Content marketing, blogging, and search engine optimization have been skyrocketing in popularity in recent years. That shouldn’t be a surprise as most business owners are clamouring in getting the attention of their intended audience. However, writing articles and blog posts isn’t as easy as most people think; you’re thinking of a good topic, weighing-in on your keywords, and gathering the right sources.
Most of the time, writers are employed by a company or will usually work alone. Based on statistics, there are over 53 million freelancers in the US alone, with a good chunk working in different writing niches. Sometimes, the world of freelancing can be a tough place to break into. You will need to learn much-needed programming skills and spreadsheet management, but you’ll need to be able to churn articles while meeting deadlines.
Whether it’s learning about how to change homeowners’ insurance with escrow, or simply writing an article for your client’s website, most freelancers will need to be a jack-of-all-trades to get things done.
But let’s get back to the world of writing: there are different writing styles, approaches, and skills that aspiring writers will need to learn to keep themselves in the business. But how do we exactly know which writing style will fit with a specific type of business? Well, it’s quite simple to discern. We’ll help to clear up any uncertainty that you might have on writing.
Writing Styles
To set your expectations, business writing, and writing blog posts are quite different from writing for a literary and academic group. There’s a wide variety of styles when it comes to writing articles and blogs, and most will entirely depend on the industry, niche, and topic that you’re going to write about.
Wondering what writing styles you should use for certain types of articles? That will help you in terms of ideation and writing:
- Instructional writing– This writing style will guide the reader through a step-by-step process in handling equipment and fixing issues. Usually, you’ll find these types of writing in articles geared towards construction, vehicle repairs, and software troubleshooting. Typically, this will have a general to professional tone.
- Informational writing – This is by far the most common style that you’ll see. Most articles are geared towards giving information through news reports, weather reports, and giving tips through articles. That could range from having a conversational and general tone. This type of writing can also be found in lifestyle magazines.
- Academic and professional writing – Normally, academic and professional writing is used in essays, thesis papers, and dissertations. But other than being used in the educational background, scientific findings and health articles will often use academic and professional writing styles.
- Business writing -Much like informational writing, business-oriented articles are geared towards giving readers information, hard numbers, and sometimes instructional solutions. The tone could range from general, to a more formal mode of language.
When in doubt, you can always read other articles on your client’s site. That will give you a good impression of how other writers have written their articles. Once you have a good understanding of their writing styles, you can make the necessary adjustments to yours.
How Do You Write in These Styles?
Now that you have a good idea of what type of tone you should be using for a particular niche, how do we write for our target audience?
Keep It Simple
First and foremost, you must keep your articles as simple as possible for easy reading. There will be instances that you will need to expound and delve more in-depth on the topic to get your point through, but most individuals searching for articles online are usually looking for answers to problems. While it’s good to place statistics and hard numbers on your piece, it’s still important not to lose track of the bottom line.
Keep Fluff at a Minimum
Most of the time, articles will need to be concise and are usually straight to the point. While it may seem that you have to get to a specific word count for your current workload, it’s still important to note that it should not compromise your work quality.
Keep on Learning
For most writers who are used to writing for a particular type of industry, your writing style can become second nature. If writing for a specific style can be hard to snap out of, you can re-wire your thoughts by reading books or articles that are not related to what you usually write about.
What you usually read will also affect your writing process. After all, to be a versatile and adaptive writer, you will need to be well-read.
Writers have been around for thousands of years and are among the oldest known professions in the market. Some individuals spend their entire life mastering the writing process to ensure that their works are finely-crafted works of art. Still, it’s crucial to take things day-by-day. Even though you might still be confused about what writing style you should use, the experience will always be the best teacher.
Mastering different writing styles is a two-way process; you’ll need to read and experience from other works to get a good idea of what you should be writing.
