Writing Resources

Listicles are articles formatted into a list, usually focused around a particular niche, like:

• 5 best gaming laptops in 2020
• 7 ways to lose weight at home in 2021
• 11 software tools for digital marketers

The more specific you can be with the niche, the better. Especially well-working are long-tail keywords: "acer gaming laptop" or "yoga for weight loss". This kind of long-tail keywords is also a great way to create an interesting title.

So how to find them, and make sure that this is what people look for?

By using Keyword Finder tools, SEO tools that allow you to identify what people are searching for on the internet in particular niches. One example is Mangools KWFinder, a simple yet powerful tool, that allows you to investigate keywords on your own. In our example you could start looking for "laptop" and then the software would suggest similar terms like "gaming laptops" or "acer laptop". Everything spiced by statistics of how much are people actually looking for a given keyword across locations and languages.

Now, let's go back to writing a listicle.

How to write a listicle?

The following is the format you can use for you list.

Introduction

Description of general trend, phenomena or a piece of technology, explaining who and why should use it, e.g. "gaming laptops" for gamers but also for machine learning engineers, "marketing tools" for marketers and SEO experts but also for people looking for trends online.

Then comes the list:

#1 item

Description of item #1.

#2 item

Description of item #2.

#3 item

Description of item #3.

...

And so on. What's crucial in building a good listicle is being informative. Especially Google likes data-rich descriptions that it can take out and show as a rich snippet on top of the search results. This is where you want to go with your listicle. Top of Google, rich snippet.

That's why you shouldn't refrain from citing technological details of hardware, discussing prices, manufacturers and all other relevant information. It might turn out helpful both to your users and to Google.

Summary/Verdict

The listicle should end with a verdict on what to buy, what is the best for a particular audience (there can be more than one choice for different groups), or a general recommendation.

Make it concrete, by saying which feature of the recommended item would especially please a specific persona.

Show me an example of a listicle

Below we have gathered a list of 7 listicles that we enjoyed. Have a look to be inspired. Generally speaking, whenever you look for the best items in a given category you'll get listicles on top of search results and in rich snippets. This is worth remembering.

• Best Netflix shows: 30 amazing TV shows that are worth binge watching
• 32 Of Your Childhood Toys That Are Worth An Absolute Fortune Now
• The Best Podcasts of 2020
• 30 Best Playstation 4 games to play right now
• 38 Free Online Marketing Classes to Take This Year
• 10 Online Marketing Tools You Need When Starting a Business
• The 10 Algorithms Machine Learning Engineers Need to Know

As you can see, generally listicles are of the form:

• X Ways to [Desired Outcome]
• X [Topic] Tips/Methods
• X [Tools/Products] for [Audience]
• X Reasons Why [Problem]

A great listicle title has something surprising in it, like the one above "32 Of Your Childhood Toys That Are Worth An Absolute Fortune Now" as toys usually aren't worth a fortune. Use similar ideas to create something worth a click from your users.

How to generate a listicle using Contentyze

Contentyze is especially good at generating texts from headlines and summarizing existing text. This can be used in two ways: to generate bits of your listicle based on the long-tail keywords, or take a bunch of texts, summarize them and use as item descriptions (reviews to paragraphs).

Example:

I can put "Acer gaming laptop" in the main screen, choosing the General model and Short text (up to 250 words). In my experiment I got after a few moments:

"Acer gaming laptop, or the laptop that will show you how many days you can actually play video games.

Here are some great reasons to buy a gaming laptop.

1. Solid Gaming Experience

Acer gaming laptops are built to last. They're built with the latest industry-leading parts and materials, and they're all backed by the world's best warranties. You can expect your Acer gaming laptop to last you a long time."

...and so on.

That's actually a pretty good way to start a listicle. The next step would be to take the reviews I have written about particular laptops, and summarize them using Summary Abstract/Extract on Contentyze, so that I can reuse them in the listicle about the best Acer gaming laptops.

Try it yourself! Contentyze won't always give you the best text possible, but try iterating a couple of times, and you'll get something particularly good and to your liking.

A review is an opinion piece mixed with a thorough specification of what a product is. A good review comes with a thesis: "This laptop is perfect for gaming", "These shoes are comfortable to wear while playing in-door basketball". Usually the more specific you can be the better.

