Lesson 61 Sentence Structure: Fill & Download for Free

What are the easiest languages to learn in the shortest amount of time for English speakers?According to a European Commission survey in 2012, 61 per cent of British respondents could not speak a second language. In a world that’s becoming more multicultural and globalized by the second, getting by with just English is simply not enough. If that alone doesn’t get your juices flowing, knowing a foreign language has shown to help you make more money by adding 5-15% increase to one’s wage, and helps expand your career opportunities.We’ve already written extensively about the most useful languages to learn, but what are the easiest languages to learn?Playing to your strengthsOne way to hack this process is to first understand that as English speakers, we have in our hands one of the most connected languages that exists. It’s linked to many European Germanic languages by descent or influence, and over 50 percent of English words stem from Latin or French.This probably doesn’t come as a big surprise to most, as the structure, alphabet, and makeup of the language is very similar to Spanish, Italian, French, and other languages from the latin root.Bestselling author and polyglot, Tim Ferriss, says that you should consider a new language like a new sport.There are certain physical prerequisites (height is an advantage in basketball), rules (a runner must touch the bases in baseball), and so on that determine if you can become proficient at all, and—if so—how long it will take.For example, it would a wiser choice and a higher likelihood of success if a professional waterpolo player decided to transition into playing handball. Similar structures, rules, and physical requirements.However, it wouldn’t be too wise if Kobe Bryant started to play professional ice hockey. It involves learning too many new rules, an entire new skill (skating), and the likelihood of success decreases significantly (or will take 10x longer).Language learning is no different.As a “professional” language learner, we need to first breakdown our strengths and our understanding of existing rules and structures. If you already speak English, the easiest languages to learn will be those with similar sounds and word structure. An example would be Spanish, with similar latin roots, instead of a completely different root like Mandarin.The Golden SentencesIf you want to determine which are the easiest languages to learn, you should aim to answer the following questions first.1. Are there new grammatical structures that will postpone fluency?2. Are there new sounds that will double or quadruple time to fluency? (particularly vowels)3. How similar is it to languages I already understand? What will help and what will interfere?4. All of which answer: How difficult will it be, and how long would it take to become fluent?An effective tool to answer all of these questions is called The Golden Sentences.It comprises eight sentences that expose much of the language, and quite a few deal breakers.The apple is red.It is John’s apple.I give John the apple.We give him the apple.He gives it to John.She gives it to him.I must give it to him.I want to give it to her.Here’s a directly translated version of these sentences in Spanish.There’s a couple of reasons why these sentences are helpful:It shows you how verbs are conjugated based on the speaker (gender and number)You can see a high-level view of the fundamental sentence structures, which helps you answer questions like: is it subject-verb-object (SVO) like English and Chinese (“I eat the apple”), is it subject-object-verb (SOV) like Japanese (“I the apple eat”), or something else?The first three sentences shows you if the language has a noun case that may become a pain in the butt for you. For example in German, “the” might be der, das, die, dem, den and more depending on whether “the apple” is an object, indirect object, possessed by someone else, etc.If possible, we recommend you check with a Rype coach or your own language teacher to fully understand the translation of these sentences and how transferable your existing languages are.As a rule of thumb: use The Golden Sentences as your guiding map, before you choose the vehicle (the method). It will help you achieve your goals in half the time.Top 7 Easiest languages to learnNow let’s dive into dissecting which are the easiest languages to learn for beginners.We profiled each of the languages we’ll mention into the following categories:Speaking: This is based on the ease with which learners are able to pick up this language.Grammar: Based as a criterion when ranking a given language as easy, moderately easy, or difficult to acquire.Writing: In many languages, learning to speak first and write later makes the journey easier. Other languages are equally easy to speak and write. This item spells out the easiest languages to write alongside the most difficult. As with speaking, easy, moderately easy, and difficult were used to qualify each language.We’ve decided to