Colours spun
Starting Out
In the first post on spinning, we wrote one article in 3 different versions, then spun the different parts together to make 27 different possible articles that we could use. Check out the post if you have forgotten what was done there. The maths for checking how many different versions you can get is to multiply the number of different alternatives you have for each section, so if you have 3 sections and each section has 3 alternatives, then you have 3 X 3 X 3 different possible versions.
Possible Variations on Articles
mixed fruit
One of the possible articles was:
“It is so easy to find topics to write about on a blog, just look around you:
- weather, seasons
- sports, watching, competing
- Problems, technology, memories
Pick just one of these topics and write a short paragraph on it”
And another possible version was:
“What topics can be written about in a blog? Lots – let’s see: You could write about the weather and the seasons, or about people, such as the sports they are watching or taking part in and how any competitive sports are progressing. There are also the types of problem people have, maybe with new technology or even what happened in the past. Try picking one of these topics and writing a few words on it, then another and seeing if you can relate the two. Be creative in how you relate them!”
For article 1, I chose sections 1, 2 and 3 and for article 2, I chose sections 3, 1 and 2. Each article covers the same ground but they look very different and they only contain a few words. Think how different your articles could be if they were longer and you provided even more alternatives! Even with the short articles above, there were 27 different possible articles. With more alternatives and some slightly more advanced forms of spinning, you could make those articles really different so that members of two or more of your blogs will not feel that they are reading the same article over and over.
What Other Spinning can be Done?
Graphics
It is possible to spin graphics, so that different pictures appear with different articles. You don’t have to have a different picture for EVERY article, just choose some that you think would suit your content and the pictures can be assorted among the articles. For instance, if you are writing about horses, look for some different pictures of horses. By adding different photographs, in different positions, with different titles, you are making your articles very different from one another. You can get free photographs from Pixabay and these can be used on any site, personal or commercial. Joining the site is free. If you upload ten of your own photographs you will not see any advertisements from them. People can make donations to you (if they choose) for using one of your photographs. I have about 15 photographs up on the site and have received 3 donations.
horse running free
horse’s head
horse and cart
Synonyms
Synonyms are alternative words you can use in place of a word (or phrase) in your original article. In school, you might very well have been asked to go through your essay and replace every instance of the word “nice” or “lovely” with a more targetted, appropriate adjective, perhaps such as “fashionable”, “clean”, “colourful” or “tasteful”. While synonyms usually refer to the kinds of words you can find in a thesaurus, in spinning, the term “synonyms” often means you can replace whole phrases with a totally different phrase that means something similar.
Layout
You can change the layout of your articles too by adding in lines, changing the number of paragraphs, or adding content like music to one blog and not another. There are many possible variations. Be creative!