Types of reviews

You can literally review any kind of product or service. Reviews are ubiquitous and you find them whenever you search for anything. The following is the list of most common reviews related to products we use on a daily basis together with examples (follow the link):

• Restaurant review
• Book review
• Movie review
• Game review
• Software review
• Hardware review
• Amazon Product review

How to write a review?

The first step to writing a review is gathering data on the product or service you want to review. The more the better. You want to create an instructive guide as well as an opinion piece.

Expressing your experiences is crucial. Talk about how you've interacted with the product, how it made you feel, what you liked and what you disliked. Readers don't want to read a dry summary of features. They want to read an opinion from another person.

Ideally your review will consist of the following elements:

• introduction: what is the product, when it was released, background
• positive features: what did you like about the product
• negative features: what did you dislike about the product
• verdict: would you recommend the product? If yes, why and to whom?

Contentyze can help you write a good review, by expanding upon your arguments. You can enter individual sentences related to the product under review or a general trend (like "Gaming laptop is a must for any data scientist.").

Depending on the niche, your audience might expect a more personal (e.g. blog about tech) or more professional review (e.g. media service for enterprises). Whatever you're reviewing, remember to state clearly your opinion and explain the reasons behind it.

Start with a thesis, then develop the subject presenting the pros and cons and end on the verdict. That's one-line summary of what a good review is.

Writing a blog, is about expressing personal opinions (or company's opinions if you're running a company blog). That's why a blogpost should be aligned with your or company's values. These are really the only rules - other than that, anything goes.

Nevertheless the most important thing is still creating an engaging content. This is especially important if you're covering a small niche, or writing on your company blog. Try not to make every single blogpost about your product. Cover the adjacent topics, expand your and yours audience horizons by showing new trends and solutions.

Find an interesting angle to your favorite topic

Blogging is about narrative. To create an engaging blogpost you need to:

• Choose a topic interesting for you,
• Choose a topic interesting for your audience,
• Find a unique angle to the topic, speaking about your experiences or uncommon opinion.
• Research! Know your facts, so that you can provide useful information.

Ideally you want to write about a trending topic, popular among your audience, that you know something unique about and you can share your experience. For example, if you're both a gamer and a data scientist, you can share your knowledge on how to pick hardware for both training machine learning models and playing.

Don't forget about researching whatever you're writing about. Look for inspiration by simply using search engines with the most relevant keywords to your blogpost and see what others write about. Especially others that rank on top of search engines. This is a useful lesson both in writing, choice of topic and SEO.

You can also use for inspiration Mangools KWFinder, to find relevant keywords and articles. It will rank for you similar keywords, by volume searched by users in particular locations and languages. It's very useful if you're deciding on the wording of the title or the angle you want to take upon the subject.

Template for blogposts

A standard form of a blogpost is

• Introduction: describe the topic and give it a unique spin to interest your readers.
• Subheadings for in-depth discussion of particular points. To make your blogpost readable (and searchable), you need to prepare well-described headings, before each new section. Think about it as writing a step-by-step guide. You want to cover all major features, and give to readers something unique that they couldn't find elsewhere: that can be a unique piece of information, an unpopular opinion with an explanation or known facts applied to a niche domain.
• Final thoughts: share the conclusion, give final recommendations.

Blogposts come in many flavours, but the the 3 most popular ones are the following.

• listicles: lists of similar products/services
• reviews: individual analysis of a single product
• essays: opinion piece on a topic

We cover each type of a blogpost separately, with examples. However, there are other types of blogposts you might consider writing:

• How-to and guides: people are looking for help online, so share your knowledge and help others understand what was hard for you in the beginning.
• Expanded definitions: how often do you look for an explanation online? Probably everyday. That's why expanding upon a common definition or a trend is a great idea for a text to write. You can explain things that appear regularly like SEO or growth hacking, or go for a very niche subject related to your domain of expertise.
• Answering questions: providing insights and solutions to existing problems is the best way to build a presence online. Uf you go on Google with a question, you'll see People Also Ask, with a list of questions. Try answering some of them in your blogpost and you'll see increased interest for sure.

How to end a blogpost

If you want to leave a lasting impression, end with a strong sentence or a clever TL;DR, that is a summary of what you've written before.