rank the order from easiest languages to learn to the hardest.1. SpanishSpeaking: Very EasyGrammar: Very EasyWriting: EasyOverall: Very EasyAs English speakers, we can be thankful that Spanish pronunciations are one of the easiest to learn.Overall, Spanish has a shallow orthographic depth – meaning that most words are written as pronounced. This means that reading and writing in Spanish is a straightforward task.With only ten vowel and diphthong sounds (English has 20), and no unfamiliar phonemes except for the fun-to-pronounce letter ñ. This makes learning how to speak Spanish the easiest out of the bunch, and may give you the best return on your time and investment, as 37 per cent of employers rated Spanish as a critical language to know for employment.2. ItalianSpeaking: EasyGrammar: EasyWriting: Moderately EasyOverall: EasyItalian is the most “romantic” of the romance languages. Luckily its latin-rooted vocabulary translates into many similar Italian/English cognates, such as foresta (forest), calendario (calendar), and ambizioso (ambitious).Like Spanish, many of the words in Italian are written as pronounced. Moreover, the Italian sentence structure is highly rhythmic, with most words ending in vowels. This adds a musicality to the spoken language which makes it fairly simple to understand, and a spunky language to use.3. FrenchSpeaking: ModerateGrammar: ModerateWriting: Moderately EasyOverall: ModerateWelcome to the International language of love. Despite how different French may appear at first, linguists estimate that French has influenced up to a third of the modern English language.This may also explain why French’s Latin derivations make much of the vocabulary familiar to English speakers (edifice, royal, village). There are also more verb forms (17, compared to the English 12) and gendered nouns (le crayon, la table).But it’s not all easy.Pronunciation in French is especially difficult, with vowel sounds and silent letters that you may not be used to in English.4. PortugueseSpeaking: ModerateGrammar: ModerateWriting: ModerateOverall: ModerateWith the Brazilian economy ranking 6th in the world, Portuguese has become a powerful language to learn. One great element of the language is that interrogatives are fairly easy, expressed by intonation alone (“You Like This?”) If you can say it in Portuguese, you can ask it. What’s more, in Brazilian Portuguese, there’s one catch all question tag form: não é.The main difficulty with the pronunciation is the nasal vowel sounds that require some practice.5. GermanSpeaking: DifficultGrammar: ModerateWriting: ModerateOverall: Moderately DifficultFor many English speakers, German is a difficult language to pick up. Its long words, four noun case endings, and rough pronunciation gives your tongue quite the workout each time you speak.German is recognized as a very descriptive language. A good example is how they use the noun by combining the object with the action on hand.Example: das Fernsehen – the television, combines the words fern, far, andsehen, watching, lit. far-watching.On the other hand, German can be a fun language to learn and the grammar’s considered to be quite logical, with many overlapping words in English. Just watch out for the exceptions to the rules!6. HindiSpeaking: ModerateGrammar: Moderately DifficultWriting: DifficultOverall: Moderately DifficultDespite first glance, there are many familiar words in English which are either Hindi or of Hindi origin. For example guru, jungle, karma, yoga, bungalow, cheetah, looting, thug and avatar. Vice versa, Hindi also uses lots of English words. They are read and pronounced as they are in English, but are written in Hindi. For example, डॉक्टर is pronounced doctor and स्टेशन is pronounced station.This shows that while learning the vocabulary and pronunciation of Hindi may not to be too difficulty, due to its similarity to English, writing Hindi is a different ball game.7. MandarinSpeaking: DifficultGrammar: DifficultWriting: Very DifficultOverall: Very DifficultLast, but not least: Mandarin. We mainly put this here to show you the contrasting difference between the easiest language to learn (Spanish) versus the hardest language to learn, for English speakers.While language learners won’t struggle as much on the grammar, mastering the tones can be very difficult. Mandarin is a tonal language, which means the pitch or intonation in which a sound is spoke affects its meaning. For example, tang with a high tone means soup, but tang with a rising tone means sugar.Learning Mandarin has its rewards though. The poetic script of the Chinese written character can give the learner a useful insight into the Chinese mind. But according to BBC, you’ll need to memorize over 2,000 characters to read a Chinese newspaper!What’s the Easiest Language to Learn?Winner: SpanishThe clear winner from the 7 easiest languages to learn is Spanish. Everything from writing, grammar, and speaking will come more naturally to the English speaker. Similar rules, structure, and latin roots.It’ll be like going from playing football to ultimate frisbee.If you are interested in learning Spanish, we can help you.We recommend starting with our:Complete Guide on How to Speak SpanishFree Masterclass on How to Learn Any Language in 3 MonthsTrying out 3 free one-on-one lessons with a dedicated Rype coach (our treat!)

