subject: How to Write Marketing Articles Using Great Sentences [print this page] How to Write Marketing Articles Using Great Sentences
How to write marketing articles using great sentences?
"The difference between the almost right word and the right word... is the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning." -Mark Twain
This short article is going to examine the construction of great arresting sentences - the one that stands out, the one that manages to gather together ideas, stereotypes and prejudices to shine a light on them and reveal an underlying, often unsaid, truth.
For the internet marketer, an interesting well written article will get you noticed and create interest. This will take a little extra time and effort but it will produce an article in which you can show your worth and knowledge and let your individuality shine through. Of course, there is a more automated way - you can cut and paste an article and wring it through a spinner - this basically acts like a Thesaurus enabling you to change words within the text. The end result will be an article that search engines will see as 'different' from the original article. This is, for most people, a quicker way but it will never hit the mark, as far as quality is concerned, in the way that a piece of well written original content will.
God is in the details. The detail in an article is conveyed by the sentence. What's the trick to writing a great sentence? There are a few, here's an important one:
- Reversal. A reversal stops the reader in their tracks as the brain is jolted by the unexpected.
Look at part of a sentence from Mark Twain: "I have never let my schooling interfere with....." OK, fairly ordinary so far. What do we expect next? - my self esteem? my confidence? my job prospects?
What did Mark Twain write:
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education"
This is a great example of a reversal, the reader has to stop a moment - how can schooling interfere with education? It seems a paradox, until we understand that Mark Twain is pointing us towards the idea that there are different forms of education - the one we get in school and the one we get from our life experiences. I've just written 40 words to explain something he punched through and packaged up in 10.
Another great trick is juxtaposition. It's a balancing trick. It is often found in two clauses delivering an unexpected twist, embellishing and reversing the first idea. Check out these two examples:
"Money's a horrid thing to follow, but a charming thing to meet." (Henry James)
"Americans are so charming, that we really must not mind their money." ( Florence L Barclay)
Henry James balances or juxtaposes (juxtapose and juxtaposition are such great words!) 'horrid thing' and 'charming thing'. Florence L Barclay balances, more abstractly, 'charming' and 'must not mind', again there is a juxtaposition or reversal between being charmed by something and the advice not to mind something i.e something we don't find charming.
Look at Edgar A Shoaff going to town with balancing opposites:
"Advertising is the art of making whole lies out of half truths."
Lies versus truths and whole versus half really stops the reader in their tracks and will make them read over the sentence again and think about its meaning.
Similes are a great way to bring home your point. Again there's often juxtaposition. Here's Raymond Chandler:
"He looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel cake."
Angel cake and tarantula is a fabulous piece of juxtaposition. It's difficult to think of two things quite so different and its impact is really powerful. Here's some more great sentences that use similes or comparisons:
"Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark." Stuart Henderson Britt
"A man who stops advertising to save money is like a man who stops a clock to save time." Henry Ford
So now the trick is to see if you can use these ideas and structures to invent your own within the subject you are writing about.
Writing articles without proofreading is like putting on your pants without checking the fly.
Writing an article without knowing your subject is like driving to Timbuktu without a map.
A marketer who stops networking is like a taxi driver who stops driving to save gas.
This is powerful stuff. Think about and experiment with the ways you may be able to substitute your ideas into the basic structure of a great quote. Study great quotes and see if you can emulate their structure for your own purposes.
Here's to you writing great articles with that extra spark, making people interested in you as a quality marketer.
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