Often people skip to conclusions, to see final thoughts and recommendations. Make it easy for your readers to learn something tangible after they finish reading your text.

That can be

• a final recommendation,
• a conclusion,
• a list of the next steps.

Make it short and to the point.

How Contentyze can help you write a blogpost

Contentyze is primarily a tool to turn your ideas into drafts. While writing a blogpost, you can use Contentyze to:

• generate drafts from headlines based on long-tail keywords you've found
• summarize existing texts to extract insights that you can incorporate into your text
• rewrite existing content, adding to it your personal angle.

Our goal for Contentyze is to make writing as fast as possible, especially if you write a lot.

Writing a social media post may seem like a pretty straightforward thing for most of us right? The truth is that a lot of people get stuck when deciding to write a post especially ones who haven’t been doing it for a while.

The first thing in writing a post will be deciding on the goal you want to achieve with the post. Here are some common goals that business owners like to achieve with their posts:

1. Build a following

2. Create awareness of their brand

3. Get new leads

4. Get sales

Social media is about instant sharing, connecting with the audience, and building relationships with viewers. It can have a significant impact on your profits, reputation, customer relationships, so it is essential that your business utilizes social media to its full potential.

Here are a couple of ways to write social media posts.

How to write a social media post

Now we will go over 5 of the most engaging social media posts you can write.

1. Competition or Giveaway

The power of giveaways and competitions is that you can ask your audience to do something in return like sharing your post and leaving a comment. These types of posts grab attention very easily since it’s in our human nature to compete and everyone likes the thrill of having the possibility to win something for free.

These are some ideas of competition/giveaway posts you can do:

• Trivia questionnaire
• Comment/Like to win
• Post your photo while…
• Tag-a-friend that…
• Instagram stories / Facebook post / Youtube video contest

Here is how you can structure a Competition / Giveaway post:

• Write what you want to giveaway
• Give a short description of the product or service
• Explain the rules in a precise and concise way
• Inform what the start date is and the deadline for the giveaway

Examples of great giveaway posts: https://rafflepress.com/facebook-giveaway-examples/

2. Question Posts

Another great way to trigger curiosity is by asking questions. Whether that’s asking questions to your audience about feedback on a product or posting questions with the answer already provided by you. Asking a question will always make a person want to find the answer. Another reason why we think this is good content for your audience is because it provides value for both sides and can help you in developing trust with more people.

Here is how you can structure a Question post:

• Think of a catchy question
• Write the answer or leave it to the audience

Examples of great question posts: https://www.agorapulse.com/blog/questions-to-post-on-instagram/

https://www.postplanner.com/blog/these-questions-will-boost-social-media-engagement/

3. Educational Posts

If we're looking for high engagement, creating entertaining content is usually a pretty safe bet. But taking a shot with informative or educational posts is also proving to be a good way to earn your customer’s trust and deliver them some free value. The post can be short or long as long as you give some valuable information that will prove to be useful for someone then it will have served its purpose. These types of posts can include industry knowledge, your experience, tips, tricks, and so on. One of the better platforms for this type of content would be LinkedIn or Twitter.

Here is how you can structure a Question post:

• Give a brief introduction to the topic you'll cover
• Write about the specific problem
• Give a real-world example
• Finish of with an actionable tip for your audience

Examples of great question posts: https://www.convinceandconvert.com/content-marketing/5-brands-successfully-using-education-to-engage/

4. News Posts

Writing a news post is different from writing other articles or informative pieces because news posts present information in a specific way. It's important to be able to convey all the relevant information in a limited word count and give the facts to your target audience concisely. But keeping that in mind what better way of having a constant supply of content than by reporting the news. It can be either internal from your company or external about what’s happening in the world or more specifically in your industry. To spice things up when reporting news you can always put your own spin on it and state your opinion. When you're reporting on what’s happening in your industry you become an authority figure which gives your audience even more reason to trust you.

