Unlocking the Art of Blogging: A Step-by-Step Guide for UniSQ’s Trade-2-Teach Interns
Sourced from https://images.app.goo.gl/364W584HyFr2dVFT9
Welcome to the UniSQ Trade-2-Teach blogging guide. Blogging is more than just sharing your thoughts it’s also a great way to share your knowledge, what you’ve learned, and to connect with others in ITD. Whether you want to talk to fellow students, reach out to learners, or add to the field of ITD education, knowing how to blog well is a key part of your journey. This guide will help you learn how to make awesome blog posts, starting with coming up with ideas through to sharing your blog post with the world. Let’s get started!
Topic Outline
- Understanding Your Audience
- Choosing Your Topic
- Crafting a Captivating Title
- Structuring Your Blog Post
- Writing Engaging Content
- Editing and Polishing
- Course Keywords
- Summary and Further Reading
Understanding Your Audience
When you’re writing something, it’s like you’re talking to someone through your words so it’s important to know who you’re talking to. Understanding your audience is key to your success. Let’s break it down:
Who are they? Think about who will be reading your blog. What is their age and background, what do they like, and what are they interested in? Knowing this helps you choose the right words and ideas for them. Knowing your audience also helps match your writing style to the right reading level of your audience. See the following link for an explanation of reading levels: https://www.stylemanual.gov.au/accessible-and-inclusive-content/literacy-and-access
What do they need? Your readers are looking for something. Maybe they have a question or a problem and it’s your role to figure out what this is. It’s like being a detective looking for clues. Or maybe you found a problem that you have an answer for, and you would like to share your knowledge with your audience.
How can you help? Now that you know who your readers are and what they need, think about how your writing can help them. Your goal is to give them information or answers that they find useful. Keep in mind that the T2T ePortfolio is a tool for you to showcase your work and blogging is part of that record. Remember, writing a blog post is not just about what you want to say. It’s also about making sure your readers get what they need from what you write.
Choosing Your Topic
When you’re choosing a topic for a project or essay, it’s like deciding what to watch on TV. You want to read about something that grabs your attention and keeps you interested but how many times have you been caught by ‘clickbait’ and discovered that the content wasn’t what you were looking for? Here’s how to make a great choice:
Relevance: Think about what your classmates, your supervising teacher, or potential employer might find interesting. It’s like picking a movie that everyone wants to watch without the misleading ‘clickbait’. Your topic should be something that you and others can connect with and care about.
Passion: Choose a topic that you love or find super interesting. When you’re excited about your topic, your work will be more fun, and your excitement will show in your writing. It’s like talking about your favourite game or hobby; you can go on and on because you love it so much but don’t overdo it and make it boring for the reader.
Research: Before you settle on your topic, do a quick check online or in the UniSQ library to make sure there are enough facts and information available. It’s like checking the reviews of a game or a movie before you decide to spend your time on it. You want to make sure there’s enough material to work with. Beware of fake news and content on the web so always check the reliability of your sources.
By keeping these three things in mind; relevance, passion, and research, you’ll be able to choose a great topic that you’ll enjoy working on and that others will find interesting too.
Crafting a Captivating Title
When you write something, like an essay or a blog post, the first thing people see is the title. It’s super important because it can be the difference between someone deciding if they want to read your blog post or not. Here’s how to make a great title:
Clarity: Your title should be clear, describing exactly what’s inside your blog post. If your blog post is about saving the environment, your title should let readers know that’s the focus. Don’t make it a mystery or make it a difficult decision for them to read your blog post.
Curiosity: While being clear, try to make your title interesting and catchy. Use words that grab attention. For example, instead of “Ways to Save the Environment,” you could try “5 Surprising Ways You Can Save the Planet Today!” This makes people want to find out what those ways are. The biggest searches on YouTube are ‘How To’ videos so think about creating a few ‘How To’ blogs and see what response you get.
Keywords: Helping people find your blogs is important if you’re putting your work online, think about what words people might type into Google to find your topic. If you’re writing about saving the environment, words like “environment,” “save,” and “planet” are good to include in your title. This helps more people find your work.
Remember, a good title is like a good handshake – it makes a strong first impression.
Planning Your Blog Post
Organising your blog content, in advance helps you clarify your message and structure your writing more effectively. By planning you can streamline your thoughts and research saving time and avoiding confusion during the writing process.
Sourced from https://www.picserver.org/a/architect.html
Introduction: Let’s begin with an introduction. This is the part where you paint a picture, for your readers letting them know what’s coming up and why it’s important. Build up their interest. Make them intrigued enough to want to continue reading. Your aim is to highlight what they’ll gain or discover from diving into your blog post.
