Hello ...Some questions ;)

[Celeste Stewart]

Alicat,
Ed isn't one to recommend adding useless words to bulk up an article and is an advocate of conscise writing, so please don't try the approach of adding fluff (I don't think you would).

Not having seen the article, it's hard to give advice for adding more information. The only thing I can suggest is to look at it and make sure that it's not too general or that the article doesn't merely state the obvious.

For example, if writing an article on selecting a puppy for the family and the article falls along the lines of "Puppies are cute. Picking a puppy for the family is a difficult decision. Having a puppy in the home is challenging" without also detailing how to approach making the decision, considerations that matter under several circumstances, and specific steps for overcoming specific challenges, then more information would be needed.

An editor for a lifestyle magazine once gave some terrific advice: "Imagine that you are writing for a sophisticated friend." Using this advice, your friend already knows that picking a puppy is difficult. How can you help your friend make a smart decision? What information can you deliver that your friend doesn't already know? How can she overcome the challenges that the puppy is sure to bring?

PS - we also have a constructive criticism thread where you can post a portion of the article for fellow CC writers to look at. IMO, I think this would be more useful as we can give you advice with CC's preferences in mind. I'm sure that you'll get tons of "it's great, they must be crazy not to love it" advice elsewhere. Here, you'll get support and some useful tips for tailoring the article for the CC audience. Plus, we're pretty nice, too. Post a few snippets and we'll be happy to help. You can later go back and delete the post to ensure that it's not "indexed" by the search engines.

[Ed]

Also, it is important to use specific phrases that describe to the reader exactly what is going on. The reader shouldn't have to use her imagination or work to hard to understand the message. The rejection asked you to revise both for clarity and more information, so both of these issues must be addressed. If it isn't clear what "it" refers to, then "it" should be replaced with the noun. Instead of using vague phrases like "go out," use, "leave the house," "run errands," etc. Provide examples to eliminate ambiguities.