Write One Outline To Use For All of Your Articles

Take the time necessary to prepare an outline before you write your article. This is what will set your article apart from others. You are prepared, have done your research, and have developed your method and procedure for writing articles and it will show in the quality of your finished product. Here is how it is done.

Why Is Writing An Outline Important?

Being prepared makes any job easier and being organized allows for you to return to your article, after any interruption, and be able to continue writing because your outline is guiding your process.

What Is In An Article Outline?

Think of the outline as a blueprint of how to write a feature article. No matter where you have to stop, you can always jump right back in without losing your train of thought - just check the blueprint and you are back on track. It guides you in each step of your article and holds the thoughts you know will make your article creative and appealing.

The Outline Template

The greatest outcome from creating an outline is that will become a standard template to use over and over. In fact, it's really useful to do so - make the template once, and you only have to plug in answers from there on out. You will be ready to breeze through writing any article.

There are three parts to include when you are writing an outline template.

Introduction: Tell them what you are going to say. State your point, in two or three short sentences with virtually no detail.
Validation: Why should anyone care? Tell them what value they will get from reading the article.
Preparation: What do they need to know to understand the rest of the article?

The Content: Say what you are going to say. Each paragraph should provide one concept at a time. Keep them to a few sentences and leave out confusing jargon. Explain how to use the information to further their experience or talk about a case story where this information was used towards a successful end.

Conclusion - Tell them what your just said. The conclusion is your deep breath at the end. It's your summary, where you want to motivate the reader to use the information you have presented. You want the conclusion to be very brief and to the point. This is where you put your 'call to action' statement. What should the reader do next? Why should they take that next step?

Article Outline Example

Title of the article: Writing With An Outline
Topic: Benefits of creating one outline for all articles.
Audience: Writers of articles for online marketing.

Introduction Notes: The first sentence of the article, some way of attracting the interest of my reader is a great start. Provide a value statement for the reader to entice them to continue reading.

Content Notes: Transition sentence between the introduction and content.

Sub-Title 1: Sub-topic that describes how-to, explains one facet of my topic, etc.
Attention grabbing first sentence.
Research to get all the facts that will support and go against your point.

Sub-Title 2: More of the above.

Conclusion Notes: Summarize what you talked about. The conclusion will wrap up your points and drive in what you are saying in your article.
Final thoughts.
Call to action.

Using an outline may seem like a useless step but as you fill in the blanks you will see your article appear. Review and reread your ideas and notes to gain mastery and sufficient familiarity with your topic. This will make writing your feature article easier.

Writing Your Feature Article

Now it's time to get creative and add flesh to the ideas you have jotted down. Write out your first outline and use it to create a draft. This may take more than one attempt but remember that it is called a draft for a reason. Your outline shall be perfected as each draft is written. As you go on, you will clearly see the bigger picture and write an article that will perfectly suit what is demanded of it.

Always refer back to your outline. When you start going through your first draft to make edits, make sure that every sentence propels the article toward the conclusion you intended. Your outline will help you keep in track. Your outline template will serve as your guide in writing articles. Trust and rely on this valuable tool. It will prove to be a very helpful tool in writing all of your articles.

The time you spend in outlining your article will never be a wasted effort. Save your outlines - they will serve as a guide in writing articles, a valuable tool that will constantly keep you on track.

Toni Grundstrom is a Freelance Writer. Article Marketing is now one of the best ways to market your website (or should I say let others market your website). Now is the time to begin writing articles for distribution and/or put them on your website as rich content. Turn Your Words Into Marketing Gold

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