Here are some things to keep in mind while writing a news post:

• Use Descriptive Titles and Summaries
• Include Some Background
• Don’t Use Jargon
• Keep the important details near the top
• Provide Context
• Put News First

5. Video Posts

Telling compelling stories through the video format has been one of the most spectacular experiences of our century. Video has an incredible way of getting in touch with our emotions by activating both our visual and hearing senses. Today, take a look at any social media platform and you’ll find global brands, small businesses, and market-leading influencers all competing for your attention via an eclectic mix of cutting-edge video content. It’s no surprise video has become one of the most successful marketing channels ever. When talking about the world of social media videos you’ll find that the content tends to fall into a handful of different categories. The most effective of these are demo videos, brand awareness videos, live videos, testimonial videos, and promotional videos. It’s also important to note that the latest Hubspot research revealed that 88% of video marketers reported a positive ROI from the video marketing campaigns. There is really nothing like framing your communication as a story to build an emotional connection. And that emotional connection can have a dramatic result on customer retention figures. By communicating via storytelling, brands can also fuse their messages with entertaining and informative content, making it far more likely that consumers will give up their most important resource in life - time.

What to keep in mind when creating video content:

• Tell a story
• Define video marketing goals
• Set your video budget
• Determine who your target audience is
• Don’t overlook the audio
• Figure out how to measure success

Examples of great marketing video:

https://www.disruptiveadvertising.com/video-advertising/viral-video-marketing-examples/

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/lovable-video-marketing-campaigns

How to generate a social media post using Contentyze

Now let’s take a look at how to generate one of the mentioned above social media posts - the educational post.

Going with our outlined post structure we will choose our topic which is air pollution.

We will then write our first prompt “How air pollution affects us?”  in the “general” model.

After clicking generate we take the first part of our post which looks like this:

The average air pollution in the United States is already about twice as bad as the average pollution found in polluted cities. People who live in cities breathe in more of it than people who live in suburbs. The amounts of air pollution vary widely. For example, people in cities have an average of about 10 times more air pollution than those in rural areas. Air pollution can make people sick. It can also prevent them from working or school.

The next prompt we will write is “what’s being done about air pollution?”

And this is what we got back:

In recent years, there have been efforts to make air cleaning more affordable. For example, the state of California is offering free air filters in some public schools. This will help a lot of people in cities get rid of their outdoor air pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency is also working to make more air filters affordable. In 2013, the EPA announced a plan to make air filters more affordable. This plan is called the Clean Power Plan.

The last prompt we will write is the actionable tip “what can the average citizen do about air pollution?”

This is what we took from the generated text:

The following list is a good starting point: Step 1. Find out exactly what air pollution in your area is, and how it is affecting your health. Step 2. Take steps to reduce your exposure to these sources of air pollution. For example, you can reduce your exposure by taking better care of your vehicle and taking steps to keep your home and yard clean.

The important thing to keep in mind is that you can take bits and pieces of every generated text and put them together to your liking. And if the generated text isn’t to your liking the first time just delete it and click on generate one more time or until you get the desired text.

Now go and create a post with Contentyze yourself!

Today we will tell you how to write an essay. We finished school some time ago and it’s been a while since we’ve last written an essay ourselves, but we did some digging in our memory and came up with these instructions. Enjoy, and most importantly, make us proud.

To write an essay, first, try to think about the subject. What would you like to say? Try to write it all down on a piece of clean paper (clean paper = clean mind = more ideas = less clutter = less mess), or a new document in Word. This will be your draft. Write all your ideas down there, the good ones as well as the bad ones. Remember, a draft is NOT your definitive, final essay. It gives you space to try out your ideas, and to try to put them all in the right order. A draft is for you only, so let yourself be spontaneous and write every idea that comes to your head. In other words, brainstorm!

Once all your ideas are written down, try to come up with a plan for your essay. Here, we present a typical essay structure:

INTRO

BODY

CONCLUSION

Try to arrange your plan and ideas around this very structure.

If you don’t really see the difference between the plan and the structure, we see it that way: a structure is an overall scheme to follow. A plan is a subscheme, therefore depending on the structure. The plan is a part of the structure. It belongs to the structure.

To present it visually:

Both, a plan and a structure are extremely important while writing a well-constructed essay. Try to keep them both in mind and close to you. A good idea would be to write your plan on a separate piece of paper or a separate Word document, and follow it as you write your essay. This way you will avoid useless ideas without necessary facts and argumentation, loose thoughts in your essay, and all these messy elements.

