shows a sense of balance.
• As in Wikipedia adding links to other resources that the reader can consult for further information also adds to the value of the content but this should not be the only motive for writing the article.
• Address the audience needs.

Conclusion

Writing for the reader is the key - the 'best written' article will fail if no one wants to read it. One thing that I always keep in mind is, "How would I want to read this?" If you wouldn't want to read it, chances are - no one else would.

Further Reading

As I am not a professor of English there would be definitely some excellent books and I would suggest classic here "On Writing Well"

 

The pleasure is all mine.

 

Nomination this Article for Article of the month - May 2009