Opinions are dangerous things. They can damage feelings, break relationships, even start wars.

As an article writer, one of the most important things you do in your articles is share your opinions. You have important things to write about. Your reader really does want to know what you think, so long as you give him or her the freedom to disagree with you.

The first article I wrote was many years ago in a journalism class. At the time, I also worked in the hospitality industry. A perfect blending, I thought. I would use my new-found journalism skills to teach travelers how behave themselves while they stayed in hotels.

I interviewed my co-workers to learn their list of pet-peeves. I included detailed examples of inappropriate hotel guest behavior. I titled it How Not to Be Stupid When You Stay in a Hotel or something insightful like that. My article was going to change how people treated hotel staff forever.

My instructor thought otherwise. He believed my article would alienate the same people I wanted to educate.

He was right. Article readers, however wrong they may be in their business practices or life choices, dont like being told theyre wrong. In fact, they dislike it as much as you and I do.

As a writer, you can manipulate the words you use to share your ideas without offending your readers. You have the power to write about whatever is really bugging you and lead people to agree with you or see your side of things, without ever telling them they were wrong in the first place.

A good writer has a responsibility to be unselfish in his or her writing. In every article you write, you share your thoughts with others. Its easy to take advantage of this privilege and dump whatever is on your mind into your article, but thats selfish writing. You might feel better, but your reader wont benefit from reading it. My hotel article was selfish.

An unselfish article puts your readers interests first. It shares your opinions but not your criticisms. It teaches your reader how to do something beneficial, but doesnt lecture them on why theyre wrong.

An unselfish article gives your reader room to disagree with you. You might be smarter than your reader, have more experience and training, but your reader is just as entitled to his or her opinions as you are.

A statement such as If you engage in this action, youre wrong will likely alienate a reader who does engage in that behavior and does believe its a good idea. Instead, give reasons why your ideas are better.

Turn your list of donts into a list of dos or even whys. My hotel article would have been much more effective if I had written a list of ways to make your hotel stay more pleasant, or reasons why certain behaviors dont get you the results you want. I could have included the same information with a different twist and I would have gotten very different results. Readers would have found my article helpful instead of critical.

If youre writing articles to promote your business, its even more important that you be gracious in your writing. Your clients and potential clients are going to read your article. If your article criticizes their practices or choices, they might not remain your clients for long. Its more effective to write about how they could do something better than criticize what theyre currently doing.

The best article writers have strong opinions and write about them openly. Thats how readers get to know them and learn to trust them. Some of my favorite writers have extreme opinions that I strongly disagree with. They remain my favorites because they show me new ways to think about things, but they dont ever come out and tell me Im wrong for not taking their advice.

Denise Willms
http://www.WAHM-Articles.com