And the last thing, because it’s not so obvious. Let’s go through these 3 structural parts of your future essay:

Introduction

Elements that should find its place in the introduction are:

• General, opening sentence to get your reader’s attention

• Presentation of the essay subject: it’s often a question, so try to answer it very shortly

  in the introduction to give your readers an idea of what’s to come

Though it may sound banal, the introduction is your (only) chance to intrigue the reader. If you lose that chance, he will walk away without reading your essay, or worse – he will read it, but won’t enjoy even a second of it. The introduction shouldn’t be too long, but not too short, either. Some people say that you should write it after having written the body – like this, you will know exactly what topics you will cover and how to effectively walk your reader through them.

Body

The body consists of paragraphs, each of them presenting one argument, one part of your answer. In the body, you’re expected to answer the question by opening up a discussion. You should do so while simultaneously showing your knowledge of the subject, therefore material you (should) have read and studied. All your arguments should be supported by facts, and preferably not the ones from your personal life. Try to use examples and facts from the material that your readers are familiar with. Use the source material not only as a base for your answer but also as your tool, the tool that you will use to convince your readers you’re right. Remember to introduce the examples correctly: to do so, use introductory phrases like for instance, to exemplify, as evidence.

Usually, the arguments are already there. You only have to concentrate and not necessarily try to think of the new ones. It’s not that we’re trying to kill your creativity. But often in traditional forms such as an essay, a traditional approach is the easiest and the best one. Try this way first, if that doesn’t work, turn your creativity on. (it should work, though).

Conclusion

The conclusion, surprisingly enough, concludes the two previous parts. To conclude correctly, don’t forget to:

• Repeat your answer to the initial question – you can reformulate it; you don’t have to. The main purpose is to appear the most coherent possible and to prove to your readers that you didn’t change your mind during writing. Also, to show that you still remember what are you talking about, and to help others remember, too.
• Present your main points again, in a shortened – much shortened – way. Remember the word limit!

Things to do after you have finished your essay

Ha, you thought it was over?

There are some things worth doing after, mainly because we value your time and want the outcome to be the best possible. It would be a pity if, after spending several hours on your essay, you’d left some embarrassing errors, unfinished sentences, or unused ideas. So, first of all, read it again, and then again. We are pretty sure there’s going to be some mistakes you didn’t mean to make.

It wouldn’t hurt to also revise your draft: see if you used all the ideas mentioned, and if not, try to remember why. See if you followed your plan, or if you got carried away by the writer’s rush.

Signposting

To make sure your essay reads smoothly, try using signposting, or words, expressions, sentences that will organise your essay – it will help carry your reader’s attention from one important point to another, but most importantly will make understanding the point you’re making a lot easier. Signposting words will also enrich your essay and give it the desired structure and order. If you have no idea what signposting is, we are here to give you some suggestions:

Signposting in the introduction

To give your readers some idea about the topics you will cover, you can say that this essay will address, examine, discuss or analyse something (e.g., address a problem). Then you would like to communicate the expected outcome; you can say that this essay will then clarify, show, attempt to, or describe something (e.g., Attempt to show the superiority of peanut butter over hazelnut spread).

Signposting in the body To introduce your arguments or paragraphs, you can use the point number (not a numeral),

like: first, second, third, or firstly, secondly at the beginning of each new paragraph.

To develop a point further, you can use furthermore, moreover, also, or additionally; to present two sides of a problem, debate, conflict you can use despite, however, in contrast, or nevertheless.

Signposting in the conclusion

As we’ve already said, the conclusion is a summary of what you said in the previous parts. Therefore, to accentuate it, you can use to conclude, in conclusion, or to sum up.

Using signposting guarantees a well-structured essay. It also improves your chances of getting a good grade.

Last but not least, if you have some time, you can also leave your essay for a couple of hours, or until the next day – this will give you the fresh perspective from which you will be able to edit your essay, and therefore improve it.

And if you have some troubles with writing in general, try our other article on How to start writing.

So, you need a job, and your potential employer needs a resume and a cover letter? We’re here to help!

First, let’s distinguish between a cover letter and a resume, because yes, these are two different things. For some, it may be obvious, for others – not so much. No one’s judging you, there’s a lot of confusion in the subject.

In this article, we will help you distinguish a resume from a CV from a cover letter by giving their definitions. Then, we will tell you how should your cover letter look like. The rest is up to you!

