This article provides nine basic principles for effective content writing. To give you an opportunity to practice proofreading, we have left a few spelling, punctuation, or grammatical errors in the text. See if you can spot them! If you spot the errors correctly, you will be entitled to a 10% discount.

Before understanding the essentials of content writing, it is necessary to comprehend that the modern-day world has become more technologically advanced. Due to the enhanced need for technological advancement, the contemporary business world is shifting toward digital marketing. When marketing is being done employing electronic media and digital channels, it can be referred to as digital marketing.  When digital marketing is being taken under consideration, companies spread across various sectors develop exciting and engaging content posted or uploaded on multiple platforms on the Internet. The numerous venues where the contents are being uploaded may comprise the concerned company's official website or social media handles. Many organizations consider creating blogs, articles, scripts for videos, and podcasts to execute successful content writing for digital marketing campaigns.

Since the contents that are being written are predominantly being developed to create a sense of interest in the readers' minds, content writers are expected to take particular areas of concern before planning their write-ups. When it comes to content marketing, the concerned writer should have the mindset that their writing will be the most prominent decision-maker as far as the reader's perception is concerned. The writer is expected to be very selective with the style and approach of writing custom-made. Here in this article, the primary and essential elements to be taken under consideration while developing engaging content will be illustrated.

1. Well-organized structure is essential for content writing

The first thing that an effective and successful writer or a content developer should consider is the development of the outline. Suppose a strategy is not being made before starting with the write-up. In that case, the writer might become a ship without radar and haphazardly order his writing elements, making the readers lose interest.

Unless a write-up is adequately outlined, the writer cannot categorically rank the thoughts in an organized manner. If the ideas behind the write-up are not categorically ranked in the outline, the article's sole purpose might not be served, as all the things and points laid down in the respective item or the article might go over the head of the reader.  Furthermore, if an outline is being planned effectively, a well-organized structure is provided to the write-up. If a writer has effectively designed his or her write-up, they will touch on all the significant discussion points. Nowadays, various online software includes many templates that guide a writer to structure his or her article or manuscript.

For coherence between consecutive sentences, the authors should organize the manuscript into multiple subsections. The grouping can be done chronologically or thematically. The former is straightforward and refers to tracing the temporal evolution of the topic, whereas the latter entails identifying discernible patterns among different research works and categorizing them into multiple subclasses. It shall be noted that such patterns may not be exactly specified in the existing research works, and the authors may need to detect them and provide a cogent explanation for such classification. Another interesting feature to highlight in this section could be inconsistencies in different theories.

3. Probe similar works for a well-structured content 

The foremost tip for any prospective author would deeply peruse the literature in other research papers in the concerned field and obtain a fair idea for their content writing. It should be clearly borne in mind that this step is to be followed only to get the hang of the outline of the literature review and not to replicate or simply rephrase any other related work.

3. Grab the attention of the potential readers

The second most pertinent factor that influences a particular write-up is the writer's power and ability to develop content that will grab the potential readers' attention.  Another essential feature of compelling content is the formatting and layout of the manuscript. For instance, while developing engaging content, a sound content developer should keep their paragraphs short. The writing should be precise and stick to the context. The writer's highest precision is to add relevant images and charts associated with the concerned content to create compelling and impactful content. When a particular topic is being searched on the Internet by a user, the content entailing the particular case comes as the first search result on the Google search engine web page.

Writers who are proficient in search engine optimization functions are believed to be more effective content developers as they know which keywords are supposed to be used to get the content ranked in the first place. Content must not be only entertaining but must be more informative as well so that the readers find something new to know about. If content available on the Internet happens to be an informative one, it will come to be a useful one too. Often, it has been seen that students pursuing higher degrees often go through content available on the Internet to research something and create a hypothesis of an exposition. Useful content is hypothetical to be written in a step-to-step manner and is supposed to carry good examples to justify the write-up points.

