During my first few months of uni I have realised the I would be expected to write blog posts and begin to submit work in a way that is similar to the way people do in the design industry. During my first main post I would suggest 5 top lessons to take forward when attempting to write a blog post.
- Choose an application to write your draft before, not later: I would suggest that you really think about what application you are going to write your blog post on. I suppose some people would prefer to type it on a word processor for familiarity and spell checker functions , etc., but I found that when I copied and pasted it from Microsoft Word the formatting such as spacing and paragraphs were not as they appeared on Word. I decided to use the in built wordpress text editor to ensure what I type is what I see. Also, I noticed that the wordpress saves drafts to the server very frequently which is gives good piece of mind.
- Make a rough plan: I found that it was much easier to focus on who I was writing about if I wrote down key facts about them. This also makes it easier to link together common or conflicting facts which can make the post flow better and also be more interesting.
- Make use of the internet: In writing my blog post I found the internet to be an extremely valuable resource. I found sites like http://quotesondesign.com/ to be brilliant as they gave simple, effective quotes from designers and also gave the source. This saved hours of searching through books looking for good, snappy lines which I could expand on. Although, when using the internet it is important to remember to make it clear where you got the information from and who wrote it.
- Don’t focus too much on word limits: If your like me, you’ll always either write too little or far too much. The lesson I have learned is to relax. Perhaps check every once in a while but if you write in a natural way, it should be clear if you are using too many words or waffling on. At first I was checking very frequently. This slowed down my productivity because I was focusing on every single word and it was constantly in my head, instead of the main topic. I suggest writing naturally but concisely to avoid any word limit problems at the end of the post.
- Don’t use deadlines as an excuse to put off work: Unfortunately, I have always struggled with this lesson. If I am given a deadline far in advance I feel happy that it is in the far future but do very little about actually undertaking the task. I would suggest making your own deadline a week or a few days behind the original just in case of any issues that may occur. You don’t want to be rushing to hand in work as this causes stress and will inevitably effect the work produced. Perhaps start the first paragraphs when you are given the work. In my experience I am more likely to work weeks in advance if I have already started doing the work, then continue piece by piece.