Title: An Article Writing Philosophy Word Count: 575

Do You Have One

Summary: Do you have a well thought out reason for writing articles? That is most likely your article writing philosophy, but in case you don t have one, let me make a few suggestions for developing one. Keywords: articles,writing,motivation,inspiration,politics,op-eds,inspirational,political writing,writing tips Article Body: Thousands of articles about writing articles are bouncing all over the internet and the printed media at any given time. Most of these articles are tips and adv ice, a few are about grammar and clarity and yet others are about subject matter and how to find it. A philosophy for writing articles is none of the above. Simply put an article writing philosophy is not about how you write but why. Alt hough it is acceptable to write articles for publicity or hits to your website i t is not the strongest motive. Then there are those who write by researching the most sought after keywords on the net and write articles that lead people to th ose words, thus to their sites. This also qualifies as a reason to write but onl y in the most strained sense of the word. Writers are somewhat like preachers, they have a soap box called the printed pag e and they have a message just like the minister, even if the subject matter is not homiletically inclined. As a young preacher I overheard someone say that youn g preachers just have to say something, but older preachers may actually have so mething to say. The first step in developing a writing philosophy is to ask your self this question do I have something to say? Professional people can quickly answer yes to the question of whether they have something to say. Years of study, training and experience put them ahead of othe rs and all they may lack is just a bit of priming to know how to convey their kn owledge by the written word. For those who are not professionals the next questi on should be how do you see. Some people are naturally endowed with a good eye. T hey don t need to be politicians to have a good grasp of politics. They can predic t, criticize, evaluate and comment on the whole sphere with great clarity and in some cases may affect the outcome of politics in some way. They weigh in so to speak on the subject. In case you think that isn t so check out the vast opportuni ties for op-eds (opinion editorials) on the internet today. Thousands of politic al right and left wing sites are looking for people with good political vision. In this of the people society John Q Public is still sought for his view of politi cal figures and things done in the political theatre. Having a good minds eye applies to any field of interest whatsoever. Technicians p ut together complex electronic and telemetering devices in spacecraft but some p eople are weighing the result of all that space hardware on people, the environm ent or the future of man and their insight may be just as needed as the tiniest circuit board any techie can produce. The motivation for writing an article may only be to provide information; at oth er times it may be to provide inspiration. Even anger could qualify as a good mo tive if you are particularly incensed over some injustice or bad behavior. It ma

y sound all to rudimentary or perhaps old fashioned to say that if you are seeki ng a higher good to be done through your writing then you will always succeed. S ound corny? Think again. No one will ever reject an article that attempts to rig ht a wrong, lift people up or provide a little light and comfort in a troubled w orld. If that is your motive then that is your philosophy. Good writing.