4. Providing up-to-date information makes your content writing more effective

Content is supposed to be based on the information that is up to date. If revised data are not being considered to develop compelling content, then the content might be vague. The information that is being taken under consideration to prepare content is presumed to be validated and trustworthy. The content writer is expected to do useful homework and use the correct grammar while developing his write-up. To execute a grammar-wise accurate write-up, the writer should consider the best tone and the voice. An excellent eye-catching headline or title is required to be provided by the content developer to attract prospective readers. According to Time magazine, a stunning 55% spent fewer than 15 seconds actively on a page. That means a reader usually spends approximately 15 seconds searching which content the user is supposed to go through. The writers are recommended to include a beautiful opening and preparatory statement.

5. Do not ignore the importance of the basic English language rules

Needless to say, basic English grammar rules have an important effect on content writing. Without grammar rules, you can sometimes make yourself understood with short and simple expressions. However, you may fail most of the time with more complicated expressions requiring the correct orders or structures of words. Imagine a text written without the necessary colons, periods, or commas. It would be difficult to read. In academic writing, an author can be easily misunderstood if they use vague sentences. One of the main purposes of punctuation marks is to disambiguate sentences. For instance, the mere omission of a comma in a sentence can lead to an interpretation different from the writer’s intended meaning. That is why an editor or proofreader carefully looks out for punctuation errors when editing or proofreading manuscripts, respectively. Because of similarities in the appearance and apparent functions of punctuation marks in English, many students tend to use some of them interchangeably. For example, the differences in the use of a hyphen (-), an en-dash (–), and an em-dash (—). Spellings that lead to grammatical misunderstanding are one of the important aspects of academic work and that most college students overlook. For example, the use of “their” and “there”, “heir” and “here”, “weir” and “where”, “by” and “buy”. Thus, an academic assignment must be free of grammatically wrongly spelled words.

Capitalization rules in English are also important for effective content writing. Although the English capitalization rules seem simple at first glance, it might still be complicated in academic content writing. You probably know you should capitalize proper nouns and the first word of every sentence. However, in some cases, capitalization is required for the first word in a quotation and the first word after a colon. Click here for 15 basic capitalization rules for English grammar.

6. Make sure you are using the proper referencing guide 

Apart from the areas mentioned in the article so far, one of the most critical aspects of persuasive content writing happens to be an influential citation. One of the most common mistakes that many researchers or content writers make is that of not consulting enough academic references and of improper use of citation. Yes, inadequate academic referencing and use of improper citation will spoil your work. Obviously, you do not want to destroy your project or produce academic papers of substandard quality. So, we would strongly advise you to learn how to use citations properly when writing academic or research papers. 

Academic referencing acknowledges the sources used by the authors mentioned in your paper. It requires the connection of citations to the list of works cited in a manuscript and gives credit to the sources of information used in your paper. Citing a reference acknowledges the work to which you, the author, have referred and allows your readers to find the work cited. Citing each source that you use in your academic writing has certain implications: Academic referencing helps demonstrate that you are not the first person who started the referenced subject. Furthermore, it enables you to show that you used the ideas of another author (or other authors) to create a new one. Therefore, readers could track those references to obtain more ideas about a particular point an author has made.

7. Ensure your document is properly formatted

The way that your manuscript should be formatted depends on the essay’s kind you are writing. Be sure to check with your publication guide about the formatting requirements for your manuscript. Moreover, make sure you are proofread and go through the process of continually editing your essay. By making sure that your papers have coherent introductions, a well-structured body, and conclusion, as well as always answering the research question, you’ll be well on your way to content writing.

It is true that research can make your writing more engaging, but it does not mean that you should ignore the importance of formatting. Yes, if you are going to write academic papers, you should keep academic formatting in mind. Many researchers fail to use a proper format while writing their papers. In the end, they create something that does not look authentic. So, if you want to give credibility to your work, you need to format it properly. Adopting standard formatting for your college assignments or essays indicates that you comprehend the requirements of the college or journal, and this therefore helps to improve your own credibility. (To see how to format academic documents in Microsoft Word 2020, click here. The article gives you the fundamental rules for formatting your academic papers as described in most guidelines, such as the MLA and APA styles).