This is a very important question and it’s no wonder why people don’t ask. Everyone is focused on securing ‘communicative skills’ score for study, work or visa purposes as it is demanded.A glance at the ‘Enabling score’ can tell your improvement areas and how can you pull up the ‘communicative skills’ scorecard. If you are not paying attention to your ‘Enabling Skills’ score, you are missing the scope of improvement in your English and hence your score.Let’s have a look at these scores of question requestor as she communicated to me:Reading: 61 | Listening: 63 | Writing : 65 | Speaking : 55Grammar:47 | Oral Fluency:61 | Pronunciation:39Spelling:69 | Vocabulary:49 | Written Discourse:47This person may have good English listening skills but poor spelling or vocabulary which results in incorrect words or grammar and hence PTE engine thinks that the person didn’t listen correctly.This person may be good in speaking English but not like a native English speaker and might be lacking intonation, correct pronunciation and spacing between words which is oral fluency and pronunciation and hence lacking marks in speaking section.A score of 65 in writing is definitely good considering the score of grammar, vocabulary and written discourse. A minor improvement in these 3 skills and boom in the score.Reading section is majorly about vocabulary and grammar (esp. collocations).I strongly suggest Ashish Jain (आशीष जैन)'s answer to What is the best way to prepare for PTE (Pearson Test in English)? to go through techniques for each PTE Academic section. One will definitely improve their scores once they know the right technique.While I can not provide you resources, I can refer some links, apps and tips which will help you uplift your Enabling skills and hence your communicative skills score.GrammarAndroid Apps:English Grammar Test - Android Apps on Google PlayEnglish Grammar Ultimate - Android Apps on Google PlayPractice English Grammar - Android Apps on Google PlayLearn English with ABA English - Android Apps on Google PlayEnglish Grammar Lessons - Android Apps on Google PlayEnglish Grammar Practice - Android Apps on Google PlayTips:Don’t write big sentences.Use prepositions and tenses carefully.Review what you have written.Oral FluencyOnline ArticlesYouTube VideosPlaylist to enhance ‘Oral Fluency’ in EnglishAndroid AppsSpeak English Fluently - Android Apps on Google PlayPronunciationOnline Articles7 Secret Pronunciation Rules Your Teachers Never Taught You (but You Should Teach Your ESL Students)HowToPronounce.com: Click, Hear & Learn Pronunciationhttp://english.glendale.cc.ca.us/phonics.rules.htmlhttps://blog.udemy.com/american-english-pronunciation-2/YouTube VideosAmerican English Pronunciation DictionaryFix these pronunciation mistakesCommon English Pronunciation MistakesImprove your English pronunciationAndroid AppsPronunciation - Android Apps on Google PlayQuick Pronunciation Tool FREE - Android Apps on Google PlayEnglish Pronunciation - Android Apps on Google PlaySpellingTips:Practice writing essays in MS word with spell-checker off. Turn on spell-checker later to check your improvement.These days spell-checke is everywhere and we give damn effort to correct as technology is ready to do it for us. Leave the comfort zone and turn off spell checker for sometime.Android AppsEnglish Spelling Rules Eiizii - Android Apps on Google PlayVocabularyAndroid AppsVocabulary Builder - Android Apps on Google PlayWritten DiscourseTips:Do not write too long sentences. Keep your sentences short and meaningful.It is the art of writing, so understand the use commas and semicolons, structure of essays (Intro, Body, Conclusion).Stay in correct limits. When it says, don’t write more than 70 words. Write between 40–50 words. When it says an essay up-to 300 words, write between 200–220 words.Use better words like elucidate instead of show.Learn about various verbs like shoes don’t sparkle; they either shine or gleam.Hope this helps. Good Luck !!

