What level?
Depending on the topic, from lower-intermediate to upper-intermediate.
You must define language that's higher-level than the desired reader.
How long?
A blog post should be able to be read in a few minutes.
It can be longer, but it must be engaging from start to finish. Each point raised must be clearly useful to the reader.
What topic?
Think about what English learners may be searching for on search engines.
Posts should be about learning English—tips on how to learn English, nuances of English, common mistakes and the like. Also, test preparation and anything useful in global business communication.
There are a lot of ongoing topics; here is an incomplete list:
- Common mistakes
- GBC sample answers, and GBC techniques
- Student writing
- Business concepts
- Interesting topics that came up in a lesson that you think other students would benefit from learning
Components of a blog post
Okay, let's get to it.
Here's how to write a good blog post,
1. Craft an attention-grabbing headline
It should be clickable and immediately understandable. Here are a few good examples:
- One simple pattern for jokes and metaphors
- The musical secret of intonation
- "Okay" and "It's okay" are opposite
Here are a few weak headlines. They would make sense to the writer but not the reader, or they are too broad or burdensome:
- Use "so" and "that" together
- You should improve your intonation
- How to use the terms "Okay" and "It's okay"
2. Find a professional picture
Use a picture in the creative commons. It should be bright and look professional.
Do not use watermarked pictures from paid sites. Do not use vectors or illustrations.
A few good sites for free images include:
- Pixabay—don't use images from the "Sponsored Images" at the top; set the Images filter to "Photos" and the Orientation filter to "Horizontal".
- Unsplash—all images are free to use; change "Any orientation" to "Landscape".
- Freepik—set Filters to "Photos", "Free", and "Orientation: Horizontal". You can also filter by whether or not to "Include people" in the image. The other filters aren't necessary.
- Flickr—change "Any license" to either "All creative commons" or "Commercial & mods allowed", and in the Advanced filters, deselect all but the "Landscape mode" rectangle and "Photos".
You can also do a search on Google Images (which will turn up some images from the other sites, too). Enter your search term, then on the results page under the Tools menu, set it to "Creative Commons licenses".
3. Write a clear, strong hook.
The first sentence or paragraph needs to grab the reader and immediately explain why the following information is important. It should be positive, specific and straight to the point. Here’s a good example:
Intonation is sometimes described as the music of language. Without it, our voices are flat and lifeless. But with it, even simple language can be funny, memorable or moving.
Here’s a bad example. Notice it starts negatively and off-topic.
Learning English is difficult and it takes a lot of time, but if you start thinking more about grammar and use this pattern, you will probably improve relatively quickly.
4. Use active sentences
Our blog is a place for strong, to-the-point writing. It must successfully compete with every distraction on the Internet. Each word needs to fight for the reader’s attention.
Here is an example in our blogs. This is good:
Make your English more effective by using emphatic phrases. It's easy. It makes your ideas sound stronger. It also impresses speaking test assessors.
This is not so good:
Among the many ways to improve the effectiveness of your English, surely one of the best is to use phrases which are strong and emphatic. Apart from making your ideas and opinions stronger, they are also quite likely to make the GBC interviewers impressed with your range of expressions and your general enthusiasm.
5. Avoid repetition
Be vigilant. Don’t do it unless it’s purposeful.
6. Use powerful verbs
Avoid “try to”, “may” and the like. Use certain verbs.
Strong example:
If you study hard, over time your G.B.C. score will improve.
Weak example:
Try to study as often as you can. You may see an improvement in your G.B.C. score in the future.
7. Make your paragraphs as short as possible
Use one thought per paragraph.
Each blog post should be laser-focused on a digestible idea, and each paragraph is one step towards that.
8. Break up your formatting
See the Style: Formatting and usage rules for more information on how to add titles, pull quotes and more. The blog post should look visually interesting without being cluttered.
9. Use the most logical flow of information
When you are deep into writing, you lose sight of the forest for the trees. Stand back, get a sense of the direction of the post and discuss the best order of information with your editor.
Rest assured, this happens to everyone. This step is best done collaboratively.
10. Collaborate with your editor
Writing at The English Farm is not a solo mission. Check with your editor at each step to make sure you are heading in the right direction.