2 Great Article Writing Tips – Readers Have Short Memories

Photo by reportergimm

This is a guest post by Steven Wagenheim.

Article writing is an art.

Depending on what it is you want to get across to your reader, the article needs to be written a certain way in order to be effective.

However, there is one thing that is pretty universal when it comes to reading articles. Your average reader has a short memory.

I’m not talking about Mr. Brainiac who can retain 5,000 words like it was a single sentence.

I’m talking about your average Joe who has already forgotten paragraph one by the time he gets to paragraph four.

Because of this, there are two things you should do when writing articles. If you can’t do both, then you better do the last one.

Tip #1

At the top of the list is something very simple.

Keep the article short.

Unless you’re writing a technical journal, there is no reason for your article to be THAT long.

If you really have that much to say, break the article up into more than one article.

Make it a series of articles if the topic is so immense.

People aren’t going to be able to retain a 3,000 word article in one sitting.

And if you’re not the most interesting writer in the world, forget it, they won’t even get through it and you’ve defeated the purpose of your article…to get it read.

Tip #2

If you can’t keep the article short, and even if you can, the other thing you should do is summarize what you just told the reader.

In the last paragraph of the article, write a brief summary of what you just said above.

Sometimes this can get a little tricky if you’ve touched on a number of bullet points in the article itself.

But any kind of summary, even if incomplete, is better than no summary at all.

Pick out the most important things to stress at the end.

This will put those things firmly in the mind of the reader when they walk away from your article.

Summary

There you have it…two simple tips.

Keep the article short and summarize at the end, just like I did here.

If you do these two simple things, your article will have more of an impact on the reader and they’ll retain more of it when they’re done.

To YOUR Success,
Steven Wagenheim

Want to write articles that get people’s attention and can earn you up to $200 per article written? Then check out my Complete Article Writing And Marketing Guide that you can find at http://www.honestincomeprogram.com/tcawamg.html – This is my own book that I wrote from over 30 years of writing experience.

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