Soon after my post on Webmasterworld came a post with tips on writing; I added the following:
Good list, Nomis5. Perhaps best advice I ever came across – in book How to Write Like a Pro, By Barry Tarshis [seemed daft title to me; but recommended to me and excellent; lost my copy] concerned focus control. About having some idea of what’s in your reader’s head, keeping them focused, following your article. Seems obvious but my goodness is that an elephant over there… but if you’re clumsy, can lose reader, break chain of thought, and perhaps lose reader for good. Which isn’t to say that have to write one continuous article, a to b to c. But when start para, end should follow from first sentence; next para should follow on too. It’s also good to use "chapters", even within short articles.
To write, also have to read, and read plenty. Try to be aware of techniques writers are using in good articles. For web, those short paragraphs seem to me more important than in print: text may look daunting on screen.
Lately read book by Joe Sugarman, on writing copy to sell, and he used lots of headings: also worth considering; I’ve increased numbers of headings (tho only one h1 per page). Well, not really answering first question here, but maybe of some relevance and use. More on topic: I mentioned writing articles for print. Later, providing I own copyright, can put them on my site(s). [Or, ask copyright owner if ok to use.]
Here on this site, I earlier did an article: Advice on Writing for Print and for the Web