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Discursive Writing | Another Look

CJ — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:51:09 +0000

To understand discursive writing, think about why we write in the first place. It is a method of communication and manipulation. When one writes, one hopes to convince the reader of a concept. The aim is to educate the reader.

Mental skills are necessary for understanding concepts. In order to write so your reader understands, you must deliver information in a way they can use those mental facilities—observational, analytical, analogous, etcetera.—so your reader can then classify and remember the information. That is successfully accomplished using discursive writing.

It is interesting how the word “discourse” (from whence we get “discursive”) comes to us. Traced back from the Latin to French, it means, literally, “to run back and forth.” Which, in the case of writing, means to give your readers a thorough look at both sides of an idea, primarily by stating one side, then the other and back to the original premise.

Thus, you can organize your article in three ways: extolling the “pro” side, the “con” side, or both pro’s and con’s of your subject in a balanced way.

To write discursively means to give valid points for the education of your reader. There are 4 types of discursive writing:

Explanation – This type of article is designed to tell the “why” or “what happened” of the subject.
Argument –An attempt to convince the reader about the subject.
Description – Answers the questions, “how is it what is it?” Gives qualities or properties indemic to the subject.
Definition – Announces the nature of the subject. Answers “what it is?”

Planning To Write The Discursive Article

Write an interesting introduction that clearly indicates your stance (are you ‘for’ or ‘against’ ?).
Give your first point, with supporting evidence, followed by second, third and any subsequent points.
Tell the “other side of the story,” delivering points in such a fashion as to indicate what others believe, i.e., “Some would have you believe…” “Moreover, others feel that…” etcetera.
Restate your position, reiterating your points (without repeating them verbatim).
Draw to a conclusion and end your article.

With these points in mind, it should be easier for you to understand what you need to deliver to your reader in order to convince them that your point is valid, and ultimately lead them to the action you wish to produce in them, whether to read further, or to purchase a product, or believe a certain way. Keep these points in mind when planning to write your next article and you will be successful.

Newbies Article Marketing Primer

CJ — Sat, 09 May 2009 05:25:31 +0000

First time Internet Marketers learn quickly that there are numerous way to publicize and advertise. So, if you’ve got a product, or a website or a service that you’d like to offer to the world, what is the best way to spread the word? And, perhaps, more importantly, what’s the cheapest way?

Article marketing is the way. It’s quite easy and, best of all, it free!

Writing The Articles
For the purpose of article marketing, the typical article runs from 350 to 750 words, making this a very east task to accomplish. It only amounts to 6 to 9 paragraphs… short paragraphs, at that! Take into consideration everything you want to tell your future readers. Make an outline of your high points. From this, you will easily begin to construct the paragraphs.

Make the entire article easy to read. Paragraphs should be short, 2-4 sentences. If you were faced with a single paragraph that spanned half a page, would you bother to read it? As it is too easy for people to “click away” from your article, it is in your best interest to make the reading of your article as easy as possible.

Bullet points are very popular these days. The “information super-highway” has become like the Autobahn, and the faster you can get your message across to readers, the more likely they will be to actually read what you have to say. Use bullet points for your readers to scan.

What To Do With Your Article
Now that you’ve written the article, where do you send it to get the most exposure? Well, first things first. Many out there will warn you about the duplicate content issue. It’s really not as bad as some would have you believe. I have covered the issue extensively in other articles, so I will not rehash it here. Suffice to say that the best thing to do is to post the article first to your own website. Google gives more weight to the first instance of an article that it finds.

Next, start sending the article to article directories. Directories, like eZineArticles.com and others, are repositories for articles where webmasters may come and take articles they like for their own websites, with the one requirement being that they leave the article completely intact, including the author’s resource box. The resource box will have links back to your site within it.

Some writer’s use article spinners to create variations to send out to article directories, further avoiding the duplicate content issue. You can do this, if you so desire, but remember this: if Google penalized duplicate content more harshly than they actually do, then all those article directories would have been shut down long ago!

