How to Create Readable Articles: Titles and Outlines Are Everything

This time, I, Pachiko, who writes security articles at a certain security company while crying, will lecture on how to create readable articles.

In a nutshell,

• you can immediately understand what is being conveyed

• you can immediately solve what you want to look up

is what I think makes an article readable.
(Though both are the same thing...)

To achieve that,

• a solid outline (framework)

is important.

A "readable article" is an "easy-to-write article"

Readable = You can immediately understand what the topic is

Looking at search results one by one,
not finding the answer,
and before you know it,
reading a comic that appeared in an ad

Doesn't that ever happen to you?
(It happens to me, Pachiko, often)

It's not what I was looking for,
you get annoyed,
and end up giving up on your search...

As I wrote at the beginning,
a readable article is
one where you can immediately understand what it is about
.

In other words,

• the topic does not change halfway through

• the conclusion does not waver

is very important.

This is a point that you tend to accidentally fall into when writing.

You might end up adding similar information,
or getting sidetracked into a different topic.

I, Pachiko, often do this too.

Even if you intend to
write about one thing
in your head,
it can get tangled halfway through
and veer off in another direction.

Readable = Easy to write

• Having too much to write and not being able to organize it

• Not knowing what to write and being unable to proceed

These two seem like contradictory problems.
However, the root cause is the same.

Because there is no core or framework.

If you proceed as is,
the result will be an unreadable article.

This is because
what you want to convey is not clear.

In either case,

• deciding on a theme

• not writing content that deviates from it

—sticking to these is all it takes.

What you need are a title and an outline.

So, what exactly is
a hard-to-read article?

It is an article where the
title (core) and outline (framework)
are solid.

The title refers to the article title.
The outline refers to the chapter titles.

These are, so to speak, the
signpostsfor writing.
If you have a clear view from the start,
you won't get lost while writing.

This is also true for the reader,

• so this is what is being written about

• in detail, it means this

—they can naturally organize their thoughts, right?
In short,

readable

is how it feels.

There are exceptions, too.

Let me introduce a completely different example here.

This is Pachiko's rambling.
It contains very trivial things,
and only completely unnecessary knowledge
is listed.

In this case, whether the content is one thing,
four things,
or gets tangled up halfway through,
it doesn't matter.

This is because the author
just wrote what they wanted to write,
and it is
a little different from trying to convey something
to someone else.

What would happen if we tried to make this rambling
more readable
?

Tell everything in the title

Only one thing you want to write

First, let's give it a title.

Please express what you are thinking of writing in
one sentence, orone sentence plus a subtitle.

Recently, titles that provoke the reader
have become mainstream, haven't they?

But what is more important than that is

what is written

to

concisely

convey.

There is nothing else to it.

Title = what you want to write
What you want to write = what you want to convey
What you want to convey = title

That is it.

If you cannot write it in one sentence,

If you cannot narrow down the title to one thing,
it is because you have not narrowed down what you want to write
to one thing.

Even so, I do not recommend
forcing two things
into a single sentence.

Be bold and make them separate articles.

Conversely, if the title is too short, it can also be a
cause of difficulty in writingit.

It should be concise and easy to understand, right?

But being short also means
the meaning of the words is broad
.

This carries the risk that
the interpretation will vary
depending on the reader.

It can also be a reason why you
end up adding more content
while writing.

Actually, the title of this article
was initially

“How to Create Readable Articles”

.

Then,

I started thinking like this.
The core is starting to waver, isn't it?

In this article, this is all I want to say.

So, to keep myself from getting lost,
I added a subtitle.

For example, in that article

Now, let's look at this piece of poor writing I showed at the beginning.

Let's think about
its title.

"The Past Life Pachiko Believes She Had"

In this article, Pachiko wrote about,

she wrote about that.

There shouldn't be any problem.

It is summarized concisely, and
there probably won't be anyone
who reads this and imagines something completely different.

No worries if you have an outline

Divide what you want to write into three parts

But you just told me to combine it into one!

You might say that, but
let's take that one combined thing and
break it into three.

Each of those is what we call a

heading

.

This is also the
title of a chapter or paragraph.

Yes, titles are important.
Therefore, for headings, I will say
the same thing I said
about titles.

What is important is

what is written

to

concisely

convey.

That is all.

Heading = what you want to write
What you want to write = what you want to convey
What you want to convey = heading

.

The phrase "There are three important points" is a template that works everywhere and at all times.

These three points are
very important.

When you hear "logical thinking,"
it might sound a bit difficult, but
for humans to understand things,
dividing them into three parts
is helpful.

This is true for the reader, of course, but
also when writing text,
if you divide the content into groups of three,
you can write very smoothly.

