Constant Content

(This is a new topic split from another discussion - it contains valuable tips for writing for specific audiences.)

Speed *is* the enemy around here. Many authors choose quantity over quality. Sometimes the job requires such a choice. However, if it's an article written on spec, or one that has been sitting around on the old hard drive for 2 weeks, more emphasis should naturally be placed upon quality. (Please?!? )

I've read "Eats Shoots and Leaves." I enjoyed every page, and I was glad to see a book about punctuation get so much press.

Thanks for sharing your tips, Grouchy. Would you be willing to share any tips about speaking to a specific audience? I noticed you modified a couple of your articles to fit the CALLED request and think that they were successful.

Ed

Thanks for your comments, Ed. Sure, I have no end of tips for just about any topic except marriage and mathematics. Can you say more about what you're thinking?

Well, for example, you tweaked an article that was originally written for a general (sleep-deprived) audience, but you managed to make it speak on a more personal level to a specific sleep-deprived audience - female pastors. I think a real difficulty arises when the writer is not a member of the audience for whom they are writing. The writing can then sound insincere, stilted, or even patronizing. What would you suggest to other writers who want to write for a specific audience of which they do not belong?

You actually hit on it, Ed. I learn as much about the target audience as I can, and put myself in a member's place--I imagine that I am the intended reader. I read blogs and articles--in this case I just googled "female pastors"--and then try to profile a typical "customer." It takes more time, but I don't think I can do my best work if I can't be completely sincere. Phoniness is so obvious, and can come across as condescending, as you suggest. That said, it would take much more background work if I were tailoring an article to electrical engineers, for instance, but understanding tired and blue women is, um, kind of second nature to me.

This method works for me (OK, so nothing has sold yet, but it served me well in my past life) because of my accumulated (and mostly awful) life experiences and my love for research.

A little background research never hurt anybody's writing, that's for sure. While it may take more time, the end product is more genuine. It really does go back to amount of time spent or quality vs. quantity. Thanks for sharing . . . how much extra time do you think this cost you?

Anyone have any tips of their own or questions about writing to a specific audience? It's true that most articles written for CC will be geared towards a general, information-sking audience, but occassionally customers will want articles geared towards a certain reading population.

Ed

It requires at least an hour, but I tend to get involved and jump off on links that sound interesting and read things just out of curiosity so I could spend two hours or more, but it's fun for me. OK, I'm an oddball. And, luckily, I do have the time.

Grouchy, you're not so odd or else all of us who love to research are. I do the same thing. I start researching a topic for an article and find other subjects that are interesting and continue from link to link. It's a great way to come up with new article ideas and find resources. The internet has opened up a whole new world for those of us who like research - before that I found myself jumping around the encyclopedias. Talk about odd - I used to read encyclopedias for fun!

For research-loving writers, have you tried using Google Scholar? If you aren't affiliated with a university or at a library, it can bring you up against more dead ends than leads, but sometimes it provides links to some pretty juicy information that is accessible for anyone.

I've never heard of Google Scholar -- thanks for the tip!

OK, dsletten, you win. I read phonebooks. Haha. And you're right -- the Internet is nothing short of profound (although I did love going to the library for my "treasure hunts"). What we're able to do online continually amazes me.

As far as research on the Internet goes, I like to use the advanced search settings on Google. You can specify searches that deliver only .org or .gov websites which is a huge help when looking for credible info.

For example, if you're searching for credible info on diet pills, a general search will probably bring up hundreds or thousands of commerical sites hawking miracle weight loss products. By restricting the search to .org or .gov sites, you'll have sites that have more credibility right off the bat such as medical associations and foundations and government entities like the FDA.

But you already knew that.

Thanks for the tip on searching for sites, Celeste. Actually, I've never done my searches quite that way and I'd wade through the junk to find the good sites so this will help.

Celeste - Wow. This is huge. How do you narrow a search to specific kinds of web sites? What do you ask for and where do you ask for it? Thanks.

Just click the Advanced Search link -- So obvious, yet so easily overlooked!

You'll find a ton of options for finetuning your search.

Too bad it's not the other way around -- where search engines list credible info first and you have to dig for the commercial , um, stuff. *sigh*

Thanks for the tip, Celeste.

Most of the time when I am doing research for an article on a specific topic for here or elsewhere, I don't begin with the first page of a Google search. I go to page five or six and work forward from there. Sometimes I find unique information buried on those pages.

For an article I recently wrote about a ski area in the Midwest I found a sportswriter's blog that gave me his own personal slant on what the area had to offer. The blog was on page three or four of a Google search.