While it might seem tough to break beyond the 400 to 800-word posts, it can definitely be done with practice and persistence.For over 5 years, I’ve been writing and all along, I’ve tried to get faster at it. I know that you want to improve your speed and content quality, as well, because I get emails every week from readers and fans, all asking me to share my writing secrets.Google favors detailed content. According to SerpIQ, successful blog posts should contain a minimum of 2000 words, if you want it to rank in Google’s top 10 organic positions.The 4 strategies below will supercharge your writing and improve your SERP results.Learn how I generated an extra 395,526 visitors a month by writing 2000 word blog posts.Step #1: Flip Your ScriptMarie Forleo says that if you want to write faster, you’ve got to flip your script. Believe that you can do it and you will do it. You Are A Writer, says Jeff Goins.Reevaluate whatever’s stopping you from writing - those things are just a mirage. Deal with them. The reality is there is no perfect blog, readers will forgive simple errors in a blog post and you will still achieve positive search engine optimization results.How? Start writing.If you want to make a living as a digital marketer, then you’ve got to recognize that taking responsibility is the key. You can’t make excuses and money at the same time.No question, creating high-quality content takes time. But, if you can write a blog post from within, you can dramatically cut the time required to complete a 2000-word article.Marie says that if you want to change anything - including writing an article that will help others - ask yourself, “what story am I telling myself?” If your story is that you “can’t write,” you won’t write. It’s as simple as that.You’ll never become an expert if you keep making excuses. Let the benefits of consistent blogging inspire you to do more, if you want more leads and inbound links.Step #2: Get Your Facts ReadyProject managers perform several important tasks - chief among them is requirement gathering. Without assembling the required resources, the project will fail.So, according to Cisco’s Problem Solving Model, once you’ve defined the problem, the next step is to gather facts.One of the reasons why people struggle to write a 2000-word article is that they lack the facts to develop the new post.Writing isn’t all about typing - you’ve got to know what you’re writing about. For example, before I started writing this article, I first researched and collected lots of resources on how to write more easily and quickly.Your facts will form the outline that you’ll expand on later.It’s also important to update your resources for a great blog. If you write based on what was true six months or a year ago, your article may be wrong. This is especially for topics like SEO, PPC advertising and content marketing, things change fast and often.When you base your blog content around what worked in the past, you’re making assumptions that may no longer be true. Jodi Flynn, founder of Luma Coaching, defines assumptions as “beliefs that are based on the premise that because something happened in the past, it is automatically going to happen again.”Going the extra mile to get accurate facts for your content is critical. You can’t write an effective blog post if your points aren’t supportable by current, accurate facts. Assumptions can destroy your creativity, so gather your facts before you start writing that new post.Gathering facts for your subheadings, bullet points and outline builds your foundation for a solid article.However, you don’t have to be perfect at this “fact-gathering” stage. Your goal is to assemble enough factual support for your points, then move on. In the chart below, Marshal D. Carper highlights and measures the five stages of persuasive writing. Planning is 15%, while revision is 45%.This means that planning is an integral part of the writing process, but the real work comes in the revision stage, which is where you perfect your writing.There are several ways to gather facts for your article, and lots of sources where you can find the best information for your article. A few of them are:i). Check online publications: Online publications, such as magazines, newspapers, brochures, journals and catalogs, are great sources for writers. This will also later help with back links for search engine optimization, so keep a record of them.A great site that helps you find online magazines and publications in diverse niches is Digital Publishing Platform for Magazines, Catalogs, and more. All of the publications there are free to use, which makes them a great resource for writers. Follow these steps to find the facts that you need for your article:a). Go to Issuu.com: On the homepage, type your main keyword (e.g., “digital marketing”) into the search box and hit enter:b). Flip through the publication:Issuu is a powerful online publication search engine that takes your keyword and finds relevant magazines that you can read for free. Click the cover of your chosen magazine to help develop great blog ideas.c). Extract your facts: Once you’ve clicked the magazine cover, flip through the pages and extract the facts or ideas that will help you write a high-quality article. For example, while flipping the magazine entitled “A New Era of Marketing,” here’s a checklist that I found:If I want to write a 2000+ word new post on the topic of “push marketing vs. pull marketing,” these checklists will come in handy. Let’s focus on the pull marketing checklist, since that’s what content marketing is.Here are some of the headlines that could work for an article like that:12 Effective Pull Marketing Techniques You Should Use in 201512 Pull Marketing Strategies for Generating Email LeadsHow to Use Pull