What is a Resume

A resume is a summary of your previous experiences in a professional and educational field. With a resume, you show your future employer that you have the needed experience, skills, and knowledge for the job.

Usually, the model of a resume is as follows:

• Name, contact information, photo
• Professional experience
• Education
• Skills
• Optional: hobbies, interests, certificates, achievements

A resume is a summary of the things listed above, you would usually use bullet points and

write in the third person, for example

• supervised a team of 7 people
• raised customer satisfaction by 3%

You’re probably thinking now that what we’ve just presented looks a lot like a CV, and that these two are probably the same thing under two different names. Well, you’re not wrong, but you’re not right, either.

What is a CV

A CV, or a curriculum vitae, is a document that precisely describes your career. It doesn’t have a length limit, but usually takes between two and three pages (but can take even 10 pages, and that, too, will be okay). While it also uses bullet points and third person, a document like this will lay down all your professional experience, education, academic awards and achievements, publications, conferences...

Fun fact: in the USA and Canada, a CV is used only for academic applications, whereas in other countries it can be used for professional ones. In some countries, there is no real distinction between a resume and a CV.

The purpose of a resume and CV is to give your employer an idea of your work history. You can – and you should - customise your resume according to the job you’re applying for, stressing the skills and experiences that you think are the most fitted for this particular position.

A cover letter has a different purpose than the two previous documents and is usually sent along with a resume. A cover letter is usually optional, and it’s up to you to decide if it can help you or will it just be a waste of everyone’s time. Including one when your employer doesn’t require it can show your motivation and eagerness to work. It can also tell your employer that you’re willing to exceed in your job, which, of course, is a good thing. However, when it’s clearly stated not to send a cover letter, don’t try to do the contrary. It will show that you haven’t thoroughly read the job offer and will put you in a bad light from the start.

What is a Cover letter

A cover letter is a detailed document that shows your desire for a particular position, and that is often written as a reply to a job offer. However, it doesn’t have to be: it can also be an unsolicited application.

As it is a letter, it gives you a chance to say more about your talents and your personality than a resume does. In a cover letter, you can elaborate on the things mentioned in the resume, as well as on the things from the job offer, showing your future employer that you didn’t just blindly copy and paste this cover letter from just another one of your job applications.

Remember: even though it’s a letter, or maybe because it’s a letter, you should keep it as professional as possible and show your motivation and eagerness with some moderation and language formality.

Contrary to a resume, as it’s already been stated, a cover letter gives you a possibility to show that this job means a lot to you, for example, because of your values that go perfectly well with the company culture (points for you, too, for knowing the company culture), or because of your personality traits, like having exceptional people skills, that would make you a perfect manager.

Ideally, a cover letter should contain these parts:

Heading

Quite obvious, but we think it’s still worth saying: the heading should include your name, address, date, and your contact information. Be sure these are the same contact information you put in your CV: check it twice before sending it, so you don’t come as sloppy, forgetful, and first of all, confusing.

Greeting

Still, it’s quite obvious, but you don’t want to forget that: start with Dear Mr. X; Dear Mrs. YZ – always use their name if you know it – like this, you will let the enterprise know that you gathered the needed information about their management. Or maybe you knew their name from the start because it’s your dream job? Whichever answer you chose, let them know you’re well informed. Of course, sometimes this kind of information isn’t public and you can’t find them that easily. In this case, address your letter to your hiring manager (Dear Hiring Manager,).

Opening paragraph

Here, you present yourself and your willingness and excitement to apply for the job. Don’t forget to mention what position you are applying for: some enterprises recruit multiple people for various positions at once, so it’s essential they know which position are you applying for. Of course, it’s also better to include the name of the position in order not to seem sloppy and just copy everything from your previous cover letter for another job (if you’re doing it, just make sure you got all the names right; it would be a shame to send a pretty good cover letter

addressed to the wrong person, for a wrong job). In the opening paragraph, you can also mention why you think you’re suited for the job (you have the needed experience, and a lot of it, for example, and you’re willing to use what you’ve learnt in your new job). You can also – don't have to – say something about the enterprise itself, for example mentioning the prizes that it was awarded as a reason you would like to develop your skills in such a talented team. It can be a good way to show your employer that their enterprise isn’t just the next nameless one on your list and that you’ve given some thought to this particular cover letter.

