Almost every experienced HR or manager can write a decent article – colleagues for the benefit, themselves for the glory.
What to do
1. Start with reflection
Give some thought to which industry articles you wish to read – and finish (why?), and which you hate and provide up (why, by the way?). do not be lazy to formulate and write down your answers. This list is your reference, have a look at it once you write your text.
2. Set an issue
Give some thought to it: who will want to read it? Why will they be required to try and do it? Who is going to be inquisitive about it, apart from you? (Answer honestly – you are not actually wasting some time now, you’re saving it.) Clarify these questions, and it will get easier: Imagine these people when you’re writing your text. you’ll be able to even address them directly within the article.
3. Consider structure
The wonder of your text is its structure and thoughtfulness. Having the ability to form a coherent structure has nothing to do with whether you’re an experienced writer, but it does mark you out as knowledgeable. Organize your text as logically and coherently as you organize your work. Sketch out a thought or outline of the fabric, think through the sequence of blocks, and determine for yourself how the individual parts of the article are associated with each other: whether there are contradictions, logical jumps, or unclear transitions.
Sometimes the structure is dictated by the subject itself – and so everything is easy. Sometimes you have got to consider it. But the matter is solvable in any case, and most authors can have a go at it.
At this stage the content is sometimes “accumulated” by itself: ideas, arguments, and theses. Write them down without delay within the right blocks of the structure. Then, after you write the text, you’ll only need to develop the thought and refine the wording.
4. Select examples
These are facts, cases, stories from experience (yours or colleagues’) – anything that may help get your message across and make the text more understandable. A practical article without examples is sort of a children’s book without pictures. If there are many examples, choose the foremost vivid and illustrative ones.
5. Writing a text
What’s the wonder of your text, we’ve already discovered the third point. And here are just three simple rules.
First, do not be afraid to jot down simply and clearly. In fact, that’s what’s most worthy.
Secondly, use words accurately. If you are not sure of the meaning of a word – whether it is a term or something commonly used – hunt online dictionaries and reference books, they’re easy to seek out.
Thirdly, keep it short, it is important. If one word is enough rather than three, you must use one. Superfluous words don’t add weight or make the text more serious or deeper. They spoil the impression of the author. and that they also complicate our work: you have got to wash the article from verbal weeds all the same, and publishing an unedited text is like inviting guests into an unmade flat.
What to not do
We’ve already puzzled out the way to do the correct thing. Now let’s check the common mistakes; many of us make them. Below Bidforwriting gives advice to prospective authors, shares experience, and opens the door to their editorial kitchen… just a touch bit. Therefore, this section is not any smaller than the previous one.
- Do not be complex! you do not have to be a journalist, writer, or copywriter to jot down an honest industry article. If you are a professional and you actually have something to share, you’ll know. The previous section will facilitate you.
- Don’t write a piece of writing if you’ve got nothing to mention. Abstract texts a la textbook excerpts – no, that’s not visiting work. Our readers (your colleagues) can’t stand it, and neither can we.
- Don’t come up with examples and achievements that you simply or the corporate did not have. We understand: sometimes you would like to. But still don’t!
- Don’t retell other people’s articles. That is what copywriters do, and it is a bad example. They typically do not know much about management, and they do not have industry experience worth talking about. That’s why you have got to travel down this slippery slope of reproducing someone else’s and even outdated thoughts in new words.
- There’s no need to pour water. Everyone knows a way to work as an Aquarius, so nobody is fascinated by this “competence”. No “as everyone knows”, “numerous studies show” and other things within the same vein. Each argument must be substantiated (otherwise it is not an argument at all): provide links to specific studies, name those that know something, and so on. you’ll only keep the passwords for yourself.
- Don’t write what’s general knowledge in a piece of writing. This makes it invaluable – literally – and really irritating to colleagues and editors.
- Don’t turn yourself into a PR person, don’t try to make a promo for a corporation. All told, an intelligent and useful expert article is the best promotion for both the expert and his company. No “text product” with foul-mouthed PR gets the identical response as an honest and honest expert text. Expertise is often great PR, but a piece of writing loaded with the company promo (or a fervent personal promo of an expert) isn’t any good: it alienates and disturbs the reader. Also, it’s too fancy to really deal with PR tasks.
- Don’t attempt to be liked. do not be afraid to show off conformity. There are times when articles are written with an inner mindset of praise, many likes, and general approval. and become upset if they do not. And it is a dead end. If your inner conviction doesn’t match what you’ve written, you’ll always see it: an editor sees it, and a reader feels it. It is most obvious if you read several articles by the same author: obvious inconsistencies emerge, maturity and reflexivity here border on naivety; the image of the expert, and his views do not form a coherent picture for readers, he contradicts himself.
- Don’t ask us to choose a topic for you. No one knows better than the author himself what is close to him, what he knows better than others, and what his experience is particularly valuable. If you do not know it, we do not know it either. We prefer to work with experts who have already understood what they need to do.
- Don’t be ashamed of mistakes (spelling, punctuation, stylistics, etc.). You are not in school, and we are not teachers or grammar nazis. We won’t throw away your article just because it has a lot of grammatical errors, we won’t laugh and we won’t think worse of you.
Choosing between a contentless text written smoothly and competently and a text that is useful but has errors, we will definitely take the second one for publication. Literacy is good. But it is the content that comes first, and we will help you tidy up the rest. Proofreading and editing are part of our work (which, by the way, distinguishes us from most online industry publications).