I have had a real zest for writing since a very young age. Initially, I would pen down my thoughts and share them on several platforms. Other times, I just kept them to myself. Starting a blog was never on my wish-list. Neither did the thought ever occur to me. This was until one fine day when one of my friends suggested me to start one. Since then, there has been no looking back. It’s been 4 months that I publish at least one blog every week now.

Listed below are the 5 things that I keep in mind while writing my blogs.

1. Arriving at a topic

Before I start writing my blog for the week, I go through this entire process of pondering over what topic to base my blog on. I choose topics that I feel I can do justice to. I write blogs related to communication, the various events that I attend, learning garnered during lectures etc. At times, I also like writing about topics that are abstract. Therefore the topic-preference really differs from person to person. I am aware of the fact that the people who read my blogs invest the most valuable asset one could ever own – their time. Hence, I try making it worth their while.

2. Use of language

When I started my blog, I wanted to write them in a way which would make people feel elated. I wanted my blogs to be a resplendent reading experience for my readers. Hence, I made use of fancy vocabulary in my blogs. I assumed it worked well in my favour until one of my professors pulled me up for it. He told me that my use of language should bring my users back to read more of my blogs. If I continue using such vocabulary, I would end up exhausting them and losing them for life.

Do not use more than 8 words in a sentence. Break your sentences down and make reading as comfortable and as you can for readers. Swap every possible conjunction with a full stop.

3. Structure of the blog

I make sure that my blog is following an appropriate structure. A structure, if accurate, gives a proper flow to the blog. It assists the reader too in understanding what the author is trying to convey. Every story has a beginning, middle, and end. I try following the similar pattern for my blogs. The attention span and patience level of the readers could be low at times. Hence, prioritizing the messages is important of utmost importance.

4. Using multiple pictures

A picture serves as a visual aid which could enhance the reading experience of your readers. Hence, it is imperative that you back your blog up with multiple pictures. This should be followed, especially in the blogs when you are talking about an event. People would be curious to know more about it and using pictures is a key to it.

5. Proof-read before publishing the blog

I believe it is a healthy practice to proof-read the blog twice. Reason being, you might give a blind eye to certain faults in the first attempt.  There is a high likelihood of spotting them out in the second go. Also, you can take help of Grammarly, which is an application that you can install on your computers. Basically, it points out errors in your writing and suggests corrections for the same.

The aforementioned points are some of the many learnings that I have reaped in the process. Of course, drafting a good article needs much more detailing. However, these suggestions would come in handy in order to draft a decent yet effective article or blog. I would want my readers to follow them as they might come to one’s rescue in hours of need and might just save your day!

– Shreya Dubey

Shreya is a student of the Class of 2018 of the PG Programme in Public Relations at SCoRe. She has completed her Bachelors in Mass Media from S.K. Somaiya College of Arts, Science and Commerce. She can be reached at Shreya Dubey on LinkedIn and @ShreyaDubey96 on Twitter.