Writing Inrochester

Copywriting may not be an easy task to some. But for majority of people, copywriting is as fun as doing your relaxation activities. Copywriting is a proven effective tool in terms of advertising and marketing. However, in order to achieve the best outcome of this marketing tool, one must really identify the effective ways on how one can come up with a good and working copywriting material. I have included below some of the best practices that one can use to ensure success in copywriting.

• The first thing that copywriters should remember when doing a copywriting material is to basically determine how to catch the attention of the readers. Usually, the initial portion that readers read about an article is the subject line or the headline. You may want to use this portion to initially attract the readers to read on the material. Other than the headline, you may also start putting on some pictures or graphics to arouse attraction.

• After the attraction, entice your readers with your content to keep them interested with the material. It is always best practice to make your copywritten material interesting by including essential and significant contents on it. In this way, you are able to sustain the driving force of your material.

• And finally, after the interest has been sustained, your material should be able to convince. As we all know, your material should convert advertising interest to sales. If your material is able to sustain the interest, it must be able to connive also your prospective clients to convert their interest to significant ouput – the sales!

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article marketing success, ‘Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide‘

Download it free here:

Article marketing is one of the most powerful ways to build your internet business. Best of all, it’s free. Your only cost is time and effort.

In my mind, there are four pillars that all fall under the article marketing umbrella. You need to be proficient in all four areas in order to be wildly successful at article marketing.

The Four Pillars of Wildly Successful Article Marketing

Article Writing

If you can write a seven item grocery list, you can write an article that will bring you more traffic, prospect, publicity and profits. I’ve been accused of making the article writing process seem too simple with the above statement. I guess I could make it more complicated, but why?

You need to have an increasingly large article volume. The higher your article numbers, the higher all you other numbers will be.

Article Submission

In my way of coaching article marketing, article submission is not which article directories you submit your articles to, but rather how you submit your articles. At present, I have identified 35 small nuances in the article submission process that result in getting your article picked up more often.

Article Marketing

Article marketing is the process of getting your articles in front of as many eyes as possible in as many consumable forms as possible. This includes the article directories, and also includes leveraging your article into other consumable forms or products.

Article Income & Product Creation

Many people falsely believe that you cannot make money with your articles. I just hope they continue to be my competition, and you should hope the same. Most information products are content based and articles are a fantastic form of content.

Would you like free access to two of my Article Writing Templates? You can download them by going to TheArticleGuy.com/bonustemplates.htm TheArticleGuy.com/bonustemplates.htm

Would you like to get in on our free weekly Article Guy TeleSeminars? Visit TheArticleGuyTeleSeminars.com TheArticleGuyTeleSeminars.com to get started today!

From Jeff Herring - The Article Guy

Although most folks think of it as a taboo for an author or a writer to write their own book reviews, I disagree and my point of view on this matter is multifaceted. You see, a self-review is not necessarily a sales pitch and one can honestly make that statement as an absolute. In fact books generally contain introductions, notes to reader and forwards.

If those portions of the book were to be published as articles they would indeed make great reading here on an online article website. Of course if a self-reviews were to be posted on an online article submission website then it would be in the book review section and would probably be disallowed. I believe that to be a troubling issue.

One top author stated that; “In the real world of book publishing, online reviews by readers don’t count.”

This is an excellent point on the subject of writers or authors who do self-reviews and one that they should consider and yet, I would submit that there is “NO Real World of Book Publishing” and that it is a created world by an Industry whose time and era is ending and therefore, in this venue, which is not the Real World of Publishing, those points are invalid.

You state; “Reviews by pros count. reviews by pros sell books.”

Indeed, but that is off topic. Professional Parasite book reviews only exist because readers are tired of the horrific book reviews by Amazon.com’s malcontents, and worthless dribbling comments on books. I much prefer reading what the author has to say than anyone else twice removed from the situation.

