How to Write an Article: A Six-Step Guide

How to Write an Article. Even as I write these words, I’m conscious that this might seem too ‘basic’ a topic to discuss on LinkedIn - a platform where daily discourse revolves around high concepts of business strategy, leadership and more (when people aren’t simply busy looking for a job that is!)

Then again, I find that in our feverish pursuit of the big things and big ideas, it's the little things that tend to get sidelined. Little things, but not unimportant things. Like...how to write an article.

As a content marketing professional, I’ve probably written over a hundred articles, and proof-read or edited even more. But this isn’t about me, or others of my ilk. This is about countless people - educated, qualified, exceptional achievers in some cases - who, when confronted with the prospect of putting pen to paper (metaphorically speaking, in this digital age!) are a tad unsure about how to get started.

So if you’re someone who finds yourself not exactly terrified, but maybe a little discomfited, at the prospect of having to write an article all by yourself, I might be able to offer you a few pointers that will help.

But first let’s take a step back and ask that crucial one word question…

Why?

Why is it important to be able to write an article? Especially if you’re not, say, a content-writer or communications professional of some sort?

Well, regardless of which domain you’re working in, or what your area of expertise is, at some point you might need (or want) to write an article to share your work or simply express your opinions. This is particularly important if you’re a senior executive or leader, but actually holds true for anyone. At any point in your career, you might need to showcase your expertise, either to fulfil your organization’s objectives or to build your ‘personal brand’.

Now, it is of course possible to get your article ‘ghostwritten’ entirely by a professional writer (be it from within or outside your internal marketing/communications team). To share a rough outline of your thoughts and leave it to someone else to actually put it together.

Yes, you could do that. But...wouldn’t it be great if, time permitting, you were able to do it yourself? To say what you wanted to say in your own words? To truly be the author of your own article?

If you agree, then here goes…

Disclaimer: What this Article Is (and Isn’t)

This is going to be a simple guide to writing an article. In fact ‘guide’ might be giving it a bit too much credit. Think of it as a set of handy pointers, based on my experiences as a content marketer and former (or rather, lifelong) student of communication.

It is NOT specific to any particular industry or function, seniority level, or even medium (though admittedly, the bulk of my personal experience has been writing for the web). I am sure there are far more comprehensive resources out there which deal with these specific topics in greater depth.

I’ll freely admit that some of the pointers I’ll be discussing might seem a bit obvious, especially to those with some prior writing experience. In that case, just consider this a refresher!

Before we go ahead, here’s a quick cheat-sheet that will give you a glimpse of what lies ahead...

STEP ONE: Define what your article is going to be about

Unless you’re writing solely for the simple pleasure of writing (which is no bad thing, I assure you!), you obviously have a purpose behind writing an article. So the first step is to be as specific about that purpose as possible. Your article needs a focal point around which everything else revolves, and the stronger it is, the less likely you are to go on a tangent during the writing process.

Let’s say you’re planning an article to promote your amazing new product - Product X. I’m sure you’d have loads to write about when it comes to Product X, but without a clear focus, your article can easily become a string of loosely connected thoughts about your product that does not contribute anything in particular to the reader’s knowledge.

But if you decide that your article is going to be about “How Product X is a Gamechanger for Y Industry”, it now has definite purpose - namely, educating readers about the specific benefits or impact that your product will have for a particular industry. This gives you a clear direction to work towards while planning and writing the article.

Sometimes, simply having a working title is a great way to define the parameters of your article. “How Product X is a Gamechanger for Y Industry’’ is a good example of a working title. Alternatively, writing a logline or brief description of your article can also help with this. The idea is just to be more specific about what you’re writing and why you’re doing it, before you get started.

STEP TWO: Be clear about your audience

I’m labelling this ‘Step Two’, but it’s really something you should keep coming back to throughout the process of putting together your article. Who is as important as what and why, and serves as a useful lodestar for you as you write. 

To put it simply - who are you writing this for? Who is your ‘target audience’? How old are they? What is their educational or professional background? Which industry do they belong to? How much are they likely to already know about the subject of your article? How is your article intended to add value to them?

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but these are the kind of questions you need to have in mind before you get started. If you’re writing for an organization, your internal marketing/communications team could perhaps give you definite answers to these questions. In any case, it’s important to give this some thought and come up with at least a broad understanding of who your audience is while you’re planning your article.

Putting yourself in your audience’s shoes will give you direction with everything from structuring your article, to determining language and tone, and more.

STEP THREE: Put together an outline

Knowing what your article is going to be about and who it’s for gives you a direction, but before you get started, your article needs structure. And that brings us to a critical aspect of the planning process - the outline.

An outline helps you focus while you’re writing, and makes the final outcome clearer to your readers.

There’s no hard and fast rule when it comes to making an outline. It can be something as simple as a list of subtopics/subheadings, or a short paragraph-long summary of the entire article. Mindmaps may also be an effective outlining technique. Personally, I’ve tended to stick to either a list of subheadings, or a series of bullet points with 1-2 line summaries of each subheading, depending on the length and complexity of the article.

When it comes to structuring your article, it’s always a good idea to divide it into sections of some sort. An article with multiple explicit subheadings naturally lends itself to this kind of structure. But even if your article is free-flowing without any clear subheadings, it’s still a good idea to split it into rough sections at least while outlining it. 

