Use These Writing Tips To Turn Your Articles From Good To Great

by Glenn Fisher

I’m working with a great chap called Richard at the moment...

We’re developing a new, free e-letter that focuses solely on forex.

It’s almost ready to launch and I’ll tell you a lot more about it when it’s up and running (hopefully by the end of next week).

One of the main things I’m helping Richard with is the editorial approach of the e-letter.

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I for one don’t want to read another dull, financial email that runs on and on and by the end of it I still haven’t really learnt anything.

There are too many out there, and I won’t have anything to do with adding another to your inbox.

Instead, we want to deliver an e-letter that is as entertaining as it is educational.

It’s got to be snappy and it’s got to be straight-talking and by the end of it, it’s got to give the reader something to takeaway.

Now, we started from a very good place...

The first drafts of Richard’s articles were well written and well informed.

But to get to were we wanted to be, to get to great... we needed a little zip. But most importantly, we needed focus.

Remember that word, it’s important.

Anyhow, I shared a few tips with Richard and he tweaked the pieces and sent them back over to me.

What a job he did!

He’d grasped it perfectly and very easily turned his articles from good to great.

What we’ve got now are the beginnings of what I think will be a top notch e-letter.

But here’s the thing...

There’s no secret to what Richard did to turn his articles from good to great.

In fact, today I’ll share with you those exact tips that I gave Richard...

The key to making good things great

When it comes to any piece of writing, it can be enormously improved with one word...

Focus.

If the piece is focused, if it gets to the heart of the matter and hammers home the point - your piece will be much stronger.

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Achieving ‘focus’ isn’t difficult: it’s just a case of remembering a number of key ideas and applying a couple of simple techniques.

It was those ideas and techniques that I communicated to Richard.

They enabled him to so improve his pieces. So, I thought today I’d share with you exactly the same message I sent him...

1. I’ve got rid of quite a lot of it. Not because it’s not good, but half way through it starts to move on to other ideas.

By the time you’ve got to saying "you need the right tools", I’ve already received enough information. You generally find that 500 words is an attention cut off point.

2. I cut down the intro. General rule: the first paragraph can usually be cut. You open this piece with a story lead (about you in Indonesia); it’s a good angle to take.

But when you do this, you need to get straight into it. Grip the reader straight off rather than trying to softly lead them in.

3. You were in the right direction keeping your paragraphs relatively short, but go one further.

You’ll see I’ve broken them up into just one or two sentences and sliced them with very short lines too.

4. Quick tip: you’ll see I’ve formatted the piece in courier size 10 with the margin set to 13.

I write everything in this format as it gives you a good litmus of when a paragraph is getting too long.

Over three lines and you’re probably trying to communicate too much at once. Break it up and the reader will be able to follow it a lot better.

5. Break the article up with one or two subheads.

They’re you go. Five essentially very simple things to implement, but by doing so you could vastly improve your own work...

Your writing will be more understandable, more enjoyable, and most importantly - more readable.

Have a go at applying these techniques to the next message you write. Even if it’s just a long email to colleagues, you’ll find that the response you receive will be much more positive.