Many would believe that an author who write’s their own book review is tooting their own horn. That might be correct and yet we cannot know that and we must not attack self-reviewers as Ego-centric maniac types. You see, it simply is not so, it might be so, but it would not necessarily be so. And even if it were just because someone has an ego does not mean they are wrong. Just because someone has convinced themselves in their belief system that they are balanced does not mean they are right.

The Ego debate is irrelevant to the actual debate it is akin to labeling your enemy unfit to lead due to their stance outside the social norm; then using guerrilla style rhetoric attacks at their expense. Primate Politics 101. I cannot honor such comments, would recommend adhering to the topic. I leave you with that thought. The goal is simple; to help you in your quest to be the best in 2007. I thank you for reading my many articles on diverse subjects, which interest you.

“Lance Winslow” - If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; WorldThinkTank.net/ WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is a guest writer for ourspokanemagazine.com/ Our Spokane Magazine in Spokane, Washington

Discipline and practice are essential to develop writing skills. If you consider writing as an art, they will help your writing tremendously.

Some people are born with writing in their blood. They can sit down and start writing — thousands upon thousand of words, delicately and precisely threaded together like beautiful pearls.

But some aspiring writers are arrested in their dream of effortless good writing by lack of discipline.

For them, the act of writing is painful. A keyboard — or just a good old fountain pen — at hand, they joust with a sheet of paper, intimidated and paralysed by the vast blankness, a mockery of our dumbstruck wordlessness.

But writers have two secret weapons — practice and discipline — that will ultimately help them achieve an easier, more fluent and fruitful writing style.

A very prolific writer once said: “Discipline and its practice are like the obverse and reverse of the same coin. We cannot separate discipline from practice; they have to go together.” [1]

He also said: “A disciplined life comes from constant practice. Nobody can be a world champion overnight. What does practice mean? Practice means patience, patience-light. Patience is not something weak. It is something dynamic; it is something illumining. We want it in order to have a disciplined life.” [2]

Keeping in mind that each writer can have very different needs, here are ten tips that can help your writing.

1) Make writing part of your day-to-day life. Find a fixed time in your day when you can sit down and dedicate yourself to writing without any distraction.

2) Set yourself a goal based on words, not time. Time-based goals are not as fruitful, because allow for lots of excuses. When I started to practice writing as a discipline, I felt 500 words per hour were a good challenge for me, but your personal goal can be higher or lower. Chose a target that is not too easy to reach, but not too difficult either.

3) Before going to sleep, it helps to think for a minute or two about what you are going to write the next day. Hopefully your subconscious will do some work for you.

4) Even if you are busy, uninspired, or simply tired, sit down and write something. You really need to write daily if you want to form this habit.

5) Some people like to write late at night, but if you are just starting and have problems with discipline, you may want to try writing first thing in the morning. Early morning hours can be very fruitful — I wake up at 5 so I can dedicate at least an hour to my writing, before anything else comes up.

6) Before writing, try to meditate. Meditation is a very, very powerful tool in a writer’s arsenal. If you are not doing it yet, give it a chance. It works for me.

7) The Internet is a major distraction. While you write, make sure you unplug yourself from the Internet. If you use a wireless connection, switch that off as well. If you need to check some on-line reference, jot down your questions and search for the answers later.

Part of discipline is to learn the tools of the trade. Learn to use a good text editor — one that will allow you to focus on writing and not on froufrou. But don′t let it take over your practice! EMACS is one of the best text editors out there — and it is free. [3]

9) Don’t worry if you do not know how to begin — just start writing! Don’t wait to form a clear outline of what you want to say. Get those fingers moving on the keyboard — or the pen scratching the paper. After you get the juices running, you will find that some structure is important — either as an outline or just in your mind.

10) Some aspiring writers try to write with music in the background, or other people in the room. Concentration really favours silence and solitude.

