Last night I had a fever of 101.4 and felt completely miserable. My head hurt, body ached and I felt exhausted all throughout the night. Being sick made me think about the benefits of good health. Especially when my doctor started talking about the potential of having H1N1 or swine flu!
Under these conditions my sick mind thought up this post subject [which shows you how addicted to blogging I really am]. How often do we as bloggers take care of the sickness on our blog? Most importantly in our blog content?
Writing is a fundamental element of blogging. If you allow the writing on your blog to go without a check-up regularly, it might have contracted some pretty awful viruses. One of those viruses might be a weak conclusion.
Virus: Weak Conclusion
Often working towards the destruction of the entire organism, a virus first attacks the body’s ability to strengthen itself through weakening the immune system . Likewise, a weak conclusion destroys the rest of your article by disturbing the very structure and argument that gives your writing strength.
You have worked hard to put together a logical and interesting article which has a central focus and major theme it is trying to prove or make a point of.
If your article is the average length of most posts, you have spent 400 – 500 words trying to develop a strong organic structure for your article’s argument. At the very end of your post the reader leaves without any strong or defining solution if the conclusion is weak, leaving your argument or main point limp and in critical care.
Don’t do this to your articles. It’s like drinking gallons/liters of pig grease everyday after you have eaten healthily and excercised regularly. It doesn’t make sense.
Vaccine: Restate the Main Point
The easiest and quickest way to prevent your conclusion from dying out and infecting the power of the articles argument is by restating the main point you introduced earlier. The key here being that you know the main point of your article.
Restatement solidifies the post’s purpose and helps readers to connect the sub-topics and logical progression of your article with the main point. This tactic infuses the strength of your argument into the closing remarks of your writing, reminding the reader of the take-away you encourage.
The conclusion should not be a restatement of the entire introduction and main point. You should make the conclusion concise (exact) and brief (short). It is not a place to restate every point you tried to make, but rather remind the reader of your main point in only a sentence or two.
At Blogussion we try to make our conclusion’s as effective as possible in the articles we publish. To help this process we offer a summary of the article and main points below the post and in-between the comments section. Doing this does not replace a strong conclusion but rather serves as a brief reminder to assist our readers.
The conclusion within the article is meant to be apart of the persuasive and convincing argument being made. The summary is merely just a restatement of what was said.
Conclusion
Don’t get sick 
and avoid letting your writing go unchecked. When you do find a problem, fix it immediately. Especially if your problem is a weak conclusion to a good argument.
But I... 
24 Discussions
Every bloggers must take care of their life, not just their blog.
Reza Winandar´s last blog ..The Make Money Online Program System
Does anybody else get the impression that ‘Reza’ didn’t read the post?
Great article though Seth, very interesting read and nice comparison. I have to agree with the bit about the conclusion… once in English class, the teacher was telling us how to write an effective letter. Whilst it may be a bit different to an article, the point she was making is still relevant: ‘make sure your conclusion is the same at the end as it is at the start.’ What she meant by that is that you shouldn’t change what you’re writing about half way through
Simon | Get Thesis´s last blog ..Review: WebmasterFormat.com
Exactly, posts are no different.
Everyone has probably gone to comment on someones blog post and then thought to themselves, what in the world was that point even about? It had too many subjects and not enough depth about anything! That is why strong conclusions can shore up your articles into powerful pieces of internet literature.
Seth´s last blog ..Help! My Writing Needs a Doctor
I agree and disagree. I personally try and include lots of little points to my articles rather than just one big one. Whilst I won’t contradict myself, I find it keeps the reader interested as they need to keep reading to get the whole article
Simon | Get Thesis´s last blog ..Review: WebmasterFormat.com
Great post Seth! You amaze me how you can relate a sickness to blogging. You make a great point at the end, if you find a mistake fix it. This is something I learned on my early stages as a webmaster, I would find a problem and ignore it telling myself I would fix it at a later time. It should be done now.
Example: If you break your leg your going to most likely go to the hospital right away right? So do the same with blogging!
Great post
Bilal´s last blog ..Five more affiliate marketing tips to help you become a better affiliate marketer
Right! The most important thing is fixing your writing as quickly as possible. Regularly evaluating your writing style and your ability to clearly explain your message is important. It’s an emergency just like a broken leg.
Seth´s last blog ..The Power of Recycling Posts
When I write a post, I usually read a few times, as to make sure every words and sentence I use are easy to understand. I mean if your words are to difficult or are too complicated, average blog readers might not understand what you message you are trying to deliver.
The best way is to pull down your mind set and think and write like an average person, It’s just like when you get too sick, you will feel pain not just in your mind but also in your body, by bring or pulling down your sickness you are back to normal health, which everyone would be happy to see.
I hope I had said something clearly as I always try to use easier words and phrase to deliver my message.
The Bad Blogger´s last blog ..The Bad Blogger Says He Had Reveal A Secret Within This Post And You Will Know It, If You Read Every Word Of It !