After directories, the next place to go is Squidoo, Hub Pages and other authority sites where you can create a page. Google considers these sites authority sites and will give more weight to the links back to your site from there. Create a page at these sites and include your article, replete with your links.

Other things you can do involve social marketing, like Tweeting about your article, posting about it in forums and commenting in other people’s blog posts of similar subjects.

That’s basically it for article marketing, and best of all, every single one of these methods is free. Now, notice this article. It is 10 paragraphs and 585 words. Because I know my subject matter, it took me all of 10 minutes to write it. You can do this, too!

Article Marketing: What Lies Beneath

CJ — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 11:22:59 +0000

Starting an online business is a pretty big job. Thank goodness there are places–like ArticleMarketingNews.com–to help you sort out the why’s and wherefore’s, eh? This article hopes to demystify the concepts behind Article Marketing.

First of all, you have to know that article marketing is not only very effective as a method of self-promotion, but it is among the cheapest ways to advertise! Here’s how that happens:

Article Directories
These are database repositories for articles written by many people on many subjects, categorized for your convenience. QualityArticles.com is our sister site and we invite you to go check it out. Other premier directories include eZineArticles.com, ArticleSnatch.com, and many, many others. Feel free to do a Google search for article directories.

Article directories have strict minimum/maximum word count limits for each article you submit to them. Generally, this is 300 to 750 words. Also, many article directories do NOT allow links in the body portion of the article.

You will have an opportunity, at the end of your article, to promote your website and/or product. The resource box at the end of your article is where this will happen, so be sure your article is not just one big sales pitch. Save that for the website you will direct readers to from your resource box.

When signing up at one of these directories, be absolutely sure you read over the Submission Guidelines. They will make the difference in your success at using article directories as a place to publish your work.

Writing for the Internet
If you have ever written for publication in the “real” world, i.e. magazines and such, you need to know that writing for the Internet is very different. For one thing, the Information Super Highway has sped things up tremendously. When people are searching the ‘Net for information, they generally want it NOW and they want it in easy-to-read formats. This means that you are writing shorter pieces and getting right to the point as quickly as possible.

Your tone should be casual and friendly, but short and sweet. 3 or 5 sentences to a paragraph and 5-9 paragraphs are generally enough for the average reader. Bullet lists are incredibly popular, as it affords the reader an easy read to absorb your message.

Blogs
Once you’ve written an article, it needs a home. It needs a place to be available to the world. Creating your own blog is a perfect solution, as you are not faced with the prospect of constantly updating a regular website that has only static pages. Blogs are dynamically created, that is, you create them as you go. You write the post, and the page is written for you by the blogging software.

Freelancing
Another way to write and get your work out there, would be to write articles for others. Now, in some cases, you will not receive authorship for this work, as much of this kind of work is of the “ghost-writing” type. But if you are fairly confident in your ability to write, it will provide a nice side income for your other pursuits.

eBook creation
Once you’ve written several articles on one topic, you could very easily compile the articles and create a pdf file known as an eBook. You can either sell the eBook outright, or offer it to visitors in exchange for subscribing to your newsletter/update service, etc. This is relationship building 101, as you and your reader will benefit from each other.

Something NEW!
As I’ve been living and working on the ‘Net, I’ve seen many things come and go. I’ve recently come across yet another place to publish articles and/or get great content, and, after testing, I think this one’s going to catch on like wildfire, once the word gets out a little more. I used this service, called Syndicate Kahuna, on another of my blogs, and frankly, I LOVE it!

Syndicate Kahuna has a cadre of talented writers who write articles on just about everything under the sun. When you sign up–it’s FREE, by the way–you are subscribed to their service, where they will deliver relevant articles to your blog. Depending on your settings, which you completely control, the articles can be automatically posted, or put in pending mode, awaiting your approval. Oh, and you can sign up to be one of their writers, as well.

