Writers and readers have an unseen contract. When the reader is lead in by title or teaser, they are expecting this contract to be fulfilled. In order to stay throughout the entire piece and be encouraged to read other pieces and perhaps even subscribe — woohoo! — the writer must answer five basic questions. These questions can be answered short form or long form, but they must be answered for the contract to be fulfilled.

This morning in IRC a few friends were talking about writers and readers and I listed the questions: what/who, where, when, why and how? Upon further reflection, I decided these questions were worth expanding upon and sharing here.

Five important questions every article or post should answer
Before publishing, reread your post and ask if it answers the following questions. If these questions aren’t answered, then edit before publishing or you risk letting your readers down.

1. What / Who. The title leads us to the first paragraph. You have about five seconds to suck readers past the first paragraph so don’t make these boring or too long. Make sure ‘what’ and/or ‘who’ you are talking about is clear in the first couple sentences. There are techniques to tease beyond the first paragraph, but most readers won’t go that far, either skipping ahead to bolded headings (do use those to break up ideas or points) or moving onto another writer. Also, many aggregators will grab the title and first few sentences with elipses (…), thus it’s vital to put the ‘what’ in the title and first few sentences so readers who are interested in the subject matter will continue. Starting with a picture or download link can also be very effective because it visually (or audio) provides the content.

Bad example
Well, I hope that you overlook the fact that I’m a bit late getting this one out, but due to a few unforeseen circumstances I had no choice. But instead of just dropping this, I really wanted to get this one posted for a few reasons that I hope you will see as you read this post. Enjoy!

This post comes from fellow VTOR Author jvastine and is an otherwise pretty strong post, but starts weak. Weave writer excuses that have nothing to do with the subject matter toward the end or make the excuse only one brief sentence at the beginning. Most readers don’t care about why you were delayed posting on a subject — or why you haven’t posted at all — when it has nothing to do with what the post is about. This writer’s second paragraph sings and the piece would have a much stronger beginning by using that instead, shown below.

Good example
Once again the Anshe Chung debacle fills the news and blogoshere with a myriad of articles. As expressed in my previous two posts: VR Legal Rights and VR Legal Rights Revisited, the regular readers of VTOR already know my feelings regarding this event, which are only being further strengthened as the truth continues to be exposed.

He identifies the what/who (Anshe Chung), links to prior thoughts on the subject (where/when and why), all in two sentences. He then goes on to answer the ‘how’ this happened (Anshe debacle) in the rest of the post. Job well done, reader satisfied.

2. Where. Linking is essential on the web. This isn’t print where writers can get away with a list of links at the end or bibliography page. If you quote anything, make sure to do the following: 1) attribute the soure (link, link, link) or 2) if number one isn’t possible, then explain where the quote was heard and why you couldn’t/wouldn’t/didn’t link to it. Whenever I see double quotes or blockquoted text and somebody saying something without a link, I’m interested in the context that surrounds it and wondering why the writer left the attribution out so I, as the reader, could follow along and see if the person being quoted was being quoted out of context. Leaving out the attribution can create writer distrust because we’ve all been quoted out of context at one point in our life or another.

Also, and this happened here yesterday to me. If you make a strong factual statement, make sure you reference (with link when possible) where the statement came from.

Bad example (my post)
This find is noteworthy because it might be the most ancient Semetic text ever discovered.

Yesterday, I made this statement ending a post on King Tut and Egyptians using ancient text to ward off poisonous snakes. It should have been linked or further clarified but wasn’t. To make matters worse, my attribution link was there, but broken (closing A tag was before the image instead of after). It is a strong statement that needs backup and generated a reader comment wondering where I got this from — and rightfully so. Thankfully Sterling was there to catch my fall.

Good example
Per Richard Steiner, professor of Semitic languages at Yeshiva University in New York, this find is noteworthy because it “might be the most ancient Semitic text ever discovered.”