Using easy to understand words is important because everyone is coming from different backgrounds and levels of understanding. I think it is actually more difficult to make your posts very simple then it is to make them complicated and “fluffy”.
Great point Bad Blogger
Seth´s last blog ..Help! My Writing Needs a Doctor
I’m sorry but I don’t think every Post regarding your daily life referring to Blogging can make it out of the box.. Like recently Alex wrote about Walking On Crutches. Its like getting bored cause of repeatation.
But PLEASE !!, take care of yourself then Blog !
Enk.´s last blog ..What do you tweet about ?
Thanks for being open about what you think, I can really respect that. Let me at least explain why I like analogies… which of course are not for everyone.
Analogies often connect something we all have experience with to something we may not be familiar with at all. That is why the best teaching tools in school, religion, and often life come in the form of analogy. I may not have any experience with some of the bad things you should not do on the internet which would hurt your blog. But when someone uses the analogy of the 7 deadly sins of blogging, I know immediately that these things are worth learning and understanding. Same goes with a majority of analogies, the concept then becomes human.
You definitely do not have to agree with me, and we will try to mix it up a little bit more. Again thanks for being honest, we know we can’t please everyone but we sure do try!
Unlike Enk, I find the metaphors to be very constructive and supporting to the main theme of each article here on blogussion. Nice one Seth,
Igor
Igor Kheifets – IgorHelpsYouSucceed´s last blog ..Ready To Run Your Dream Business?
Thanks Igor, we try to make the information more easy to relate too.
I like how your mind works, you’re sick, possible with swine flu, and you think of blogging – way to go
I’ve always been a fan of how this blog uses the “post highlight / summary” below the actual posts, just goes to show that there’s a bit more effort put into the posts than just writing and publishing it asap!
Klaus @ TechPatio´s last blog ..23 MacBook Pros, 14 iPhones And 9 iPods Stolen In 31 Seconds
Thanks… we really care about our readers because we know how important valuable information is to us, and try to provide it to you. We also provide a summary because we know that sometimes you’ve had a hard day.
Seth´s last blog ..The Power of Recycling Posts
I think sick writing simply needs more exercise. The practice of writing will bring better conclusions and stronger (well stated) points. Itsa werkd fer me. Imma xcelent wrider nowadaes. [grins]
Colleen´s last blog ..Kennewick Real Estate Listings
Practice makes perfect and also prevents many of the sicknesses we get. Excercise minimizes illness, and practice writing helps to minimize any problems with conclusions, introductions, or other writing elements.
Seth´s last blog ..The Power of Recycling Posts
Writing conclusions really is a nasty virus. Mainly because conclusions are often overlooked.
Jake | Web Journey´s last blog ..How and Why Bing Can Defeat Google
But without them, your readers sometimes miss the point.
Seth´s last blog ..The Power of Recycling Posts
My writing is terrible, I’d settle to even be considered a ‘sick writer’. Thanks for the tips, and I’m loving the design of this site.
Justin´s last blog ..Mississippi Long Term Workforce Housing Program
Well working on it is the only way to make it better, so keep on writing and reading about how to make it improve letter by letter.
Seth´s last blog ..The Power of Recycling Posts
Amazing post, you linked sickness with blogging, however, introductions and conclusions can be the most difficult parts of articles to write, conclusion gives the essay a sense of completeness, and its leave a final impression on the reader.
Online shop hosting´s last blog ..F.A.Q
There are a lot of ways to medicate for a sick post. My three favorite perscriptions are:
1. Beer
Step back, crack a beer, and loosen up a little. That good thinking is in there just got to let it come out (note: there is a diminishing rate of returns on beer so don’t get to drunk).
2. 5 Minutes
If you’re frustrated take a break, do some push ups get away from the screen. Five minutes can be enough time to change your whole outlook if you can really distract yourself from the writing and come back totally fresh.
3. A Buddy
Maybe another set of eyes can see what you keep missing. Never be afraid to ask for help.
If there’s one idea that runs through each of those ideas its figure out a way to change your out look. We’ve got to muffle our self censors and figure out a way to get the words to come out. If that prescription doesn’t work call me in the morning, or yell at me on twitter. There’s plenty more medicine where that came from.
Casey Brazeal (North and Clark)´s last blog ..You Are Jazz to Me
I liked the originality of it
KalibreOnline -Games, Life and Ent´s last blog ..Muramasa: Beautiful Visuals mixed with great 2D action!
I love to write, but then sometimes I tend to get lost of the main point of what I’m really discussing about. To deal with it, I attended some conferences and listened to speakers as they deliver their thoughts. I built a habit of analyzing their speech structure as it is basically written in the first place. As I have ended with the idea like what is given in this post. They start with a theme and eventually have some kind of a review to emphasize the idea of what the listeners should pick up as a take away. I guess that’s the same with restating the main point. Thanks for this great reminder.
Alex Lim´s last blog ..Before You Purchase A Domain Name Availability
1 trackback