Blog writing guide

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ZaphodX
Retired Moderator
Level 70 : Legendary Warrior
Posted 10/12/12 12:10:10 pm
10/12/12

These days I play Supreme Commander, which is probably the greatest RTS you've never heard of!

I do daily uploads of gameplays, replays and tutorials - check out my videos you might like them :)

Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/ZaphodX1

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Blog writing guide

In partnership with the Tutorial Association, here is a concise guide to writing and structuring great blogs.

Blog Content/Structure

Every blog is different, but try to follow these general guidelines:

Structure Guidelines

A short, attention grabbing title

This is incredibly important for getting those people onto your blog initially. If the headline is catchy, people will want to read on.

Introduction

First impressions are very important. Capture your reader from the beginning with a good opening line and a brief intro paragraph on what the blog is about.

The main content of the blog

Use formatting to get a clear layout - sections, titles, punctuation and paragraphs, spoilers, horizontal rules etc. Also think carefully about your content - something that is interesting/different will be much more popular.

A brief outro

Summarise the main points/conclusions you have written about.

Genre guidelines

Identify the aim and genre of your blog and make sure you include the right features:

Opinions/rants - Make a great argument that opens up debate and interacts with your readers. Include a counter-argument!

News - This is a Minecraft fansite, so ensure you provide useful and relevant information that is likely to interest your typical reader.

Entertaining - Make sure it is fun and interactive for the reader.

Educational/informational - Tutorials are great, but if the tutorial isn't USEFUL then you're missing the point. Concentrate on a uncommon or difficult topic that is likely to be useful to a broad audience.

Community - Give something PMC-community based that people can easily relate to.

Tips

Writing quality and layout

Always use a spellchecker and concentrate on good grammar and sentence structure. Use punctuation and separate your text into easily readable paragraphs.

Be original and unique

Being original and unique really makes you stand out and offer something other people don't. This really increases the value of your blog. Go for something that you have thought of, not a copy or modification of a pre-existing idea.

Don't be afraid to go into detail

If you have the knowledge, share it! Don't hold back if you know your stuff and can go in depth into a particular subject/topic.

Keep people's attention

People hate walls of text, so add pictures to help illustrate points and break up large amounts of text. If an image isn't that relevant, then use spoilers and horizontal dividers to help separate text.

Be balanced

If expressing a rant/opinion/review then always provide a counter argument from the opposite point of view. This makes the blog much more well rounded than a biased, one-sided opinion/account.

Get other people to proof-read it before release

Other people can always help give a different perspective and point out minor changes and improvements that can make a big difference to the overall effect.

Improve and add to it after feedback from release

There is always room for improvement, particularly after you take a second look at it and get feedback from other people.

Presentation

A lot of people don't use all the tools available to them when editing blogs. You should be trying to use each one at least once. If you aren't, then get in the habit of using the formatting tools you don't usually use.

1 Drafting

Probably the most important part. Untick the 'publish live' box before you save for the first time and you can draft out your blog before you release it. Perfect the layout and formatting before you release - this is very important!

2 Fonts

Using fonts helps highlight different aspects of your text. Bold important words, italicise important points, and underline section titles/headers.

3 Colours

Choosing different colours for headers or certain words can help them stand out a bit and make the submission a bit more lively. NEVER highlight your text, it's ugly, hard to read and looks very unprofessional.

4 Alignment

I don't use this often but sometimes it helps layout when you centralise images or titles.

5 Spoilers

Fantastically useful, this really helps separate large sections or chunks of text/images. Absolutely essential for any long documents.

6 Headers and text size

Choosing these different text layouts for paragraphs and headers changes the look and effect your text has. Using different text sizes really helps separate titles, summaries, descriptions and the body of your text which helps make your layout clearer and easier to read.

7 Dividers/Horizontal rule

All this does is create a horizontal line. Simple in concept, but it really helps separate different areas of your submission.

8 Images

No matter how great your text is and how clear and well laid out it is, images greatly help illustrate the points in your text and break up the monotony of reading large amounts.

9 Bullet points and Numbering

Very neat way of listing things, making points or ranking concepts.

10 Paste

This allows you to properly paste Word document formatting and font into your description. Using a different font can really make your writing stand out from 99% of the blogs on PMC.

Hope you enjoyed, if you think I've missed anything out, let me know in the comments.

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