20 STEPS TO WRITE A GOOD ARTICLE
In order to write a good article, first choose your topic and decide its boundaries. (The topic must be narrowed as much as possible, and the scope of it must be outlined clearly.)
Make a serious and detailed research on the topic. (Be sure that you have not missed any important issue written about the topic.)
Read treatises, articles and books about the topic until you are sure that you have comprehended the topic with every aspect. (Your comprehension of your readings determines the quality of your article as much as the quantity and quality of your readings do.)
If your topic is still too broad, revise your topic according to your readings and narrow it as much as possible. (Not limiting the topic means that you will write a heavy speech and a common composition.)
Make your plan! (Writing what pops into mind without any plan is useless. Plan is your road map.)
Classify the knowledge that you read and collect according to the plan.
Leave out all irrelevant information!
Start to write your article according to your plan. (Do not wait to be inspired. You will be inspired as soon as you begin to write.)
Write your article in a clear, understandable and plain language. (Using a pompous language, using obscure words and making long sentences are not the features of a good article.)
People of all ages must be able to understand your claims, aim and sentences easily.
It should be clear what you mean with the term, concepts and words you use in the article. (While writing an article, keep an ordinary and a terminology dictionary with you at all times. The utmost danger an article faces is to use terms and concepts wrongly. Make sure that you don’t overuse terminology that could distract readers either. Terms are the fruits, frames, keys and summary of knowledge. Use them sparingly.)
In the introduction part, write clearly the basic aim of the article and the conclusion you want to reach.
Make the first sentences of each paragraph the main ideas of them.
Be careful that your article does not have spelling mistakes. Print out after you finish, and have a quick but careful check to find any errors.
A good article is sufficiently long enough. Cross out any irrelevant words or even sentences. It is a good article if it is saved from unnecessary words, sentences, paragraphs or information.
Quote the sentences and information that do not belong to you referring to them either by footnotes or parenthesis. (The more an article includes references the more qualified it is. Value and eminence of an article lies in the knowledge and scholars it refers to.)
Make a special study of conclusion part of the article. (The conclusion is not the summary of article. It is a part that opens a door, makes an evaluation, and shows your contribution to the world of ideas, or academia.)
As a good introduction of an article shows your knowledge, the conclusion of a good article shows your penetration to the future, in other words your horizon.
A good article does not make repetitions of previous ones, instead it is a scientific text that provides openings, stimulates and contributes.
After completing your article, send it to at least three, if possible five, people on whose knowledge and perspective you rely. Request them to criticize your article. Then edit your article according to their critics, and after reading again and again till you are sure, send it to relevant places to be published.
(While sending your article to be published, do not forget to pray to Allah in order that He gives effectiveness to the article; because there should be sincerity in an article as much as the seriousness.)