Marketing to Persuade Customers and Increase SalesWhat Are the 12 Techniques Used to Pull Customers to Your Business?When it comes to writing the article for any of the headline ideas above, you can simply expand on the pull marketing techniques listed (i.e., SEO & PPC, thought leadership, community building, influencer outreach, blogging, earned advertising, etc.).ii). Leverage research data: “Your business depends on finding, understanding and connecting with your best customers,” says Nielsen. There are several research institutes, centers and agencies who have done extensive research on those customers. Most of them post their findings on their blogs or package them into a special report or ebook that you can download.Sites such as MarketingSherpa, HubSpot and ChicagoBooth.edu share documented findings and data. Let’s see an example of marketing data from HubSpot:HubSpot’s page above is a compilation of data from several different reliable sources. If you scroll down the page, you’ll find all of the data that you need for search engine optimization, social media marketing, blogging, email marketing and related topics.So, when it’s time to write that perfect blog pertaining to SEO, for example, you could start by integrating one of the statistics above:Do you want to drive customers from the search engines? In 2012, Interconnected World conducted a research study on shopping and personal finance and found that 61% of global internet users research products online.Remember that when you’re creating a 2000-word article, you’ve got to back up your points with data, because your opinions may not be enough. What your readers and customers want is proven, reliable solutions to their problems. That means your writing has to be well-sourced and credible for search engine optimization and user longevity.iii). Industry blogs: No matter what niche you’re in, you should have a list of industry-related blogs belonging to influential personalities and thought leaders.For example, Copyblogger and MarketingProfs are two of my favorite blogs in the content marketing industry. Choose a category (e.g., “marketing strategy”) and you’ll see a lot of blog posts that you can use as fact sources.Each of these content marketing blogs can help you in your quest for facts and ideas for your own successful blog post.And what about those ideas? You can improve your writing speed by more quickly generating and choosing underlying ideas. Here are a few ways to do that:1). Begin with the end in mind: Ideas can come from anywhere. As a writer, your duty is to recognize that no idea is entirely useless.In his classic book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, author Stephen Covey said that one thing highly successful people have in common is that they “begin with the end in mind.”This simply means that before you start a project, you should know how to finish it or what the final iteration will look like. Marie Forleo agrees, in this “how to write faster” video.Specifically, Marie says, you should think about what you want readers to walk away with - in other words, the result you want them to achieve or feel after reading your article.So, for example, if you want to teach blog owners how to get 500 email subscribers in 30 days, keep that end goal in mind from the very beginning.Your headline could look similar to either of these:How to Get 500 Email Subscribers in 30 DaysThe Step-by-Step Guide for Adding 500 Email Subscribers in One MonthThen, your introduction would address the end result and flow from there:Adding quality email subscribers to your list is hard, especially when you’re just starting out. In this article, I’ll show you how to add 500 or more subscribers to your email list using a simple step-by-step method.I always begin with the end in mind, when I write a blog post. For example, in a recent post, I promised to show my readers how to increase pageviews by 23.52%. I focused on the result and made sure that every word and sentence aligns with that promise:No matter what type of content you plan to create, this approach works - not just for articles or text-based content, but also for infographics, podcasts and ebooks.With infographics, you may not have the opportunity to include an introduction in the design, but you can write a 200 - 300 word post before embedding the infographic.Chris Ducker knows how to engage the user with infographics by starting with the end in mind:If you want your landing page to convert visitors into leads and your sales copy to draw customers in, tell people the end result and walk them through the process of getting there.Pat Flynn and Chris Ducker used this strategy for crafting their 1 Day Business BreakThrough landing page copy:2). Keep a topic list: Steven Johnson gave a powerful TED talk on the topic, “Where Good Ideas Come From.” Since 2010, this clip has been viewed by over 3,000,000 people around the world.Why? Because everyone is desperately searching for good ideas.We all need good (preferably great) ideas for blog