Footnotes:

[1] “Illumination-Fruits″, by Sri Chinmoy
[2] “Earth’s Cry Meets Heaven’s Smile - Part 2″, by Sri Chinmoy
[3] Neal Stephenson said about EMACS: “If you are a professional writer — i.e., if someone else is getting paid to worry about how your words are formatted and printed — EMACS outshines all other editing software in approximately the same way that the noonday sun does the stars. It is not just bigger and brighter; it simply makes everything else vanish.” - “In the Beginning Was The Command Line″ - by Neal Stephenson

Corresponding currently from New York City, Priyadarshan Bontempi is an Italian journalist who has been writing about technology, society and lifestyle since 1984. Personal interests include creative writing, walking, organ music and LISP. He has been a student of Indian-born meditation teacher srichinmoylibrary.com/ Sri Chinmoy for the past 17 years.

1. Your voice: With it you are “in,” without it you are “out!” This is kind of a harsh statement, to say the least, but it is the truth. As auctioneers, we have a tendency to overlook our most valued possession - our voice.

2. Time is spent making sure all details of the auction are addressed. But what about our voice? What do you suppose would happen if, when you stepped up to the microphone to begin your sale, your voice didn’t respond?

3. As auctioneers, we need to spend more time thinking about how we use our voices and how we care and maintain them. When I entered the auction profession years ago, I was amazed at how little, if any, attention was given to the voice mechanism, how it works and its application to the auction chant.

4. The auction chant is as much an art form as singing. You should be able to generate as much emotion through your chant as a singer generates through song.

5. Emotion generates excitement, trust and confidence. It will ultimately have a direct bearing on the success or failure of your auctions.

6. So, what about this thing called your voice? It is located in a cartilage cylinder or “larynx” in our trachea (windpipe). Rather than go into a detailed description with all the medical technology, let’s just say the vocal folds, or “cords” as they are called, stretch across the larynx from front to rear. As we exhale, the vocal cords set the air into vibration, causing sound.

7. The thing that is important to realize here is that the vocal cords produce only 1/10 of 1 percent of the sound we make!

8. That means that 99.9 percent of the sound is made elsewhere in our bodies. Our rib cage, chest cavity, nasal and sinus passages and the bone structure of our head and neck all contribute to the total sound we call our “voice.” This is why good posture is very, very important to good vocal production.

9. The 99.9 percent sound that is produced in our bodies, not by the vocal cords, are called “partials.” These partials add color, fullness and depth to the sound. In a sense, they act as “resonators.” This is why many times when we have a cold or sinus problem, the sound of our voice changes. These resonators cannot function as they normally do and thereby alter the sound.

10. Warm up is also very important for your voice to perform properly while auctioning, just as it is important for a singer to warm up. Warm up limbers up the vocal cords as well as activates the resonators in your body.

11. The best time I have found to do this is when I’m in the shower or driving in my car to the sale. The best method I have found is simply humming. Start with the lower range of your voice. Go up three notes and then back down. Do the same three notes again. Repeat this for a minute or so. Next, raise the bottom note to the next note. Repeat the same process of up three notes and back down. You can either continue to raise the bottom note one step at a time and repeat this process or hum to a song on the radio. Just be sure to stay in your lower range for a while and also to use good support. Good support means to pull inward on your stomach as you exhale, supporting the sound,

12. Why do we speak or “chant” on the pitch that we do? The human voice is divided into three separate groups or areas. Generally, the note or “pitch” on which we go from the bottom range into the middle range is the one that we speak on, It is a comfortable pitch and an easy one to convey whatever emotion or feeling we wish to. From the bottom to the top of our voice range is approximately 3 1/2 octaves of 44 notes.

13. Never attempt to chant with your legs crossed at the knees. There are five sets of muscles going from the abdomen to the upper legs. We need all of them to pull in on our stomachs and force the diaphragmatic muscle inside our abdomen to force the air upward out of our lungs.

14. Standing with both feet flat on the floor and your weight evenly distributed between them is best. Your back should be straight and rib cage in its proper place. To put your rib cage in its proper place, raise your hands above your head, and then lower your arms and not your shoulders. This will raise your rib cage to its correct position.

15. Put excitement in your voice, speak clearly and chant in phrases I can guarantee you’ll be more successful with your audiences and your auctions.

