Top 10 type articles

[AlixB]

Hi, I'm new at Constant Content - pleased to be here. I've noticed that a lot of the requests are for 'Top 10' type articles, but I'm not sure how these should be set out, and can't check what other people do until I've had my first 5 articles accepted. (Just one accepted so far.)

If you were writing an article about, just as an example, 10 top ways to get exercise, after the introductory paragraph, would you for instance write

1. Go for a walk. Then continue with your paragraph...

or 1. Walking: This is a simple way to get exercise etc.

Or would you not include figures at all?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Abbamay]

Hi AlixB,

Sorry that no-one has seen your post yet! I hope you enjoy working here.

I do a lot of articles with subheadings all through, but if I do one with a number in the title such as "Five ways to increase the value of your home", then I would use numbers in the body of the article. The intro will let the reader know that five ways are going to be discussed, so after that I'd start a new paragraph. You could continue the paragraph on the same line as your subheading as you did, especially if you're only going to write a sentence or two. If you want a decent paragraph or several under each heading, try spacing it out as I've done below.

Hopefully you'll get a writer adding to this thread who is more of an expert on these things!

1. Declutter

As simple as it may sound, getting rid of unnecessary furniture and clearing off surfaces can make your home....

2. Update the main rooms

Potential buyers will be interested in the main living areas and the master bedroom....

Good luck anyway!

Abba May

[SJHillman]

I've always preferred to avoid subheaders on shorter articles. For list-based articles, I'll usually just put it in paragraph form like an essay and craft the first sentence of each paragraph to really emphasize what other writers would put as the subhead. This format works best in shorter articles that you can dedicate at least a full, well-rounded paragraph to each item. Once you get more than five or six items, the listed subheader format works better; it's also better if you only have a sentence or two to dedicate to each item. However, I would advise against combining them with a numbered paragraph format.

[AlixB]

Thanks very much for the replies and the welcome! From what you say, it looks as if what people do vary depending on how many points are being included and how long the paragraphs are, so I will bear that in mind.