What you want to be careful about here is

dividing

and

not adding

to it.

Since you have narrowed down what you want to write
to one thing,
you must never increase it.

Continue this division even after creating headings,
into smaller headings,
even smaller headings...
and so on.

Actually, with just this,
you should have already written most of the content.

What is important is trust.

If you don't create a "hook"
in the title or headings,
won't it go unread?

I can almost hear
those voices.

No, that's not it.
No matter how much you hype it up in the title,
if the content isn't written thoroughly,
it won't be trusted as information.

Is that one article
the only thing you're writing?
That's not the case, is it?
There are other articles you want people to read,
aren't there?

• The title concisely states the information

• The content does not contradict it

This
gives the reader a great sense of security.
People naturally seek out what they can trust again.

To attract readers,
it's just this simple.

Title = What you want to write
What you want to write = What you want to convey
What you want to convey = Title

That is it.

For example, in that article

Now, let's look at this example of poor writing.

Let's think about this heading.

Actually, this method of "dividing into three"
is not just one thing.

If we follow the flow of the story as it is written now,

• What is an "image" that cannot be seen with the "eyes"

• Why did Pachiko see her past life

• Is this Pachiko's past life?

It seems possible to divide it into roughly three parts.

The part about dreams and delusions is a bit long, so
I would like to make it more concise if possible.

Conversely, you could also do it like this.

• Pachiko saw her past life one day

• Why she believes it is her past life

• What is Pachiko's true wish?

This explores the reasons why Pachiko believes the vision she saw was her past life,
working backward from the facts.

Or, to be more assertive:

How to know your past life

• Relaxing

• Visualizing concretely

• Letting it flow

Would something like this be okay?

Pachiko's past life was a painter

• Pachiko a thousand years ago

• Pachiko two hundred years ago

• The current Pachiko

This looks fun too, doesn't it?

Even with the same theme,
the angle you take,
and how you divide it
will change the flow and impression of the writing.

If you don't know which one is best,
try a few different approaches.

"Introduction" and "Review"

Reaching out a helping hand to the reader

There are people in this world
who can read thick, long novels
without needing a summary or a character relationship chart.

There are also people who can reference academic papers
or highly specialized practical books again
without having to underline anything.

But please remember that
those people are in the minority.

Most people
forget what is written almost immediately.

In today's terms,
they cannot remember text
that has scrolled off the screen.

Expecting them to reconstruct the content
while reading is out of the question.

You shouldn't think, "They can figure that out for themselves."
This is an important service
for the people reading your work.

• A summary at the beginning

• A summary at the end

should be included.

Preventing mismatches between the writer and the reader

Readable articles mean you can immediately understand what is written,
right?

When searching for information online,
it can be hard to reach the information you want.
I want to know it quickly!

What can put such a reader at ease is

the introduction

itself.

Even just creating a table of contents
and lining up the headings
makes a huge difference.

A commonly used method is
what you will gain from reading this article
or similar bullet points summarizing the key points.

Alternatively,
you can also create
the introduction as the first chapter or paragraph.

Above all, what is most important is that
the reader understands

this is the information I need

immediately.

Write important things as many times as necessary.

You may have already noticed.

That the same thing has been written several times.

Did you think I was being persistent?

But don't forget that the person reading your article
might not read it all the way through from the top.

What you want to convey should be
written in the title, headings, and body text,
as many times as necessary.

If you do that, they are bound to
see it somewhere.

Conversely, please assume that the quality of your writing
or your writing style doesn't really matter.

By bolding important points,
using them in titles,
and writing them repeatedly,
you can ensure your message is clearly conveyed to the reader.

And finally, at the very end,

write a summary

.

It is fine to copy and paste the
what you will gain from reading this article
section you included at the beginning.

However, if possible, try to
rephrase it in your own words.

This isn't just a summary
for the person reading it.

It is also a summary
for you, the writer.

Here,
check to see if there are any parts
that deviate from your introduction or headings.

If things are off-track,
review those parts.

If you have accidentally digressed,
be bold and cut it out.

Depending on the situation,
you might be able to polish it
into even better headings or content.

Summary

How was it?

In this article,

how to write readable articles

was discussed,

titles and outlines

focusing on the importance of setting them firmly.
I hope you found it helpful.

One last time,
please remember this before you go.

A readable article is one where you can immediately tell what is written.

The title is crucial for that.

There should only be one thing you want to write.

Title = What you want to write
What you want to write = What you want to convey
What you want to convey = Title

It is!

Bonus

I thought about rewriting that piece of trash
into something more formal,

but I will save that for another time.