Make Article Writing Easy – Create An Outline

By Mary Gallivan

No matter how many times you do it, writing articles continually proves to be a task many people avoid. While some authors find writing articles easy, there are still those who would rather walk across piping hot coals than settle down to some article writing.

However article writing needn’t be the arduous task as you think it is. It is all a question of attitude. If you set yourself up with a tried and tested routine then you’ll find article writing comes easily to you.

One of the methods you can use to prepare yourself when it comes to writing an article is to create an outline first as this will prepare your mind for the task ahead. An outline will give you an idea of how to start your article and plan for your succeeding steps. Being prepared and organised makes any job a whole lot easier and faster.

Your outline can act as a blueprint guiding you to create the introduction, body and conclusion of your article. While you are preparing your outline you’ll almost certainly get ideas and sentences that just come into your mind. Write them down immediately so you can later place them where you feel they will look good in your article and provide a focal point.

Once your article is carefully planned and fully prepared you’ll be ready to breeze through your article in no time at all.

Use these six tips and guidelines to help you create an outline for all your articles.

1. Do some brainstorming and jot down all your brilliant ideas first. Think of ways to interest your readers. Designate a time frame where you can write down all the ideas that you can use. By this time you should have done all your research and information searching. Review and reread your ideas and notes, gain mastery and sufficient familiarity with your topic so that writing them down later will be easy.

2. Come up with an attention grabbing title and sub title if required. Your article is unlikely to get read unless the title appeals to the reader.

3. Start to draft your article. At this stage don’t worry about grammar and spelling. Get into the flow of writing. This draft is for your eyes only so don’t be ashamed or embarrassed if it isn’t too good at this stage.

4. Introduction. Set out what you are going to write about. Think about how to solve a problem or how to make life easier for people. It could be 5 tips for…., what to avoid when….. Then have 2 or 3 key points.

5. Main body of the article. Divide your key points into short paragraphs. This makes it easier on the eye for the reader and the key points should be interesting enough to hold the readers attention.

6. Conclusion. Summarise what you have talked about and re-iterate how the reader can be helped by what you have written. Read and re-read what you have written. Refer to your outline to make sure you didn’t drift away from what you were planning on writing. It’s quite easy to get carried away once you start writing which is why it’s important to follow your outline.

It may be necessary to edit your article and either delete any unnecessary content or add a little more. Aim for your completed article to be about 300-500 words. All that time that you spent on the outline of your article will not go to waste. This will serve as your guide in writing articles. Trust and rely on your outline because this will prove to be a very helpful tool in writing all of your articles. The more you write the easier it will get.

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