Friday, June 24, 2011

Effective Outlining Can Improve Your Writing

By Allec Borseci


Lots of people struggle when creating articles or papers. Some individuals can string together phrases in a really effective way, but lack the capability to structure their piece adequately. And others simply have no confidence in their ability to write in anyway. Nevertheless, I really believe that everyone has the capacity to write well. Like anything, it just takes time and practice.

There's one thing, though, that you can try right now to help you raise the quality of your writing. And that is: effective outlining. If you take thorough notes and arranging them in an effective outline, you'll be able to vastly improve the articles you are writing. And, though it may seem like constructing an outline could raise the time that it takes to create an article, it can, actually, lessen the time required to write a high-quality article. This is because an outline is like a guide. It will take you from point A to point B. This is significant in the writing process, because, much of the time, the toughest part of writing is knowing what to say next. With a decent outline, you'll never be at a loss for words.

With the use of an outline, the whole writing process becomes far less of a painful task. Content will never be poor on account of what you have to say. There is an audience for everything. Content can only be poor if it does not get your point across in an successful way. Thus, when you can explain the most crucial point in your content in a fashion that your audience can fully grasp, you can write quality articles. This is how effective outlining can help you. It will allow you to produce a structured piece that your readers can easily stick to and comprehend.

Creating the outline is a vital part of the writing process. If the outline is poor and unorganized, then, most likely, your written piece will likely be sloppy and unorganized. It does not have to be perfect, it simply needs to be easy to understand.

When I start my outlining process, I always put the title of my soon-to-be article on top of the notepad or word processor I'm using. That way I'm focused on the intention of the content I'm creating. Then, I'll use roman numerals, letters (lowercase and capital), numbers and other symbols (dashes, asterisks, etc.) as well as indentation to help me organize my content. (Most word processor's have extensive bullet choices that will handle this for you.)

I always begin with the intro. In the intro portion of the outline, I usually only opt for 1 or 2 sub-categories. Following the introduction is the body, and after that is the conclusion. The body is, clearly, the place that the bulk of my notes are going to be and I normally have a variety of sub-categories within this location. At the end is the conclusion.

Throughout every single sub-category of my outline, I add the key points that will help me write a great article. When it comes time to write, I've got an extensive amount of facts organized in an efficient manner. This technique let's me breeze through even the longest articles in a fraction of the time it would generally take.

Whenever you construct your notes into a well-organized outline like this, article writing becomes a breeze. The more comprehensive you are making your notes and outline, the more thorough your written-piece will be.

With this simple and speedy method of outlining your notes, you will notice a tremendous improvement in your ability to write quality content. This is definitely the method I used when going from making nothing to $1500 a month after only six months of freelance writing. Whatever the type of writing you do, be it for school, work, or play, effective outlining may be the simplest way to write better.




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