Body: In the body of your blog post, you will delve deeper into the subject matter dissecting it into segments. Use headings and subheadings to structure your content effectively. This approach enhances the readability of your blog post enabling readers to locate information quickly.
When creating sections write a few paragraphs. Use examples and visuals to explain ideas, for better reader comprehension. It’s best to keep your sentences concise around 15 words each and limit paragraphs, to four sentences. This approach makes your blog post more accessible and engaging for readers.
Conclusion: Finally, it’s important to end your blog post with a conclusion. Similar, to how you would write an essay summarize the key points discussed. The Conclusion serves as an opportunity to reiterate to your readers the significance of the content in your blog post. You can also motivate them to take action or initiate a conversation. Pose a question or next steps, this will keep them engaged, with your blog post even after they’ve finished reading it.
Remember, the key to a good blog post is making it interesting easy to read and simple to comprehend. By structuring your thoughts using this method you’ll be well on your way to crafting great content!
Writing engaging content is all about keeping your reader interested. Here’s how you can do it:
Be Conversational: Imagine you’re chatting with a friend. You wouldn’t use complicated words or long, boring sentences, right? Here is a tip, use easy words and keep your sentences short. This makes your writing fun and easy to read. Remember, you are not writing an academic essay in ‘third’ person, it’s you doing the talking.
Use Examples: When you explain something, show how it works in real life. For instance, if you’re talking about being organised, you could talk about how a planner helps you remember assignment deadlines. Or if you are writing about a process in the workshop use photos or videos and show examples to help people understand and relate to what you’re saying.
Include Bullet Points: Sometimes, you have a lot of information to share so instead of writing a big paragraph, use bullet points. This helps in a couple of ways:
- It makes your content look neat and easy to read.
- Readers can quickly find the information they’re interested in.
- Avoid bullet point clutter that can break the flow of your content.
Remember, your goal is to keep your readers engaged so write conversationally and in ‘first’ person instead of academically in ‘third’ person. Use examples, organise your content with bullet points, and write about subjects that people want to read and you want to write about.
Editing and Polishing Your Work
It’s crucial to refine and perfect your blog before sharing it with the world. This step enhances clarity and credibility. Taking the time to edit and polish your work can result in top-notch content that connects with your readers and brings you closer, to achieving your blogging goals.
When you finish writing, it’s important to make sure your work shines. Remember, taking the time to edit and polish the content makes your blog better. So, take your time with these steps. Here’s how:
Grammar and Spelling: Check your work for spelling and grammar mistakes. Use tools like Grammarly. They help find errors and suggest fixes but be careful it’s easy to fall into the AI writing trap.
Read Aloud: Read your work out loud or use the ‘Speak’ feature in Microsoft Word. This helps you hear if something sounds off. You will be surprised to hear how many ‘connecting’ words you have missed or repeated. You might also catch mistakes or awkward sentences.
Feedback: Ask others to read your work. Friends, classmates, or your supervising teachers can give you advice. They can spot things you might have missed or suggest a new angle on your content.
Blog Keywords
In the world of blogging, keywords play a key role. They are words or phrases that directly relate to your blog’s content and are frequently searched for on platforms such, as Google. Integrating these keywords into your blog can enhance your visibility, on search engines and simplify the process of connecting with your audience.
For this blog “Unlocking the Art of Blogging: A Step-by-Step Guide for UniSQ’s Trade-2-Teach Interns,” a comprehensive list of blog keywords could include the following:
Blogging, UniSQ Trade-2-Teach, Content Creation, Digital Marketing, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), Social Media Integration, Audience Engagement, Writing Techniques, Multimedia Content, Blog Monetization, WordPress/Content Management Systems, Analytics and Performance, Tracking, Ethical Blogging Practices, Personal Branding, Online Community Building.
How To Embed a YouTube Video To WordPress Blog Post
Summary and Recommendations for Further Reading
Great job on starting your blogging journey at UniSQ! To be a great blogger, remember, it’s important to know who you’re writing for and pick topics they’ll like and be interested in. Make sure your titles grab attention and your blog posts are easy to read but don’t overdo it with bullet points. Finally, write like you’re talking to a friend but keep it professional and always check your work before posting.
https://wordpress.com/go/content-blogging/how-to-write-a-good-blog-post/
https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-write-a-great-blog-post-structure-examples/
https://www.youtube.com/embed/KkKp56E6UVo?si=Zsgf6nhsw6LbOXZ7