Middle paragraph

This is your chance to talk about your experience in detail. You can mention specific data and achievements, if you have them, like raising customer satisfaction by 17% in the last trimester, and explain how did you do it and why do you think it’s worth speaking of. It’s important not to repeat what’s already been stated in your resume: try to elaborate on the experiences you’ve mentioned, but not duplicate everything from your resume. It’s important to remember that the purpose of a cover letter and that of a resume are different and that a cover letter is not a longer version of a resume.

You can also use the keywords from the job offer, showing you have the skills and qualifications needed: it will be like a direct response to a job offer. The middle paragraph can also be your chance to sell yourself and your skills: present them in a way that will intrigue your future employer. Don’t forget to mention what you will bring to the table if they hire you: let’s not lie to ourselves, in the capitalist world of 2021, you shouldn’t, but actually you should consider yourself as a product to sell. And to sell yourself, you have to believe in yourself and, most importantly, in your abilities to do the job right. If you don’t like this logic, you can think of it that way: you working for the enterprise XYZ should be beneficial for both sides, it’s a business deal you’re trying to seal here. Yes, you’re trying to sell your talent and intelligence here, but in exchange for what? Think about your motivations and what you can get from this job: good future perspectives, good references, valuable experience, development possibilities...

The middle paragraph is also your chance to explain everything that might seem unclear in your resume, like gaps – if it’s a gap of one or two months, you can ignore it, and the employer will, too. But if your resume gap is more than six months long, you may want to be honest from the start, and to precise what was the reason. It doesn’t have to be bad: you have the full right to take a sabbatical or some time off work to upskill or take a class to enlarge your field of qualifications.

The closing paragraph

This is the place to quickly sum up what you’ve said in the previous paragraphs without repeating it. Give your employer information about how and when he can reach you, say that you’re available if they have any additional questions and that you’re willing to move forward in the hiring process. Finish your email with a closing line, thanking them for the time they took to study your job application. You can use Best, Sincerely, Kind regards, Respectfully as a closing phrase.

We know we’ve already mentioned it quickly at the beginning, but a cover letter should be concise – try choosing the skills and experiences that will be of most importance for this particular job. So, even if you’ve worked at 6 enterprises for the last 3 years, try choosing only

the essentials. A short cover letter can even be a curiosity – not everyone is aware that more doesn’t always mean better, and so a cover letter is often a resume+. Your employer will appreciate your being perfectly brief and on point, as it will show your understanding of his job, and the hiring process itself, too.

Before sending them, it can be helpful to read both documents, your resume, and your cover letter, to see if they’re completing each other instead of overlapping. This too, proves that you took enough time to create both documents efficiently. If you’re not convinced and don’t want to read everything again, because you’ve already spent 4 hours writing your cover letter, just keep in mind that your potential employer will probably look at both of the documents you sent at the same time - it is very possible the recruiter doesn’t have enough time to study each document very thoroughly, and it should be in your best interest to help stress the most important information about yourself and to put them in a visually appealing way.

Comparisons are important to users, especially in the digital, all-connected age. Nowadays, we have so many choices to make, and such an enormously wide selection of products, that it’s really hard to make a choice, and the right one. Usually, people hesitate between something and something and need someone who could help them make the final decision. That’s where a comparison (written by you) steps in, ready to help your clients according to their preferences and needs.

Types of comparisons

In terms of types, you can pretty much compare anything. On the Internet you will find

• Products comparisons (hiking boots Quechua vs Hiking boots Gosport)
• Services comparisons (Wendy’s or Chilli’s?)
• Capacities/abilities comparisons (think LeBron James vs Kobe Bryant kind of comparison)

People like to compare things, but not all comparisons are the same. Sometimes, it is not even to buy one of the compared products. Just look at the last point.

However, before you begin writing your comparison, try to determine which products can be compared directly. Sure, you really can pretty much compare anything, but not every comparison will bring you useful, fruitful results. Try to compare the products that have similar features in the same categories: this way your reader will be able to use your article directly, and you will be sure that you did a good job and you haven’t just lost a lot of time comparing two completely different, unrelated products.

How to write a comparison?