At the most basic level of structuring, your article should have an introduction and a conclusion. The introduction could range in length from a short paragraph to several paragraphs, and should set the context for the article - what it’s going to be about and what the key takeaways are going to be for the audience. To use a marketing term, your introduction should be aimed at getting your readers to ''opt in" to reading the full article!

Your conclusion can summarize the key points or takeaways from your article, and should ideally tie back to the introduction. For instance, if your introduction says that your article is answering a particular question (say, “How Technology X is going to revolutionize the retail industry”), then your conclusion should briefly reflect on the answers that your article provided to that question - either by summarizing the key points discussed, or reinforcing the broad ideas.

STEP FOUR: Write! (and Review)

Well, needless to say, after all that planning, at some point you need to start writing!

If you’re writing a long article, it’s a good idea to pace yourself. Go section by section, taking breaks in between to refresh your mind and to review what you’ve written. 

Throughout this process of writing and reviewing, the previous three steps we’ve discussed are your guardian angels. Always keep in mind what your article is about and who your audience is. And stick closely to your outline. 

(Quick note: if you want to change or add something significant to the article while writing, it’s best to revisit your outline and first make the change there, so that you have an overview of how the changes affect the overall structure or your article).

When you get caught up in the flow of writing, it’s easy to start deviating from the core topic or idea of your article, or to forget who you’re writing for. Revisiting your planning process will help you stay on track.

While writing, try to make the transition between sections as seamless as possible, so that they feel like parts of a whole and not a collection of disparate mini-articles. One way to do this is to start every section by tying back to the previous section (or conversely, to end every section with a lead in to the next one). Or start every section by referring back to the core idea or topic of the article. In fact, it’s a good idea to reinforce your core idea/topic periodically throughout the article (at least once in every section).

STEP FIVE: Get visual elements ready (if needed)

This is an optional step, since your article may not necessarily have any visual elements. But it is nevertheless an important one.

The use of visual elements, in the form of images, photographs, illustrations, infographics, embedded videos etc. can do a lot to enhance your article. At bare minimum, they make your article visually appealing. In the case of a long article, they help break up the long walls of text, which makes it easier to read. And more significantly, they can emphasize the points you’re making in the article. As an example, remember the cheat-sheet I included towards the beginning of this article?

Of course, the decision on whether to include visual elements in your article, and how many to include, depends on your ability to create/source visuals. If you’re writing for an organization, you will likely have access to graphic designers who can help you out here. 

If you’re including visual elements, you definitely need to work on getting them ready after you’re done with your first draft. But it certainly isn’t too early to start thinking about them at the outline stage itself.

STEP SIX: Review and Edit

The work doesn’t end when you’ve written the last word. Once you have your first draft ready, it’s time to go through your article again for a thorough review.

One of the first things you should do is to check your article for grammatical errors. You can rely on your own judgement or make use of a solution like Grammarly. This is an essential quality-check for anyone writing an article.

Do also make sure that your article is structured properly, and that each section flows seamlessly into the next. If your article includes visual elements, then it’s a good idea to review their placement in the article and ensure that they complement the text, and enhance the readability and visual appeal of the piece.

While reviewing your article, think back to the audience you defined during the planning process, and put yourself in their shoes. Will the article be useful to them? Are the points being made easily understandable? Would the article be engaging to readers? And if not, is there something you can change that will make the article more useful to the audience, and/or a more interesting read?

It’s also important while reviewing to think back to the core topic and idea behind your article, and ensure that you’ve stayed on track throughout. Maybe there’s a sentence here or a paragraph there that is off-topic? Or maybe there’s a point which can be altered to reflect the core topic better?

If possible, and if time permits, it’s a great idea to get the article reviewed by someone else. If you’re writing as part of an organization, a colleague or team-member (be it a peer, supervisor or subordinate) would be an ideal reviewer. Someone who represents your target audience, or understands it deeply, would also be a good bet. If your article is targeted to a very broad audience, or the general public, even getting a friend or family-member to read it could yield some valuable feedback!

A couple of additional things to keep in mind:

• If you’re including any facts, figures or statistics from an external source, then do mention the source in your article, and perhaps include a link to it if it’s available online. If your article is an academic work, you would need to include citations in any case.
• I haven’t really touched upon SEO (Search Engine Optimization) in this piece, but it is an important factor for any article being published online. If you’re writing for an organization, in-house SEO/content specialists can help optimize your article before publication. But if you want to work towards making your article SEO-friendly yourself, then try to get a list of keywords relevant to your core topic/idea from your in-house team. Or you can make use of a range of free or paid keyword research tools, including SEMRush, Answer the Public, BuzzSumo, Google Keyword Planner etc. That said, SEO is a vast field, and is probably something you should focus on after you’ve gained some degree of proficiency with other aspects of article-writing.

And…...We’re Done!

Now, I may have devoted over 2000 words to the subject of how to write an article (Thank you for sticking it out!) But trust me, it really isn’t that complicated. A lot of what I’ve described are fundamentals of writing an article that you probably already had in mind - I’ve just tried to break them down stepwise into a kind of loose and adaptable framework.

To sum up everything we’ve discussed in one sentence - be clear what your article is about and who you’re writing it for, have a proper outline in place before you start writing, and be sure to review your work thoroughly while writing and after you’re done to ensure that you’ve stayed on track and maintained a high quality throughout.

By keeping these in mind, you probably won’t become a wordsmith overnight, but you’ll take a huge step towards producing well-structured, relevant and engaging articles!

Happy Writing!