The Difference Between a Good Article and a Bad One

The Internet is a wonderful invention, allowing users from all over the world to share their experiences and thoughts with others. There are plenty of sites where you can write to express yourself or offer your advice and tips, as well make some money. Unfortunately, it is the potential to make money which sometimes affects the quality of people's writing. Instead of taking the time to construct well-thought-out articles, some individuals simply churn out as many articles as they can in a short space of time. When you read these kinds of articles, you can usually tell.

Firstly, they may not make any sense and they tend to contain lots of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. You might come across an article title that intrigues you, so that you click on it expecting to learn something, only to be disappointed. Since there are people out there who write purely to make a profit, not everyone cares about the standard of work they put out. Consequently, they write an article that contains as few words as they can get away with writing and usually what they do write is fluff. There are many 'how to' articles, for instance, that suggest they will tell you how to do something that don't actually tell you anything you didn't already know.

After reading a good article, on the other hand, you usually come away more knowledgeable on a topic than you were beforehand. The article is well-constructed, with an introduction, a number of paragraphs that examine the topic more thoroughly and a conclusion and it will usually draw upon evidence or examples. This gives you more confidence in what you're reading, because when a statement is backed up with evidence, you can check it out for yourself, usually by clicking on a link. Sometimes, when you read an article that isn't particularly good, you simply get a lot of opinion without anything to balance it out.

Opinion isn't always a negative thing, but too often writers try to present their articles as objective and comprehensive, without being either of those things. A good article at least explores the possibility that there are different points of view out there. An article doesn't necessarily have to be informative to be a good read, though, as there are plenty of articles which don't reveal any particularly earth-shattering facts or information, but are entertaining enough to make you want to keep reading. It's like weight-loss articles – they pretty much all say the same thing, yet some are funny or make you look at it in a different way and so they continue to attract readers.

Of course, it is much easier to be a critic of articles than it is to actually create good articles yourself. The only way you can improve your articles is by writing them. The chances are that not all of your articles will be astoundingly good, but the more articles you write, the better you will become at researching and writing your articles. It also helps to have a passion for the subjects you write about. If you get some enjoyment out of what you are writing, it is much easier to craft an article that others will want to read. If you consistently write good articles, you will find that readers keep coming back for more, and so you won't have to keep churning out out as many articles as you possibly can to make writing profitable.