I got a question from a woman named Veronica asking what eHow allows and does not allow on their site. She wants to know how articles should be written, and what topics are okay.

eHow.com is fairly permissive in what kinds of articles they accept.  Basically, you can write “how to” do just about anything, as long as 1) it follows the correct format, 2) it is not objectionable, and 3) is not spam, plagiarized, or in violation of any trademarks.

What exactly does that all mean?  Well, I ‘ve decided to take this opportunity to write a three part series on the matter.    Today, I’ll discuss how an eHow writer should format an article that they write for eHow.com.

Title

eHow.com is a site that tells people “how to” do things.   All articles written by eHow writers have a default title prefix (”How to”), and therefore the title must flow with that to be considered proper format.  For example, “How to Grow Roses in South Texas” is in perfect format, while, “How to a Guide to Growing Roses” is not.

Steps Must be Actionable

All steps in an eHow article must be actionable. This means every step in the article must be something that a person can do.   An abbreviated example of this is, “Step 1: Buy roses that are heat tolerant. Step 2: Choose a spot in which the roses will get some shade during the day. Step 3: Water regularly. Use drip irrigation with a timer if you’ll be away for extended periods.”   A poorly-formatted example is, “Step 1: Roses are relatively easy to grow in South Texas if you know what you’re doing.  Step 2: You should always be sure to water your roses so that they won’t be stressed in the Texas sun. Step 3: I have been growing roses for 15 years, and I now have over 10 varieties in my yard.”    You’ll notice that the 2nd example’s steps are not actionable.  The first step is a fact, the second step is actionable.  The final step is more of a blog-style of writing.

Every one of your steps should be something that a person can act out or do.  Do not end your articles with a “filler” step along the lines of “And that’s all there is to it!”  Or “Wasn’t that easy?”  Or even, “My personal blog has more information about this subject.”  If you can’t think of three steps that can be performed, sit back and think a bit longer, or just don’t write the article.

Be Clear and Concise

This is just a basic rule of good writing.  eHow asks for it, and as a writer, you should be able to deliver this.  This means the wording should be something that is easy to understand.

Use Proper Spelling and Grammar

This, again, is just a basic rule of writing.  (I can’t tell you  how many articles I’ve read telling other writers how important it is to use proper spelling and “grammer.”)

While we all are guilty of a typo once in a while, it’s easy to avoid a gross amount of mistakes by simply writing the article in a word processor first.  Once written, you can run a spell and grammar check.  You’ll still have to re-read, though.  Spell checkers catch misspelled words, but can’t catch when you’ve used the wrong word.  For instance, if you mean to say, “You could use grape jelly, but blueberry is better,” and you accidentally typed out, “You could use grapple jerry, butt blueberry is butter,” the spell checker would just see that the words are spelled correctly.  Without giving it a read-through before publishing, you’d end up confusing (and possibly cracking up) your audience.

Next time: Part 2: Objectionable Matter and How to Avoid It