Writing is all about expressing yourself in a way that completely resonates with the idea that you are writing about. If you are writing a personal journal or inquiry report then it is alright to let the animal of your imagination run wild. You don’t need to care about the grammar or the sentence structure because you totally understand the concept that you are putting into words. But if you want others to understand your point then you’ll have to consider their perspective before writing. Otherwise, you can write all you want but it won’t be as effective or influential.

We all want to improve our writing skills right? It is a necessary step towards becoming an influential person and to be able to effectively convey your point. Here is a list of a few simple steps that you can adopt in order to produce an influential piece of writing.

1- First comes “Why?” and then comes “What?”
There are times when you do know what you should write but you have a hard time expressing your rambling thoughts into words. The reason behind this inconsistency is, most of the times, you are not clear about the concept that you want to write about. You can’t make anyone understand your thoughts if you don’t understand them yourself. You need to have absolute clarity about the reasons behind your writing. You must know “Why” you are writing it before coming towards the “What” part of your content.

2- Be Specific
Being specific rather than vague or ambiguous is the key for writing a masterpiece. Your primary focus should be on the “Idea” that you are writing about. You can’t let your readers get distracted by unnecessary information. Of course you can add some relevant data to support your point but try to bring your reader’s attention back to the basic concept behind your writing. People get bored easily. It is quite hard to keep them interested for long. Instead of using vague expressions, save yourself and your readers the time and trouble, be precise and concise in your writing approach.

3- Don’t Rush it
Masterpieces take time. You can’t just hope to come up with a good piece of writing in a short amount of time. It is supposed to take time and effort. That’s how sensational writings came into being. You need to sit down, quiet your mind and body and then begin the writing process. If you are calm and relaxed then you are in fact priming yourself for thinking and writing better.

4- Keep it simple
Try to keep your writing as simple as possible. People don’t like to deal with overly complicated things. Same is true in case of writing. The most common mistake that beginners do is, they tend to focus on quantity rather the quality of their content while Google loves the quality content. The lengthier a particular writing is, the more difficult it is to manage. Avoid the use of complex expressions and try to keep your writing as simple and as concise as possible.

5- Use Decent Vocabulary
Use of decent and enriched vocabulary is highly recommended. But wait, don’t confuse the word “enriched” with the idea that you need to use words that are totally alien to an average reader. Avoid complexity at all costs. You should try to expand your vocabulary by learning new words on a daily bases and use them in your content as and when needed and the online paraphrase tool is an excellent option to enhance your vocabulary. The use of enriched and sophisticated words can certainly make your writing standout. You’ll be amazed at just how influential your content can be if you use decent lexicon.

6- Know your audience
Knowing your audience is one of the most profound ways of creating a decent piece of writing. Whatever you decide to write, your reader has a general perception about you content i.e. he is expecting your content to answer all of his questions which made him read this content in the first place. Now, you don’t want to disappoint him do you? By knowing your audience, you prime yourself to be ready for answering all of their questions. You start thinking from their perspective and this is exactly why you are writing. You want your article to be useful to others. You can only do it if you know what your audience is actually expecting from this content.

7- Make the Headlines standout
There are basically two main parts of any type of writing. First there is the “Idea” that you are writing about and second, there is the content related to that idea. It is always reasonable to make your headlines and important headings standout as compared to the other parts of your content. People can judge your whole writing just by looking at those headlines. If your main points are not presented in a captivating way then your readers, most likely, are not going to continue reading your content. Remember, it is quite hard to keep your reader interested for long so you can’t let your reader get distracted.

8- Avoid repetitions
Repetition of words and phrases is literally like a poison to your writing. There is no better way that I can think of, which kills the reader’s interest faster than repetition. You need to have variety in your content. When you use certain words or sentences over and over again the reader goes like “Well I kind of know what he’s going to say next so I’d rather skip this content altogether.” And that’s exactly what they do. So in order to maintain you reader’s interest, you must bring variety and versatility in your content.

9- Proofreading is crucial
Never underestimate the importance of proofreading. Let’s face the fact. You can’t write a perfectly fine piece of writing in the first attempt. You are bound to make mistakes when you first write it. You need to read your content at least twice before finalizing it. In the first attempt, you should look for the major grammatical or structural mistakes. And finally when you read it for the second time, look for minor mistakes that are easily overlooked. After removing these mistakes you are good to go. There, you’ve just created a reasonable piece of content that is sure to leave an impact on your audience.

10- Read, Read, Read!
Reading is the single most profound way of improving your writing skills in less time. It is said that, “A reader lives a thousand lives before he actually dies.” By reading someone else’s writing, you in fact familiarize yourself with different writing styles and patterns. You can adopt any of these patterns to bring more quality to your content. You don’t need to copy the exact pattern. But it sure can give you insights about what a good piece of writing looks like. Moreover, it can inspire and prime you to bring decency into your writing.

Writing a good piece of content may not be as easy as it appears to be but it’s not that difficult either. By following these simple guidelines by SEO Magnifier on writing skills, you can create your own masterpiece. Yes, it is going to take some time and practice but I assure you that in the end, it’ll be worth it.

Author's Bio: 

professional writer and blogger