Is Your Article Honey or A Skunk?

Anybody can write a sentence.  Okay, maybe not anybody, but let's assume that 99.8% of Biznikkers can write a sentence.   That sentence will have a subject and a verb, and possibly an object.  Sticking a period on the end of it might feel so good that another sentence comes tumbling out, and before you know it, a full-blown article lies beaming up at you from the page (or screen, or cocktail napkin).  

"Great!" you exclaim.  "I've been meaning to author an article for Biznik," and with a mere few clicks your brilliance gets immortalized on your profile page.   Then you sit back and wait for the congratulatory emails and business propositions to pour in.

Well, sometimes they don't.  In fact, the silence can be deafening.  "Is my article even visible?" you may wonder.  "Is there a ghost in the machine, jinxing it, eating my accolades as they arrive, before I see them?"  

This is a woeful reality for many earnest and well-meaning sentence writers.  With so much written material out there in the world, it's simply not good enough anymore to write complete sentences and put a string of them "out there" with the expectation that it will be read.  Sorry to break it to you, but to be effective you must hit numerous other marks.  Here are a few of them:

--Your sentences need to be either grammatically perfect OR so interesting that you will be forgiven the indiscretion of improper grammar.  Kooky grammar is sometimes acceptable if the errors are A.) scarce, and B.) not errors-- meaning that you've deployed them deliberately for artistic or dramatic effect.  Careless or unwitting errors are likely to prompt the reader to stop reading.  Unless your name is e.e. cummings, don't get too kooky.  

--Your sentences need to support a coherent thesis or argument.  Why are you writing this article?  What is your point?  Does every element of the article support that point?  Why is it important?  What do you want the reader to DO with the information?  If you go off on tangents then the reader is likely to go off on his own tangents, leaving you and the article in the dust.

--Your sentences and paragraphs need powerful transitions to escort readers from one idea to the next.  The transitions are not only "binding clips" for ideas, but also stones in the river, or launch and landing pads where the reader can pause to fully absorb the previous assertion while crouching to spring toward the next one.  

--Your article needs a consistent voice.  If it starts off sounding like a parson's sermon on kindness, then takes a hairpin curve into bitter complaint, and finally closes on a note of raunchy humor, certain judgments may be made about the author's mental state.  Pick a voice and stick with it-- then get a friend or an editor to read through and tell you if you succeeded.

--Be as precise as possible in your word choices.  Common colloquialisms like "...and all that good stuff" can look dumb on the page.  Is there a word you feel 85% sure you could define if you had to?  If so, look it up before you use it in your article.  There is no shame in this.  Professional writers look up words all the time, because we know how high the stakes are if we get it wrong.  A reader's respect is virtually impossible to recover if you lose it on a reckless mistake.

Does all this sound like more than you had bargained for when you wrote your first article?  I sympathize (and commiserate every time I put finger to keyboard), but language is a sharp tool and we can cut ourselves on it unless we wield it responsibly.  If written expression isn't one of your core competencies, then it might be worth hiring a writer or editor to help you.  A good wordsmith for hire can save you time, money, anguish... and quite possibly professional face.