Article Writing For Your Newsletter – 2 Simple Tips That Make Your Newsletters Easy To Read

So I rung around, got a few quotes and eventually a carpet fitter came round to fit my new carpet.

     Now, me being me, I like to look after anyone who works for me. I usually stick around, make them a few cups of tea and ask them how they do things. I’m a bit nosey sometimes, but this chap didn’t seem to mind.

     He was telling me how he work.

     Firstly, he measures the whole room and cuts a square piece of carpet and under felt to match. After the under felt is cut to the rough shape of the room, the carpet is laid on top still as a square. Then the carpet fitter cuts out the rough shape of the room leaving enough surplus to be trimmed later. After this, the carpet is fixed (I don’t know the technical term) to two sides of the room. Let’s call these sides top and left for argument’s sake. The next step is to ‘push’ the carpet to the other sides of the room (bottom and right sides) so that there are no lumps or sags. Then these sides are fixed into place also.

     The room is now carpeted.

 “Where’s the relevance, Ron?” I hear you ask.

     Well, when my carpet fitter told me this method, I could see straight away that it applied (in a round about sort of way!) to writing.

     You see when I write, I first write a little paragraph that encapsulates the whole message. (This is like measuring the room). Then I write everything I can think of that is to do with that message. (This is like cutting the carpet into a rough square). Then I crop unnecessary waffle. (This is like cutting the rough shape of the room.) At this stage my writing has ‘surplus’ to be removed so then I start at the top and read what I’ve written, cropping and changing words if necessary as I go. (This is like ‘pushing’ the carpet to the other sides of the room.) Then I give it one last read and the carpet is fitted.

 Can you now see the relevance? I hope so. You start off with a mass of ideas, waffle and ramble, then you crop it.

2 Simple Tips That Make Your Newsletters Easy To Read

     I have devised for you a simple 2 step editing checklist which is given below.  Here they are.

     1. Cropping for style.

     2. Cropping for clarity.

     So let’s talk about each one in turn.

Your 2 Simple Steps To Editing, Checklist For Cropping Your Article

The First One Is For Style

The style you use for any newsletter topic should be simply this.

Reader friendly.

     This means that when cropping for style, you should ask yourself the following questions as you go through each article…

? Is the article easy to read?

? Can I read this article without pausing to think?

? Am I totally unaware of any strain in my eyes as I’m reading the article?

? Does the article ONLY contain everyday language?

? Do I understand this article?

? Does this article entertain me?

? Does this article appeal to more than one of the five senses?

? Does this article contain big impact words and phrases?

     And the most important one of all is;

? Does this article ‘sound’ like me?

     You should be able to say a firm “YES” to each question. Okay, allow me to give a brief explanation of each question.

     Is the article easy to read? In other words, is it enjoyable to read? Does it make you go, “Wow,  I really am a good writer!”?

     Can I read the article without pausing to think? If you need to stop to think about a word or phrase, then chances are your readers will also. Maybe even stopping for good for a trip to the dustbin.  If there are any hiccups at all, rewrite them so that there are no hiccups whatsoever. Very important.

     Am I totally unaware of any strain in my eyes as I’m reading the article? Eye strain can be quite painful. If the reader experiences any pain when reading your stuff then forget about keeping them as a subscriber. Typical causes of eye strain are either too small type (8 point is too small), white text on black background, not good at all, or wildly different sizes of type in the actual body text, also a big no no.

     Does the article ONLY contain everyday language? Your reader does not want to have to learn a totally new set of words. Never ever deviate from the everyday language of the reader.

     Do I understand this article? If you don’t understand it, what chance has your reader got? No chance at all.

     Does this article entertain me?  A simple enough question.

     Does this article appeal to more than one of the five senses? The more of the five senses you engage in, the more people will read your article.

     Does this article contain big impact words and phrases? Such as “Serious as Pecetarian” or “Stronger ‘n onions!” or “Savage wind!” or “So overcome with frustration, he leans against the closed door of his office and silently screams!”

     Does this article ‘sound’ like me? A simple enough question. Make each article ‘sound’ like you and this will produce the personality you want.

     For Clarity

     Cropping for clarity basically means shortening your text. What we’re really doing here is we are taking out all the unnecessary words that don’t need to be there to make your sentences shorter and to make your article as a whole more understandable. Phew! That was a mouthful, wasn’t it? Let’s edit that last part for clarity.

Rewritten as,

     Cropping for clarity means cutting your text. What we do here is to take out unnecessary words. This will make your article more understandable. There! That’s better isn’t it?

     All you do is read through your text, look for long sentences and see if you can rewrite them in a shorter form.

     Here’s a great tip for you when cropping for clarity. Take out the word ‘that’ as much as possible! Go through each sentence and see if it makes any difference when you take this word out. 99 times out of a hundred it won’t. However, sometimes it will. If it does then leave it in.

Just use that common sense of yours (oops)!