Adrian has many years as a real estate educator, investor, and personal financial consultant. He has personally purchased over 50 single family houses in the past 5 years using various methods of creative real estate investing.. He shares his invaluable experience and techniques to those looking for guidance in their real estate and personal financial activities. He is currently a Certified Real Estate Auctioneer selling properties in the Tacoma/Seattle area of Washington State. For more information visit his website at auctionsnorthwest.com auctionsnorthwest.com

Rich Haas, of Mankato, Minnesota is president of Continental Real Estate & Auctioneers. The company does primarily real estate auctions on a regional level, but because of the nature of the auction business, Haas said the company “gets involved with all types of auctions.” He is also president of Continental Auctioneers School in Mankato. auctioneerschool.com/ auctioneerschool.com/

Every writer expends a great deal of creative energy developing a story line and limning well-balanced prose with evocative sentences. That’s what writing is all about, after all. But fiction writers have an additional aspect to creation–effective dialogue. Very few stories, novellas or novels are without dialogue, and for some writers, this can be a stumbling block.

Listen to How People Talk

If you listen carefully to how people speak, you’ll notice that people tend to use shorter sentences in times of high emotion: anger, surprise, awe. “I can’t take this! Get out!” versus “I find this situation intolerable. I want you to leave right now.” They ramble a bit when they′re nervous or confused. “I know this isn’t what you wanted, but I wasn’t sure which way to make the diagram fit best on the page so I brought both copies with me. I hope you don’t mind.” Young children tend to get pronouns confused or leave out articles: “Me go to store with Gramma.” You’ll begin to recognize how different personalities have different word usage and diction. All of these observations can be incorporated in the dialogue you write.

The best grammar isn’t always used, either. Even people who write well, don’t always speak well. “I′ve got to get that new CD of Carlson’s,” takes precedence in speech over the more correct, “I have to buy Carlson’s new CD.” Word usage and contractions that you might avoid in narration become quite logical in dialogue: “There’s no more to see, so let’s get outta here.”

Use Dialogue as Enhancement

To be most effective, use dialogue as an extension of your story line and character development. Let’s say you have a character, Jane. She’s late to the airport. She gets in a taxi and tells the driver she has to hurry to the airport. He agrees.

Well, those are the facts, and it could be left strictly to narration: Jane shoved her way into the cab and slammed the door as she told the driver to hurry to the airport. He agreed.

Or dialogue could be used. These examples show how different Jane characters could speak and how the energy of the scene is increased.

Plain Jane: “I have to get to the airport really fast. Can you do that?” Cabby: “You betcha.”

Jane of the streets: “The airport, bro, and hit it!” Cabby: “I’m on it!”

Jane the executive: “Airport. A big tip if you make it quick.” Cabby: “Yes, ma’am!”

Jane the professor: “To the airport, please, and I’m in a hurry.” Cabby: “Certainly.”

You notice the cabby’s response was dictated by Jane’s words, making the scene more believable. Inconsistencies between people’s words and actions should be used for a reason and also noted. For instance, if Jane the professor had said “The airport, bro, and hit it!” The cabby might have jerked to look at her, or the narrator might have commented how Jane chuckled inside at her language–or, both.

Writing effective dialogue is an art all its own and one that should be honed with observation and rewriting. Truly knowing your characters is essential. Reading scenes aloud to yourself or others (writing groups are good for this) will increase your ability to hear the rhythms of sentences and recognize good (not necessarily proper) word usage. With diligent practice, this creative aspect of your writing will become second nature and flow evenly with your story and literary style.

(c)2004 by Karyn Follis Cheatham

About The Author

Karyn Follis Cheatham is the author of nine fiction and nonfiction books, numerous articles and published poems. She has edited for national magazines and publishing houses, and gives presentations at schools and libraries on writing and the American West. Visit her web sites kaios.com/” target=”_new kaios.com/ KAIOS.com″ target=”_new KAIOS.com and awritersaide.com/” target=”_new awritersaide.com/ A Writer’s Aide.

