Help me improve my article please

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   Shesabutterflyposted 7 years ago

   I got the generic e-mail back after submitting my article https://hubpages.com/religion-philosoph … ript-Study to Owlcation. Can someone please look through it and see what I can do to make it niche site ready? Any thoughts are greatly appreciated!

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      gerimcclymposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      What an interesting topic.
      
      I read through your article and as someone who is quite familiar with the Bible, I found your article to be rather confusing. For example, in the beginning, you mention "a manuscript study is the perfect tool to help you" but as I kept reading, the manuscript study seems to be more of an approach to studying the Bible as opposed to a tool.
      
      You mention "These studies are usually typed, double spaced with wide margins..." which makes it sound like the manuscript is something a person needs to purchase? So now I think the manuscript is a tool, something I have to buy, which is part of an approach to studying the Bible.
      
      You mention "Versus"--I think you mean "Verses".
      
      I suggest replacing your heading "How to Choose the Best Books" with "How to Choose the Best Books from the Bible" since that is what you mean.
      
      Your subheading, "Genesis"--I suggest including specifically why this is one of your favorite books from the Bible, as you did for the other books you list as favorites.
      
      Perhaps pretend you are writing to an audience who has no more than an elementary knowledge of the Bible. Hope this helps.

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      1. 64

         Shesabutterflyposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         Thank you! These are very helpful. Are you familiar with manuscript studies? Curiuos if you have thoughts on how to clarify what a manuscript study is?
         
         I see manuscripts as a tool for learning and interpreting the passages although I can see how someone might think of it differently. I'll try and think of a different way to word or restructure the article so that it sounds more cohesive and not so confusing. I will try writing it from the studying aspect, as that is what the title of the article suggests rather than saying it's a tool. Do you think that would make it more clear? Instead of tool I could say something along the lines of "a manuscript study is the perfect way to help one interpret the bible easier" or something along those lines where I replace the word "tool" with the word "way".
         
         One does not need to buy manuscripts, they can be found on-line for free but I wouldn't consider manuscripts something the average person could create which I guess is why I refer to it as a tool. I know I wouldn't be able to create one myself, but maybe there is an easy way to create one that I have not found yet. I'll consider doing some more research to see what I can find out. I was raised to never mark in my bible, so manuscripts are a great way to write and mark up passages without writing in the actual book. However, I know many people who do mark up their bible's and do not like having manuscripts because they do not like loose papers lying around. I can see both sides, so I was unsure how to word what exactly a manuscript is because it will likely be different for different people. Again I will work on making it easier to understand
         
         I was considering that title, but was unsure if titles could be too long. I'll definitely go in and change the title (my current one always felt incomplete to me) and go through the whole article again for grammar/spelling mistakes.

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            gerimcclymposted 6 years agoin reply to this

            No, I am not familiar with manuscript studies. I agree that changing your title is a good idea. Another suggestion for the title is "How a Manuscript Study Can Help You Interpret the Bible."
            
            If you find out how to create a manuscript, you could include that under a subheading: "How to Create a Manuscript." And you could let your readers know that manuscripts can be ordered online for free.
            
            Glad I could help.

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            Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this

            If you can download the manuscripts from an online site then include where to clarify that they don't need to be purchased.  If there are different versions that might appeal to different people give a brief description of what is available and what the benefits of the different version are.  If you can create them yourself - I would think it would be easy enough to find an online text version you can copy and paste from - you might want to give basic instructions of how to do this so people can customize what they want to study, if what they find online doesn't fit for them (go here, copy section you want to study, paste into a word document, double space etc.)  I think this information would really add to the article and make it more useful which would get it more views and higher a higher ranking.  Good luck!

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      peachpurpleposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Sorry I don't know what manuscript is but from the look at your hub, I think you could add in videos, poll, quiz and more pictures to make it lively, I almost snooze off after reading it halfway

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   RonElFranposted 6 years ago

   Since I was not familiar with the subject, I started reading the article expecting to learn what a manuscript Bible study is and why I would want to do one. But instead of explaining the what and why, you jump right into explaining the format (note typo in "Versus may or may not be marked" - should be "Verses"). The lack of any explanation of why learning about manuscript studies would be be worth my time left me, as a reader, with no incentive to continue reading, and I didn't.
   
   Your first couple of paragraphs should explain clearly the concept and benefits of manuscript studies. Otherwise, most readers will do what I did, and quickly move on.

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   1. 64

      Shesabutterflyposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you for the thoughts. I will restructure the beginning of the article so it answers those questions as well as Natalie's. I wasn't thinking about an audience that would not know what a manuscript study is. I can see how that would cause me to lose a lot of readers. Knowing what you wanted to learn from the article has been very helpful!

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