It’s actually a Godsend, if you ask me, because there are some days when writing is just not in the cards. Having a source for laser-targeted, relevant content is wonderful! You should take a quick look: http://www.syndicatekahuna.com/invite/109289/

So, simple things to do, in the long run, and, once you get into the habit of writing, you will find article marketing to be a valuable resource for your online business.

Some Definitions of Writing Terms

CJ — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 12:48:50 +0000

Article
ar•ti•cle Spelled Pronunciation[ahr-ti-kuh l]
Pronunciation noun, verb, -cled, -cling.
–noun
A written composition in prose, usually nonfiction, on a specific topic, forming an independent part of a book or other publication, as a newspaper or magazine.
From dictionary.com
Article Directory
Specially designed websites used for the purpose of collecting and publishing articles.
Article Marketing
The act of using written articles as a method of selling one’s products and/or products.
Article Submission
The act of submitting—or offering for publication—a written missive, generally to publication venues, i.e. magazines, ezines, article directories and such.
Author
The writer of fiction and/or non-fiction works, published or as yet unpublished.
Author’s Bio
In online publication of articles, an Author’s Bio is the section of the article, usually at the end of the article, where a brief introduction to the author is placed, along with any website links the author chooses to include. Also called a Resource Box.
Backlinks
When someone from another website places a link to your website. Very important for Search Engine rankings.
Call To Action
In copywriting, this is a phrase used to elicit an immediate action from the reader.
Content
Pronunciation: – [kon-tent]
4. substantive information or creative material viewed in contrast to its actual or potential manner of presentation: “publishers, record companies, and other content providers” “ a flashy Web site, but without much content.”
From Dictionary.com
Duplicate Content
An issue concerning exact copies of website content. When the search engines find it, only the first instance of the content will be attributed with ownership. Subsequent pages of replicated content will NOT be indexed by the search engines. THAT is the “punishment” everyone is talking about.
Editing
The act of reading and, if necessary, correcting or rewriting portions of written material.
Editor
A person who reads and makes corrections to written material.
Also, physical software programs used to write and/or correct written material.
Expert status
The portfolio lent to someone who has an observable and significant amount of knowledge about a particular subject.
Ezine
Internet-based publication.
Grammar
–noun
The study of the way sentences of a language are constructed; morphology and syntax.
From Dictionary.com
How-To article
A type of article that lines out directions to obtain or accomplish something.
Indexing
The collection of information about every web page on the Internet that is available for public viewing, performed by search engines.
Keyword
Library Science. A significant or memorable word or term in the title, abstract, or text of an item being indexed, used as the index entry.
From Dictionary.com
Words significant to the subject of an article. Used by search engines for easier indexing.
Long tail queries
A keyword phrase. Make money online is an example.
Motivation
That which creates a desire to continue.
Publish
Physical reproduction of written words for public distribution.
Quality content
Information created with superior characteristics. Useful, educational and/or informational material.
Resource Box
See “Author’s Bio”
Target Audience
That group of potential readers for whom an article’s subject material is written.
Traffic
The flow of visitors to a website.
Write, Writing
The act of putting pen to paper and forming written content that expresses an idea or ideas.

Articles in English Grammar–Do You Know When To Use Them?

CJ — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:28:48 +0000

In English grammar, an article is a non-descriptive, limiting word. It cannot be used alone, but is always joined to a substantive word to denote a particular thing, or a group or class of things, or any individual of a group or class. Articles are either definite or indefinite.

The is a definite article, since it points out a particular individual, or group, or class.
An or a is the indefinite article, because it refers to any one of a group or class of things.

An and a are different forms of the same word. Ordinarily an is used before vowel sounds, and a before consonant sounds.

Remember that a vowel sound does not necessarily mean beginning with a vowel, nor does consonant sound mean beginning with a consonant, because English spelling does not coincide closely with the sound of words.

Some examples:
a house—one among many. As opposed to the house, which indicates a particular house.
an orange
a European
an honor
a yelling crowd