FORWARD

The 188 stage Hero’s Journey (Monomyth) is the template upon which the vast majority of successful stories and Hollywood blockbusters are based upon. In fact, ALL of the hundreds of Hollywood movies we have deconstructed (see URL below) are based on this 188 stage template.

Understanding this template is a priority for story or screenwriters. This is the template you must master if you are to succeed in the craft.

[The terminology is most often metaphoric and applies to all successful stories and screenplays, from The Godfather (1972) to Brokeback Mountain (2006) to Annie Hall (1977) to Lord of the Rings (2003) to Drugstore Cowboy (1989) to Thelma and Louise (1991) to Apocaplyse Now (1979)].

THERE IS ONLY ONE STORY

THE 188 STAGE HERO’S JOURNEY involves a number of major phases, including:

a) The arrival from Another World into an Ordinary World.

b) The Ordinary Self, that has come about as a result of being in the Ordinary World.

c) The encouragement from the Ordinary World into a New World.

d) The gradual dissolution of the Old Self.

e) The becoming of the New Self.

f) The thrusting away from the New Self and New World.

g) The confrontation with challenges.

h) The mastering of the Old and New Worlds and Selves.

more…

(simply go to heros-journey.info/ heros-journey.info/ for full details)

ABRIDGED TIPS, EXCERPTS AND EXAMPLES:

EXILE, ORDINARY WORLD AND ORDINARY SELF

It is common to make explicit the Ordinary World. This is a benchmark of the physical journey. It is the start point against which the end point will be measured. The Hero will eventually return to this (In Lord of the Rings (2004), Frodo returns to the Shire) or move away from it (In Alien (1979), Ripley never again returns to that world she knew, in which the Alien is not present).

It is also common to make explicit the Ordinary Self. This is a benchmark of the psychological journey - the Transformation. Again, it is the psychological start point against which the end psychological state will be measured - the movement from the Ordinary Self to the New Self. For example, in Annie Hall (1977), Annie moves from shy and dependent in New York to confident and independent in Los Angeles.

It is also common simply to thrust the Hero into a New World (Platoon (Academy Award Best Film, 1986); Dead Poets Society (Academy Award Nominee Best Film, 1989)), where the difference between the Hero’s Old and New Worlds and Old and New Selves are made explicit or referred to. Terminology such as “Fish out of Water″ and “Newbie” are usual.

Learn more…

WRITE THAT SCREENPLAY!

The Complete 188 stage Hero’s Journey and other story structure templates can be found at monomyth.info/ monomyth.info/

188 stages of the Hero’s Journey can also be reached from story-structure.org/ story-structure.org/

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made, the author’s name is retained and the link to our site URL remains active.

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Kal Bishop, MBA

There simply is no absolute when it comes to style in writing or anything in this world for that matter. Style is a matter of taste and any definition of style leaves much room for infinite variations. No one is qualified to say that one certain thing, and only that thing is the correct way to express something. The style of some writers is blunt, staccato, and very formal, while the style of other writers may be brisk and full of caprice. Yet there are still others that right with flow and simple grace.

Most writers vary their style, using some or all of the foregoing effects to suit their material, although usually one style - individualities of expression, cadences, will predominate. In other words, your style of writing is your WAY of writing. It forms slowly over the years, colored by your own maturing and be the unconscious absorbing of words, meters, phrases, and expressions - both written and oral. However, when you consciously take note of your own style of writing and that of other authors you can improve the style of your writing. That being said, let’s take a look at some specific suggestions for improving style.

* Don’t ever be afraid to be original! The truly creative writer, no matter what the genre, cannot bear to be just like anyone else. This does not mean that you should strain to be cute or shocking or freakish. This simply means that you should not settle for the mundane. Scan every page of every manuscript asking yourself; How can I say this in a better way? Where can I add something to really make this page shine? Are there any errors that need to be corrected?

