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The 7 habits of highly successful epinions writersMar 29 '01 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line The most important points to bear in mind when writing for the epinions community
Writing for epinions.com can be a rewarding and enjoyable pastime – and it’s even better if you have mastered the basics on how to write an effective, readable and interesting review piece each and every time. Below are, as I consider them, the seven most important points to bear in mind when composing and writing for the epinions site. 1. Choose your topics Choose them carefully as this is a decision of key importance that will influence greatly the quality and substance of your writing. If you know a lot about electronics, write about DVDs and mobile phones. If however you know nothing about electronics but everything about toys, write about toys. In this way, you are writing about something you enjoy describing and detailing and this will come over in your writing. Writing about something you know little or nothing about is a bad idea as it ensures a staccato and sketchy style that is unattractive to readers. 2. Compose a good title Title writing is a skill in itself, quite distinct from article or review writing. Often in newspaper offices, one journalist will be responsible for writing the main columns whilst another will be specially charged with the responsibility to write punchy and eye-catching titles. Titles are important for two main reasons. There main purpose is quite simply to draw in a reader’s attention and make them want to read your writing. There is also another reason for writing a title that is often completely overlooked: writing a title can often help you come to an initial idea as to what the overall content and look of your article/review will be. A funny and quirky title will almost always indicate a funny and quirky review, while a factual title will signpost a review of facts and statistical data. Writing a title before you begin writing the piece itself therefore, will help you to formulate a basic idea of what the ensuing piece will develop into. 3. Brainstorm Once you have an idea in your head as to what your article will look and read like, it is important to sketch out some basic ideas to help you in composing your piece. A brainstorm is an excellent way of achieving this. Firstly, take a piece of paper and some pens and write down everything you can think of that you would like to put into your article. For example, if you are going to write about a toy, you might like to mention the price, the durability, the way it encourages creativity, the colour, the size and shape, the features it contains and so on. For each of these, try to branch out with additional points that will add depth and detail to your work. In mentioning features for example, you might want to describe the dial feature, the noise button feature, the flashlight feature and so forth. Using different colour plans to organise your brainstorm is a good idea, so to is to make a separate note of all your ideas in a long list running down the edge of the paper for reference purposes. 4. Plan your piece Now that you have all the ideas, you need to organise them into a coherent article/review. Start by matching the similar ideas together, put all the details about your personal opinion into one section, details about your personal experiences with the product in question into another section etc. Decide how long you want your piece to be and how many paragraphs it should contain. Decide if you want to use headings for each of your sections. At this stage, throw out all superfluous, inane or irrelevant material and concentrate on those key ideas and opinions you want to get across in your final piece. 5. Keep it personal It’s important for your piece to sound authentic and person-based. You are, after all a human being behind a computer not a computer behind a human being! Make sure you use the personal pronoun ‘I’ when describing all opinions and ideas that are your own. Don’t be afraid to quote copiously from personal experience, as long as it is relevant to the product you are writing on. Often, writing on personal experience is the best way to write confidently and freely and allow readers full insight into the product based on your views and comments. Also, don’t lose track on what you are writing about. That is why planning beforehand can be so valuable. Keep your writing simple and straightforward as much as possible. 6. Use engaging and accurate vocabulary Simply saying that a product is ‘nice’ or ‘bad’ will not tell your reader very much and will make your writing appear dull and unimaginative. Use a thesaurus to help you use a rich and varied vocabulary that will keep your writing style engaging and entertaining to the reader whilst providing information of maximum detail and accuracy. For example, saying that a particular toy is ‘nice, but with some bad points’ is nowhere near as useful or accurate as to say that the toy is ‘entertaining and promotes interaction while suffering from one or two minor drawbacks such as detachable pieces and loud noise settings.’ 7. Review and punctuate well Once you have written your article/review, compose a bottom line that is short and to the point. Preferably as concise and punchy as your title. Then, read over everything you have written. If something doesn’t quite make sense, re-write it. If you’re not quite sure of a spelling, use the spell checker or a dictionary. If something sounds a little repetitive, think of another way of expressing the idea. Make sure to punctuate your work properly as well. Not only will this indicate that you are a reliable and conscientious writer who cares about their work and readership, it will also allow your writing to flow and read well. Only when you are one hundred percent happy with what you have done should you release it for publication. Conclusion The art of writing takes time and dedication to master properly. There are so many sub-skills involved as well, that make the overall task a challenging and also rewarding one. The best advice is simply to try and try and try. Practice really does make perfect.  |
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