posts, projects, webinars and products. Most people are looking in the wrong places for their ideas.According to Caleb Wojcik, co-founder of Fizzle, “great ideas come when you aren’t trying to think of them.”Your responsibility, therefore, is to be open and ready for new ideas. Wherever you go, have something - a notebook, smartphone, app - with you at all times. Evernote is my favorite, but you could also use a writing pad and pen. If you are perusing social media, you might note a post that captured your attention.When ideas come to you, don’t immediately dismiss or edit them. Write them down in an ongoing topic list.You could even create a template on your writing pad where you can fill in the blank spaces with topics and ideas that occur to you, like this:It’s a lot easier to design and develop an editorial calendar using your topic list. But, even if no ideas come to you and you don’t know what to write about, you can leverage a tool.Simply go to HubSpot’s Blog Topic Generator and plug your topic into the box. Then, click the “Give Me Blog Topics” button.The software will generate 5 headline ideas that you can write a new post about.Step #3: Bring Your Facts to LifeIf you want to be a writer, you’ll have to start writing eventually. There’s no way around that. Begin to write and you’ll learn and improve as you go. Like a surfer in search of the perfect wave, be in search of the perfect blog.Taking action is more valuable than the latest, greatest ideas. Unfortunately, human beings usually want to take action only when the task seems easy. It’s your job to convince them to act.That means you must learn to bring your ideas to life. Don’t procrastinate. Get to work. Don’t aim to write a masterpiece - that might happen, but it's more likely that you’ll never finish even one article. A successful blog aims for high-quality content knowing writing will improve with more practice.1). Expand your outlines: In order to bring your facts to life and write your article, you have to expand on your outlines. For example, if your headline is “3 Ways to Generate Leads,” your outline could look like the following, with each item a separate subheading:Reach the right audienceCreate useful and practical contentDevelop a relationship funnelIn expanding your outlines, what you’re basically doing is taking each of the subheadings and explaining them. This will also play into the meta tag when you sit down to publish your great blog piece.Tell the reader how to “reach the right audience” - what methods to use and how to do it. Since you’ll be writing a 2000-word article, it’s even better to capture screenshots that will show the user the exact process.A perfect example of a blogger who understands how to expand an outline is Brian Dean, founder of Backlinko.com. Take a look at his recent in-depth article:I also use this technique when writing my articles. In one post, I shared the 15 types of content that drive traffic. The article required a long outline. I realized that if I wanted users to benefit from the article, I had to expand each outline point and show how it works.2). Don’t write and edit at the same time: This is the basic rule of writing effectively. The truth is that writing is quite different from editing.Content rules the web. If you want to have a successful blog, you’ve got to write content and promote it to the right audience. But, 29% of B2B and 15% of B2C marketers are struggling to produce engaging content.One of the reasons why they struggle is because writing itself is hard.There’s no question that you can make writing fun and enjoy the process.But when you edit, you’re using an entirely different set of skills. According to The Open Notebook, “not every writer can edit, nor every editor write.”Daphne Gray Grant, a publication coach, knows exactly why editing-and-writing is so destructive. She discovered that slow writing is a result of looking over your words and sentences to ensure that they’re correct as you’re writing them.Editing while writing slows you down and distracts you from your purpose and points in new post development.For almost every writer, the first draft is never great. It’s the process of revision that makes it great. The famous Ernest Hemingway said it succinctly:If this is you, you’re not alone. A lot of writers still struggle with this impulse. Social media blog post writers are no different.So how do you deal with it? Well, Daphne Gray Grant says that you should “monitor your self-talk and tell yourself you’ll do it later.”The main challenge is to discipline yourself to write and to not let your distracting thoughts pull you off-task. It requires discipline and there’s no shortcut.3). Write shorter sentences: If you want to speed up your writing speed and craft an interesting, easy to ready and useful article, then write shorter sentences.A recent study found that reading on the screen hurts the human eye. For this reason, people read 25% slower on a computer screen compared to print. Writing shorter sentences will help your readers assimilate