When you write an article on Steemit, have you ever stopped and thought: “What is the mission of my article?”
Every article should have a mission or purpose behind it.
Most writers simply come up with an idea and start tapping on the keyboard. However, identifying the article's mission before you start writing will give you a clear direction towards the end goal. This will result in articles that have punch.
Article missions can be broken down into four main types: The informative article, the entertaining article, the persuasive article, and the inspirational article.
To write effective articles, you should decide which one these missions you want to fulfill first - then execute.
The Informative Article
An informative article aims to teach, provide information, or give “how to” instructions.
Once you have decided that the mission of your article is to inform, then you are in a better position to flesh out the piece.
If we are informing people, we know the article should be light on entertainment and heavy on facts.
Our audience is trying to absorb information or learn a new skill. Giving them long anecdotal stories or inspirational monologues isn't in their best interest.
Informative articles should be catered to the reader's specific needs. Are we trying to inform people who have no prior knowledge of the subject, or people who are already well versed on the subject but want deeper information? Answering these questions will help us with selecting the tone and vocabulary of the article.
If you haven't already noticed, the mission of the article you are reading is to inform you of the four main article types you should be writing to be successful on Steemit (let me know in the comments if I achieved my mission).
The Entertaining Article
Here our mission is to entertain the reader. Unlike informative articles, we are not going to bore the reader with a series of statistics or step by step instructions. Rather, we are going to tell stories, jokes, or include games that require reader participation.
The mission of the entertaining article is to take the reader's mind away from the monotony of normal life for just a moment. It's not work, it's not professional, so the tone and language of the article should reflect this.
Humour is the obvious route to take when writing to entertain. However, the entertaining article doesn't always require jokes.
An entertaining article could be a horror story about how you got lost traveling through India or that time you got kidnapped by pirates. Entertaining doesn't always mean the reader has to laugh.
The Persuasive Article
With the persuasive article, we have a difficult mission. Unlike informative and entraining articles, the persuasive article requires us to do something completely different: Change the reader's mind.
When we write persuasive articles, we do so on the understanding that the reader has a different idea in their head than we do. Therefore, the structure and tact of the article are going to be different.
Persuasive articles will need to include the reader's preconceived notions and explain why your ideas are better. To achieve this, we need to be more delicate with our choice of words and how we structure our arguments.
Most persuasive articles will be political in nature, but can also be sales pitches. Trying to convince someone to buy a product or service is an act of persuasion.
The Inspirational Article
It's here we find the holy grail of blogging. Anyone who can master the art of writing inspirational articles is almost guaranteed to become a big success.
The mission of the inspirational article is to motivate the reader to make deep changes in their lives and ways of thinking.
This is much more powerful than persuading. Inspiring doesn't just involve changing someone's opinion on a matter or convincing them to buy something. Inspiring is about making people want to improve their lives, have better values, and be better human beings.
Unlike the other three article missions, the inspirational article is going to be loaded with emotions. These emotions could be happy or sad, but they always there.
Inspirational articles will often include stories of people overcoming hardships and obstacles. After reading the article, the reader should be overcome with a desire to change their lives, be nicer to people, and overcome the challenges they face in their own lives.
Overlapping Missions
Naturally, when you write an article there is going to be some overlap with the four article types.
For example, an informative article can include humor, a persuasive article can include stories, and an entertaining article can include statistics.
However, the overarching mission of the article is always there. In fact, I challenge you to look at your own articles and try to find one that doesn't fit into one of the four mentioned categories. They always do.
Conclusion
Deciding which one of these four missions you wish to accomplish when writing an article will help you stay on track, hold the reader's attention, and ultimately write better articles.
Next time you begin to write an article, stop on think what your mission is.
Do you want to inform, entertain, persuade, or inspire?