Our editing services will format your documents for journal submission. Where the manuscript is one intended for publication in a journal, the primary aim of formatting is to ensure that your manuscript text is consistent with your journal guidelines. This includes layout, font selection, spacing, formatting of headings, in-text citations and references, title page check, a check to ensure the appropriate placement of tables and figures as well as the inclusion of all required sections.

Whether your document is a dissertation, a master’s thesis, a term paper, or a business document, to make it shine, we mostly advise our clients to opt for editing services instead of proofreading services.

8. Abstain from plagiarism for effective content writing

It is of paramount importance for the authors to ensure that they have not failed to cite the original source of any information, advertently or inadvertently. It could appear tempting, at times, to share some interesting data or statistics as one’s own, possibly by paraphrasing the original text. However, this will be considered blatant plagiarism and the research paper may potentially be desk rejected or never sent for peer review.

Plagiarism is considered a serious offense in academic studies. As discussed in the article titled What is Plagiarism | How to Avoid It?, the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) determines plagiarism as both the theft or misappropriation of intellectual property and the substantial unattributed textual copying of another's work. Given that the consequences of plagiarism, which may serve as a deterrent, range from mere caution to failure in a course. It is true that some students intentionally submit plagiarized assignments. However, there are those who commit the offense because of various misconceptions about it. 

Briefly, it is clear that trying as much as possible to avoid plagiarism is one unquestionable way to get good grades in academic assignments. Professors and academic advisors or supervisors watch out for plagiarism, and a slight copy and paste could be the end of getting good grades in your college assignment. (To see 5 practical ways to avoid plagiarism, click here).

9. Avail of professional editing and proofreading services to make your content writing shine

Whether you are going to write a college essay, term paper, or thesis, you should not forget to take advantage of help from a professional. Yes, you may need to retain the services of editing and proofreading professionals. It’s a fact that by availing editing and proofreading solutions, you can easily get your work done according to your specific requirements. So, if you are confused about how to write quality academic papers, you should look nowhere else but for professional English editing and proofreading services. Hence, a good content writer should have his/her manuscript edited or proofread before getting the final work published on any of the internet podiums. Having discussed the various elementary rudiments of content developing, are you looking for an expert to polish your otherwise excellent literature review language? Be sure to check out our professional editing and proofreading services!

Proofreading service aims to correct all errors in grammar, punctuation, syntax, and spelling in your paper. Editing service will improve the quality of your academic writing hence the content, the overall structure, the quality of findings and analysis, simplicity, and referencing. In other words, editing will mostly make some major changes to improve the standard of the academic writing of the document. This is especially important because an editing service will guarantee that the main purpose of the paper is met.

If you need help, then contact us!

Best Edit & Proof expert editors aim to provide your manuscripts with proper scholarly and academic tone and style. They will significantly improve the chances of having your research manuscript accepted for publishing. They provide subject-area proofreading and editing services in several fields categorized under various disciplines. With our extensive knowledge and expertise, we will help you find the right tone and style for your manuscript.

If you need our subject-area editors to format your manuscripts, giving you the fundamental rules for formatting your manuscripts as described in your guidelines, such as APA, MLA, or Chicago/Turabian styles, then contact us. At Best Edit & Proof, our proofreaders and editors edit every type of academic paper. We have a user-friendly website and a simplified ordering process. 

If you would like our subject-area editors and language experts to work on your project for the improvement of its academic tone and style, then please visit the order page. It is easy! It takes only a few minutes to submit your paper and complete the process. Click here to see how it works.

We have flat-rate pricing based on our type of service (editing or proofreading), word count, and turnaround time. Enter your word count or copy and paste your document into our pricing calculator to get an instant quote.

If you need support for academic editing and proofreading, contact us. You can also e-mail us or use the 24/7 live chat module to get direct support. Our doctorally qualified editors will polish and fine-tune your projects.

Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn,  Facebook, Instagram, and Medium.

For more posts, click here.