Have you ever noticed that newspapers and magazines have different column widths? There is an interesting theory behind this. It takes your eyes longer to scan content when the line of text scans from one end of the page to the other.

This means that scientific journals tend to run their lines right across the page. On the other end of the spectrum, how much attention does one have if reading about celebrities? Not much. Readers just want to get the quick details. The bits of scandal is all they are interested in.

This means that magazines publishing to an audience who want to quickly read about their favourite or not so favourite celeb will want to read quickly. You will notice, now that you are looking at it, that these rag mags have quite narrow columns and short paragraphs.

It makes it easier to scan the content. For scientific or architectural journals the reader will want to take his time and read carefully in order to understand the content. Your audience composition therefore will influence how your format of your article will look.

If you are writing your articles for the internet you will need to remember that most readers will visit the internet to learn something quickly, scan content for relevance and in general remember that the internet reader is not there for leisurely browsing.

This is the reason why short articles are favoured over lengthy tombs of content. It also means that your paragraphs should be short and your articles not too long. About five hundred words is a good length to aim for.

A particularly popular format for the internet is the point form article. These articles usually have titles such as ‘5 reasons you got ditched’ or 10 things to remember when …’. The reason for this particular genre to be appreciated is that readers are in a hurry. A point format article gives the sense of an informative but nevertheless quick read.

On the other hand if you are writing articles that will be used in a more learned environment your approach would probably need to be quite different. You would need to write longer, provide many cross references and substantiate your arguments with supporting data.

Besides your width of your column, length of article, the use of point form and the size of your paragraph what other format considerations would one need to bear in mind? Some format suggestions which are not entirely article writing related are such items as not using font that is too small.

In particular for writers wishing to publish their articles on the internet such consideration as background colour and font style are formating issues which do make a difference but could be the topic of another article. Learning how to write articles requires you to consider format as well as the words you write.

This is a post from: The Digital Archives

How To Write Articles – Decide On The Format

There are many ways that article writing can make somebody successful. There is the actual writing itself. One can become a successful writer. This would cover articles as well as progressing to writing a novel. Article writing can be the start of an exciting career as an author.

One can be a very successful article writer by writing for the internet specifically. This could be using the writing skills for a successful internet marketing career. Or it could be used to create exposure for oneself in a field such as social media where the art of writing well is a definite advantage.

But overall success from article writing all boils down to the internet. The internet, more than any other tool has ever managed to offer, allows any person to become a success.

Just to provide a few examples think of the following. A historian could write articles on his particular field of research and become well known and successful within this field. A person interested in art appreciation or somebody enthusiastic about stamp identification could do likewise.

The internet allows every person with a passion or enthusiasm to make a name for themselves by writing articles on their particular expertise. Some folk even make a success of writing arbitrary content about celebrities. One such example is Perez Hilton.

If you are passionate about something and are prepared to work really hard, you can become successful by writing about what makes you passionate. And this applies to anybody and any topic.

There are other examples of how article writing can help you to become successful. In this instance, your expectations of success could be different. That is, your idea of success could be that you would like to get a really nice job. So how would article writing help you with that?

Set up a presence online. You can do this by setting up a blog or developing a really nice page on MySpace or Facebook and start writing about yourself, your interests and your passions. Add to this articles on what you have achieved in your career as well as how you have been serving your community.

Constantly add to this portrait of yourself. Continue to educate, challenge and stretch yourself and write about it. Run that marathon, work as a volunteer in a shelter near you, get involved in promoting an issue such as setting up a park for kids near you. Then write about it. Make a noise about what you are doing.

With other words, spend time doing activities that show you can succeed and write about your successes in a public space. Mention your articles on Twitter, post them on article directories, bookmark them and share them where ever you can.

Eventually people will start noticing. You will be surprised what can come out of that noticing. Learning how to write articles to be successful could just allow you to fulfill your dreams.

This is a post from: The Digital Archives

How To Write Articles To Be Successful