Writing is an art but with so many people writing there are some points that you should know to gain and keep those readers.

Be clear about your idea

You must be able to explain your story verbally in few minutes. If you take more time than what is required then it means that you are still unclear about the idea. You must have a clear vision so as to make an impression upon the readers. Exception, is of course breaking news articles. There are several mind mapping softwares to help you.

Map it out

Your article shouldn’t be an anti-climax unless you want it to be. Make a draft and chalk out what points should come in which order. You shouldn’t be giving out the main essence of your story at the beginning and then stuffing the rest of the article with just relevant words. If your article has supporting pictures and videos then it becomes very important that you arrange them in proper order and also explain them to keep your readers interested.

Get the basics down first

Make sure you have all the correct and relevant information at hand. If you are writing a review about a restaurant, make sure that you have their correct phone number, address and other such information. When you blog about an event make sure you verify the facts. Even big news and blog site have fallen prey to hoaxes. If you make a mistake, point it out immediately in that article itself on the top. Editing you article even after it is published helps a lot.

Make it relevant so readers connect

Give relevant details. If you have lot of international readers don’t give examples or use puns or humours that they won’t understand.

Keep it simple

Your language should be simple unless you are writing for English majors. Most people like to receive information quickly without much effort. It is more prominent online. Use words that your readers would be accustomed to in your niche. egs. Terms used in Finance would be different from Fashion. The English that you used  should be search that your reader would not have to Google it to know its meaning.

Keep the pace

It is important for long articles. Be to the point throughout. Don’t spread out good points and stuff words and paragraphs in between to make your article long. People might just close the tab or click and leave your site.

Technology has been a boon, especially in the field of communication. We can speak to many without much effort. Want to tell your friend what you are doing or what you are feeling, just tweet or do a status update in Facebook and all your friends will come to know about it in a jiffy. We also use the old fashioned text message. However, due to the constraint of space we have learnt to use slang words and poorly formed sentences. This has resulted in deterioration of our language skills.

We are not able to spell, use correct words at correct time and frame correct sentences.What’s more your handwriting might have taken a beating.  The problem is severe if you are a programmer and spend most of the time in front of a computer.

Well there are several solutions to this problem. The first and the most important one is to write whenever possible. Read physical books whenever possible. Computers have replaced both these things, but the real way of reading and writing does improve your language skills. Read newspapers as they have editorial columns,etc. which are good source to improve your language. You might argue that the same paper is available online, but internet is mostly and automatically used by many to get information quickly but not to improve any language skills because it is the way most of us are ingrained.

When you write a blog or an important email, physically write it first and then type it. Use a physical thesaurus and a dictionary. It is because, as old people say, you might learn new words in an attempt to find one word as well as remember those words for later use.

If you have to type turn off the auto-spell check and then type. Check all the spellings and grammar yourself and then hit the spell-check button to verify.

There are many sites like reddit and slashdot where you can go and read good comments. These sites user are particular about the English and will not tolerate slang language. Users of Reddit write witty comments which are entertaining to read while improving your command over language.

Write proper sentences and words in forums. This is not possible in IRC,etc. But, try to write completely wherever possible.

The last thing is don’t google for a word. Use thesaurus or a dictionary to find that word. This is an interesting article about how Google is ruining our intelligence.

Give English exams that are available online, most of them are free. Play word based games. This will help you have command over the ‘Queen’s Language’.

One of my teacher had once said “Technology can be used only to learn technology based things. It can’t substitute the way we learn the real things”. Partly true.