Of all the writing tips that I have come across, I realized that there is one rule that stands above it all – writing for your readers.
This is where you will see the difference between a great writer and a niche expert. A niche expert is someone who is good at a particular field. They are knowledgeable of a particular subject but that does not necessarily mean they have the talent to share that through words.
Sometimes geniuses and experts have great ideas but they get lost in all those thoughts and concepts. Some of them can get too technical and when they do, readers can hardly understand what they are talking about.
If you are a writer, one of the writing tips that you will receive is this: your first priority is to send a message across. This is where writing for your readers becomes a priority too. When you know who you are writing for, everything else follows – your grammar, writing style, sentence construction, etc. Your written piece is your channel to send that message.
HOW TO WRITE FOR YOUR READERS
To accomplish that, here is a list of writing tips that I believe could help you write for your readers.
Know who will read your piece
Before writing, know who will read it first. For instance, I used to write for an Internet Marketing site. Their primary target market included people who had next to nothing knowledge about the IM niche. So what I did was to write in a tone that newcomers will understand. If I used technical terms, I often included a brief description of what it is about or I had a link ready for them so they can explore the meaning of the terms further.
Anticipate what your readers want to know
This is one of the writing tips that I always put into practice as an online writer. Users browse the Internet looking for information. If you cater to a specific niche, find out what they are most likely interested to learn. This actually helps me come up with topics for my employers.
One of the great writing tips is to structure your article so the reader is encouraged to finish
Most Internet users are usually in a hurry. The web is a huge library of information and a lot of users read through the first two paragraphs before deciding if an article holds what they need. Time even mentioned that the online attention span of people is only 47 seconds! If they are your intended reader, make sure your first few paragraphs are informative. Or if you have children as your target, inject stories as examples throughout your article. That should keep their attention to what you are trying to say.
I believe that writing is an art but they should have different goals compared to artists. An artist expresses through their respective art form. They use their own unique way of translating emotions and messages then they leave it to the spectator to translate it in their own way.
A writer should not have the same notion. When you write, you need to make sure your readers will understand the message exactly as you mean it. If your readers fail to understand, then you fail as a writer. I hope my writing tips helped you in some way. If you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch with me through the comment box. I’d love to hear from you.