your ideas and put them to work.Your sentences don’t have to be short, staccato bursts. You just need to balance the longer phrases and sentences with shorter ones.The best writers don’t waste time. They give you what you need and no more. Jonah Berger, author of Contagious: Why Things Catch On, knows how to captivate the reader in this way.Chris Brogan, the famous social media strategist and founder of Owner Media Group, also writes shorter sentences. He tells stories using strong and vivid analogies, but they're still easy to read.Don’t pad your words or try to sound clever. Write with clarity. Successful blog writers use common words. Write to teach and inspire people, not to sound like a retired English professor.4). Use a timer: The next time you sit down to write, grab a timer. Using the Pomodoro Technique™ and set the timer to 25 minutes.Write at a solid clip without checking your phone, watching TV, or anything else. Stay focused. Turn off your social media and Skype notifications, log out from your email account and just write new post sentences, one after the other.These are the 5 steps in the Pomodoro Technique™:Decide in advance what you want to write about.Set the timer to 25 minutes.Work on the task with full concentration until the timer rings.Take a short break (3–5 minutes).After four 25-minute sessions, take a longer break (15–30 minutes).Focus is the #1 habit that can speed up your writing. Here are some other benefits of using the Pomodoro technique:If you don’t have a timer, go to tomato-timer.com. By default, it’ll be set to 25 minutes. Just click the “start” button to get an alert when the 25 minutes are up. You can also set desktop alerts (but this works for Chrome browser only).5). Embrace the bullets: “These days, especially in the email and online - bullet points are the most-read copy on the page,” says Anne Holland, Content Director Marketing Sherpa.Bullet points should be used to highlight specific, important information. They help the reader understand key points and issues quickly.Copyblogger recommends that you craft each bullet point as if it were to serve as your headline. Marie Forleo’s latest course “The Copy Cure” uses copy with strong bullet points to highlight the key lessons in the course:Whatever you’re writing for your business, you should embrace bullet points. It’ll improve your writing and readers will follow along.I use bullet points in 96% of my blog posts at Quick Sprout. Take a look:Bullet points are a powerful way to express your main points when writing longer articles. But, you’ve got to be smart about it.The Bracken Business Communications Clinic from Montana State University says that you should “keep bullet pointed information short, usually no more than two lines in length and use the same font and margin width for each bullet point.”6). Trace data to its primary source and use it to back up your points: Data-driven articles, like the one that you’re reading, can build your personal brand faster, because people will perceive you as an expert.However, be mindful when using data from other blogs and research institutes. What you have to understand is that most data online has been compiled from other sources. But, the primary source may not be attributed and this could pose a problem for you. Search engine optimization will penalize you for duplicate content, so don't copy long sections either.For example, most of the data on the HubSpot’s Marketing Statistics page didn’t come directly from HubSpot, which only researched and compiled the data:HubSpot does it correctly by attributing the primary source. So, you see that the primary source of the data above is Pew Research Center, which conducted a study on Search Engine Use in 2012.Your job is to find the original research work from the primary source.The first step is to copy and paste the primary source and year into Google and search for it:When writing your article, link to the primary source. For example, if you’re writing about search engine marketing or optimization, you could start this way:In 2012, Pew Research Center conducted a study and found that 88% of consumers stated that using a search engine allowed them to learn new things.Note: If the primary source of the data that you want to use is unknown, or you’re unable to find or access those results, you could simply quote it and link to the secondary source that compiled it.Let’s assume that I didn’t find the primary source of data above. I could simply quote Pew Research Center, but link to HubSpot:As reported in recent marketing statistics compiled by HubSpot, Pew Research Center found that 88% of consumers say that they use the search engines to learn something new.You can also link to the source of the data without quoting the research institute, firm or organization. Remember, part of the perfect blog is the combination of high-quality content and link building. I do that a lot in my posts:7). Attribute graphics and images correctly: What would it look like if this article with over 5,000 