We can say that in some way, a comparison resembles a review: while writing a comparison, you’re writing a review of two products, adding a final decision or a piece of advice at the end. Again, your experience is very important: sure, readers want the technical details, but they’re humans, just like you, and so the human factor is finally the most important. How did you use the described products? Could you use them as you planned to, and did you use the full potential of these products? And most importantly, which one was better?

Just like with a review, your experience means everything. We know that it may sound obvious, but it would be a good idea to really TRY both of the products: your readers have already done some research, but they surely didn’t buy two similar products. That’s your role, unfortunately. No one really needs two laptops or two kitchen robots (they really take too much space), but just for the sake of your little experiment, you should try to purchase, rent or borrow the product. Just try to get your hands on the actual thing.

Of course, your comparison can be based on the reviews you read on the Internet, but we find it a bit unfair to your clients.

You can also try to write a comparison with someone. You have a MacBook and your colleague Alex has Asus ZenBook? Use this opportunity to make your article the truest possible, and to maybe make your life less boring and get to know Alex a bit better.

The most important while writing a comparison is to have made a research on both of the things you’re comparing. And I’m saying real, thorough research. Remember: people that will read your article probably have already made their own research that has led them to this exact point, these two final products. And now, despite their research, they feel they could really use outsider’s, or rather insider’s opinion on the subject. You have to be the insider that will have the information the reader might have missed or considered unimportant during his research; you are the resource he’s going to base his opinion on. It's a responsible task, but don’t worry. After all, it’s just an article. Take it seriously, though.

Model of a comparison

The title itself should clearly show the focus of the article. Try to narrow it down to a specific situation or environment – normally this kind of comparison is the last step of a reader-to- become-a-buyer, so he knows what he is looking for and what he will use the product for. YOU must know it, too. Otherwise, you can just stop writing it right now.

The narrowing down can also be just a part of your article that can enrich its approach: not only will you tell the reader which basketball shoes have a better grip on the floor, you will also tell them which shoes not to choose for an outdoor basketball game...in the rain.

The title could be something like that:

Asus ZenBook vs Apple’s MacBook: the graphic designer/gamer/data scientist/student/other professions edition – it may sound banal because we just added a job to the title, but it may just be enough: after all, graphic designers will know what they are looking for in their next laptop, and so will a gamer, a student and anyone else.

After the title, ideally, you would start with a short introduction presenting both products, then proceed to list their positive and negative features. It’s best to present them one after another or to juxtapose them in two columns. It would look like this:

Comparison X vs Y: which one to choose? Positive X Positive Y Negative X

Negative Y Or Positive X Positive Y/Negative Y, depending on if he has or hasn’t got the positive feature of the X

This way of presenting the data will make it easier for the reader to directly compare the same features of two different products, therefore showing them, which one will be better for their particular needs.

To make your article even more convincing, you can add some photos of the products. Not only so it looks visually longer on the website, but also so your clients know what you are talking about. This will also give you the possibility to focus on the visual aspects, which can

be particularly useful while talking, for example, about basketball shoes. Like this, you can really show your readers the bouncy (or not) sole, the laces, the breathing material of which they’re made. And most importantly, it will give your readers some idea of the product. It’s often pretty disappointing, knowing that the product you want to buy has all the technical features expected, but is really, really ugly. Putting its photo next to the description will help your clients not to get their hopes up.

A thing you can do to help your lazier readers is to put all the things you’ve just said in your article in a chart or a table to make it visually more appealing and more interesting. Not only will it make reading easier, but it will also put similar features directly next to each other on one page, so they can really compare them quickly, maybe even print them. It will also be a sort of sum up that people can read if they don’t have the time to read all the article. To make your comparison even more reader-friendly, you can try to come up with a point system, where each of the products gets or loses a point, depending on whether he has the right features or not. In the end, you only have to sum up the points and put them at the end of the chart.

For the absolute worst, laziest readers, you can even try to sum up the chart with one or two sentences, just describing the data you’ve just presented.

Normally, the data, the photos, and the points combined should be sufficient to give all the necessary information to the reader, without the need for a real verdict – data should speak for itself, although you can do it to help the undecided. It could be something like this:

While MacBook is visually more attiring and a bit lighter, the technical capacities of Asus seem more important to our team.

So, that was our recipe for writing a good comparison. If you’re really bored, you can compare it with the other comparisons on the Internet to see if we got all the points right.