3. When. Date and timestamps with timezone are vital for the reader to understand chronology. Posts must have date/timestamps somewhere not because that’s what makes them a blog, but because it helps readers understand when something was written. This can have a bearing on reader perception if they know a piece was written before an event happened versus after. Comprehension is improved by understanding the order of events, without dates and times not only of the post/article itself but of the events described in the article.

Even if the content is sorted by date it isn’t immediately apparent what was said when by who without a date and timestamp. It’s also important if updates are made after the post date to add the timestamps with timezone. Why is the timezone important? Because it’s a global audience and if readers don’t know what the timezone is they will have to try and dig around to figure out what timezone was used. Don’t make readers dig for basic information. Chronology is also needed by other bloggers who would like to know which blogger said what and when so that the order can be written about (and linked, hint, hint).

Bad example
There is a party coming soon.

Leaves reader wondering how soon? Where did you find out it was coming soon?

Good example
Not sure when, but the website (linked) says there is a party “coming soon.”

Reader understands where author found out that the party was coming soon and doesn’t have the information about how soon.

4. The author’s interpretation or newsworthy description of why. While this is #4 on the list, it’s probably the most important question for bloggers. Why do you think it’s important enough to share with readers? Why is it important to you? Why did you take time and write about this? Why do you feel the way you do about the subject? If it’s a newsworthy piece, the editorial isn’t expected however the why is still a question needing an answer. If there is no clear answer why something happened, then that needs to be explained in the piece.

With millions of other bloggers out there it’s important to be unique somehow. What you choose to write about is one way to be unique. If you just parrot out generic descriptions of popular news and current events in your niche, then you’ll be doomed to doing what too many other bloggers do and the readers will search for somebody more unique. Meatier subject matter. Somebody willing to insert some raw instinct into the piece. A writer willing to put their feelings and beliefs on the line and be open to criticism.

Don’t be vanilla. Don’t be predictable, unless you’re predictably detailed, informative and/or entertaining.

5. How. Of the five questions ‘how’ might not always be relevant and is intentionally left last, but it can provide background information on certain pieces how readers can get involved or how to do something. For example if you are writing about a project that needs volunteers, the ‘where’ question will be a link to the place volunteers would sign up, but the ‘how’ part could be a summary or detailed description of what is required of the volunteers before they head out to register. It could also be a link to a how-to page answering two questions at once.

How-to posts like this one naturally must have the ‘how’ component. Another example, with programming-related posts, share a snippet of source code and explain how it works. How to register for a site. How to obtain a beta invite. You get it.

Exceptions
There are exceptions to every rule. Linkblog posts don’t answer all of these questions and can’t. I’m not suggesting every post should be a certain length, but enough words should be used that answer these basic important questions in a full post or article. In a linkblog the only questions are ‘what’ and ‘where’ — not enough space to go further. Also there are podcasts and videoblogs which have slightly different concerns than text posts and articles.

I don’t want to get into the discussion of what does and doesn’t make a blog because that horse is beaten and dead, but it’s important as the writer wearing the trusty editor hat to ask: is this necessary? Being able to prune as much as the entire post is an important writing skill to learn and execute. Many newer writers need the most help in this department.

Yes, it sucks writing 1,000 words and never using any of them, but that’s something you need to learn if you’re going to be a successful writer long term. Don’t worry if you aren’t that good at it in the beginning because you’ll get better with time and experience. You’ll never improve if you don’t practice. As I’ve mentioned before, blogs provide a great format for writers to practice the craft.

Did this post let you down?
Alas, the payoff, the ending. Let’s analyze this post and see if I was successful. I’ll need your help since I’m the writer, not the reader, and thus you get the strongest vote.

Who/what in the first few sentences? Did I link out to anything I quoted (where)? Is there a date/timestamp on this post? Is the chronology of the events, if any, in this post clear? Is the order of the items discussed easy to comprehend and follow? Did I explain why this was important to me as a reader? Why I felt each of these five questions were important to answer? Did I tell those of you who are also writers how to answer these questions?

If you made it this far and I answered those questions, the job is done. Thank you for reading.

Did this post make you go hmm?

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