We talked about short articles in part 1, now it's time to look at what makes up a long article and a project.

Long Articles

Long articles are usually from 700 up to about 3000 words and are written as if they are a short book. You can discuss complex subjects and you can use a higher language level than you would with a short article. However, you still shouldn’t make the language level too complex. Things have changed in recent years; these days, literacy is lower and we tend to have a much higher exposure to technology and that means there is an overwhelming amount of information to digest. That means we still need to keep things fairly simple and, for a longer nonfiction article, if you want successful communication, we need to adjust to the needs of our readers.

The structure of a long article should be to use titles and subtitles throughout. Every 500-700 words, there should be a subtitle of some description and to achieve this, your long article must be structured something like a book. If you ignore the planning and the structuring of your article, I can guarantee that you will end up almost completely rewriting it or risk having it rejected. Start with your subject matter and break it down into smaller segments before you start writing.

Projects

Projects are always nonfiction, they are always long and they are always complex. It might help to think of a project as being more of a small book or a compilation of long articles. A project could be somewhere along the lines of a human resources manual,  an instruction manual, a medical report, material for a course, a technical manual, even an annual report for a company.

Do not expect a project to be any less than 10,000 words in length. If it is, then it classed as a compilation of essays or articles, not a project. In most cases, a project will be a specific order from a client, not something you would just sit down and write for the fun of it; projects are also normally public.

You can plan your material around a project but you would need a specific plan in mind, not to mention a purpose. For example, if you wanted to write a course that would be available online and was centered around endurance and success during economic failure, your writing would need to be structured as a project. Later, you could decide to publish it as a series or rework it into chapters and publish it as a book (this is usually self-publishing as an eBook that is readily available online for those searching for that subject matter).

The point I am trying to make is that a project requires careful planning and you should have a very specific idea or you have been hired to write something a client wants. If the project is your own idea, be sure to have a focused plan in place for online marketing or as a published eBook.