How to format your article the wrong way
A well written article can be a joy to read, but if it isn’t formatted right or has a bad heading or one that isn’t placed just right you wouldn’t understand too much. And even if you did, the flow
Of thought could get lost somewhere among the poor paragraphing,
the mixture of left
and right aligned text
and the
inconsistent fonts.
If you choose to skip the 1 minute spent formatting for every twenty that you spend writing, your first 20 minutes may well have been wasted too. Data such as this may get lost in the entire article if you don’t highlight it correctly. Number of minutes spent reading a good article = X minutes. Number of minutes spent reading a bad article = Hardly any time at all because the first impression if often so bad, no one reads it all!
The Right Way!
If this article has been a struggle to read so far, I’m not surprised! A poorly formatted article can ruin the reading experience for someone and can mean the difference between a great review and an average one for your piece of writing.
So what should you watch out for? These simple pointers should have you well on your way to a well formatted article.
- Title – A good clear title (possibly in a bold or larger font) in a distinct section separated from the rest of the article
- Line spacing – Finding the right line spacing can be a challenge. A safe way to go is to stick with a 1.5 line spacing for most articles.
- Sub headings – Sub headings can be your best friend if you use them well. They give readers an idea of what to expect in that portion of your article and set the tone for things to come. It also makes for convenient reference points if someone wants to re-read a portion.
- Paragraphing – A large expanse of words tumbling one into the other can make reading your article a nightmare! So be sure to put down your thoughts and then organize them, so that one set of ideas is separated from the next by paragraph spacing.
- Alignment – Be consistent with your alignment; right alignment is rarely used except in tables. Center alignment can make a document look neat but may sometimes cause your words to stretch out abnormally to fit across the page, so do a quick manual correction at the end or just left align. If you justify your text, do a quick manual text at the end to see that no text is stretched too much to fit the page.
- Font – Stick to a single font for your article. You can use different font sizes to distinguish your headings and title from the body of the article.
- Stick to Style Sheets if provided – If you’re provided with a style sheet when working with a particular client, do stick to their style sheet. The seemingly insignificant details might be of great importance to the client – even things like whether you use exclamation marks is important.
- Bold text and Italics – Ideally, limit the use of italics to portions where you are quoting someone or speaking directly to the user to provide instructions. Avoid long portions in italics; sometimes simple paragraphing can do the trick. Bold text should be limited to small stretches of the article that you wish to highlight – bolding everything will make it lose its impact.
Read on for tips on how to perfect your article, in part 2 of this feature on formatting.
Please Note: Chillibreeze does not endorse techniques or views mentioned in the articles here. The articles listed here are provided as reference material for writers as a support service.
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