words was all text, with no graphics or images to break up large chunks of words? I bet you’d never read past the first subheading.It’s important to use images and relevant charts in your article to build trust and authority. Also, the brain processes visual information (graphics, charts, infographics, memes, photos, etc.) 60,000 times faster than plain text.In the image above, the author combined several pieces of data and created a Slideshare presentation. All I did was credit/link to the exact page on Slideshare.Attributing graphics and images correctly is one of the skills that you have to develop as a successful blog writer.When you find any graphics or chart that you’d like to use in your article, you have to know where it came from (primary source) and not (only) where you found it. It’s possible that the site where you saw it didn’t own it. Always read the fine print on the graphics or chart to know the rightful owner:Always link to the web page where the image was published with the post. Don’t link to the image URL. So, instead of linking to:Link to the web page where the visual asset was published:If you want to capture a screenshot or a particular section of someone’s post, you can use Skitch, a simple tool from Evernote. That’s what I use to capture and annotate (add notes to something) all screenshots for my Neil Patel blog.8). Proofread and edit after writing: When you’re done writing, the next step is to revise and edit your article. Your draft may have typos and other errors, especially if you’re writing your drafts quickly.This doesn’t mean that it has to win any prizes. In fact, if you’re a perfectionist, you’ll have a harder time becoming a successful blogger or content marketer. The perfect blog is like that perfect wave, it usually only exists in our minds.The purpose of revising your work is to eliminate common errors that can make you look uneducated or unprofessional.But, understand that there is a difference between proofreading and editing. In editing, you adjust the sentence structure and style. You might rewrite an entire paragraph, for example. When proofreading, you focus on correcting spelling and grammar errors and typographical errors (typos).When you’re editing your article, don’t lose sight of what matters most: your users. The goal is to make your content readable and useful for the target audience. Search engine optimization metrics will reward you.You can use Hemingway App for basic editing and proofreading. It’s really helpful for beginners with a new post.See also:Get Your Eagle Eye On: 10 Tips For Editing Your Own WorkHow to Edit, Proofread and Revise Your Own WorkStep #4: Create an Editorial CalendarDo you have a documented content strategy? According to Content Marketing Institute, only 27% of B2C content marketers do. One of the best ways to begin the documentation process is by keeping an editorial calendar.According to Spectate, a B2C Content Marketing Firm, keeping a dedicated and up-to-date editorial calendar can improve your productivity and help you stay on track in meeting your business goals. These two elements are crucial if your blog is an integral part of your business (which it is).With your topic list in place, it’s a lot easier to develop a roadmap to follow consistently in creating your articles. After all, sometimes it might just not be possible to create a 2000-word article.But, as you learn about your audience and develop passion for writing, you’ll soon start to write 2000 - 5000 words article on a regular basis. That’s why you need an editorial calendar.There’s nothing fancy about an editorial calendar. So don’t waste time or fret over it.Depending on your goal or the demand of your target audience, you may want to publish new articles on your blog every 2 days or once per week.An editorial calendar tells you beforehand what topic you should research and the facts, data and case studies to focus on for that one successful blog you want to create. You could develop a calendar for a week, a month or more. Here’s an example from CoSchedule:Perhaps your audience wants case studies or research summaries on Mondays and how-to’s or tutorials on Thursdays.That’s exactly what an editorial calendar does. As a blogger or content marketer, you need to develop one. An editorial calendar helps you stay in control and offers many other benefits as well:ConclusionWriting is an art and requires creativity. Without it, you’ll be lost in the crowd. But, getting faster at the process helps you harness that creativity and put it to better use.Recognize that the rate at which content is being produced and published these days has accelerated and marketers are planning to invest more money and time into content creation.Writing is also a science. You’ve got to study your target audience, your market and the emerging trends, in order to stay current on what works and what doesn’t.I’m confident that if you can focus on these five steps, you’ll be able to write a 2000-word article that you can be proud of - in 2 hours or less.