* Some of you may ask, “But how do I achieve this originality you speak of?” Like style itself, originality is a matter of talent and instinct; unless you have a bit of it within yourself, it cannot really be taught. But there are ways to improve the gifts you already have. Create fresh figures of speech. Do more with alliteration. You can even invent new words. The more you write, the more ways you will discover to put the touch of individuality into your writing.

* Avoid rare, difficult words, but don’t throw out your trusty thesaurus just yet! What I mean by this is that the deliberate use of long, mouth-filling words calculated inserted to impress your reader is more likely to irritate them instead. Of course you want to entertain and perhaps educate your reader, but you don’t want to leave them frustrated by having to pick up their dictionary every few moments to look up a word in your tale.

On the other hand, there is simply no excuse for being word poor or redundant. The truly creative writer is a hound for words, constantly seeking out more words to add to their collection. When reading back through what you′ve written, search out redundant usage of certain words and trim down on the smaller words like ‘it’, ‘he’, ‘a’, and ‘the’ that aren’t really neccesary in many instances.

* Discover alliteration or re-discover it! Alliteration adds flow and loveliness to style. It makes your writing shine and smooths the rough edges. Just be sure not to overdo the alliteration you use in your writing or you’re canned.

Alliteration is a combination of words that may or may not begin with the same letter, but whose sounds echo each other, sometimes in the body of the word. To be truly pleasing, good alliteration joins with rhythm. If you find yourself stared in the face by a bulky sentence, use alliteration to smooth it out. Alliteration can also be used in titles.

You can develop certain aspects of your style more quickly and effectively if you will intentionally expose yourself to the kind of things you want to write. If you’re going to write adventure, steep yourself in tales and movies of adventure of all kinds. Reading before you sit down to write is particularly helpful because you are putting your unconscious mind to work absorbing mood, pacing, and tone. Train yourself to be aware of the various styles other good writers use.

No matter your preference on style or your taste in writing forms, never forget the most important thing of all; being true to yourself as a writer. This, above all else, is the best thing you can do for yourself. Of course not everyone is going to like what you write, you probably won’t like everything you write either…but give it your own personal voice and make your characters shine. There is no shame in that. It’s something to be fantastically proud of.

T.s. Trent (TRose) is an author on Writing.Com Writing.Com
which is a site for Writing.Com/ Creative Writing
You can visit her online portfolio at the following link:

A new generation of bookbinding equipment, the computerized variety, is catching up to advances in the rest of the printing process.

Technology has made its mark in the finishing area in the binderies.

The two important factors being considered in the book binderies these days are the speed and efficiency. They need to change over to keep up with the mad pace of changing trends and technologies. Also, the books need to undergo a lot of proof reading as they need to be mistake free.

The whole binding process has become a lot more automated in recent years. Time-consuming bookbinding procedures can now be done with the touch of a button, which allows for more quality control and other adjustments in the book binderies. Some of these binderies have equipment that can run with little or no human help. Hence, this requires fewer workers as well as the least amount of waste. Binding machines that have an in built microprocessor linked to them automatically makes the changeover so that the work that used to take about a couple of hours is being done in just a matter of four to five minutes. Most systems these days are also equipped with an automatic setup featuring central adjustment controls, known as a co-pilot system, that allows on-the-move adjustments.

Altough the hi-tech equipment makes work a lot more easier for the binders, the equipment is itself very expensive, but it can be affordable as the returns that the binders get when this equipment is used is also high. Most hi-tech units feature motorized central adjustment for changing book hangout on all workstations. All these stations feature wrenchless adjustments and digital readouts. New machines also have a higher capability of operating speeds and thickness capabilities.

e-bookbinding.com Book Binding provides detailed information about book binding, book binding companies, book binding equipment, and more. Book Binding is affiliated with i-termpapers.com Free Term Papers.

Good technical articles are challenging to write. They’re time-consuming, demanding to research and hard to organize. But they’re valuable weapons in the PR and marketing arsenal, and you need them.

If you can outsource the article, great. That’s what writers like me are here for. But if you can’t – or don’t want to — then read and apply the tips below to save time and energy on research and writing, and come out with a much better product.

Get Ready

1. Review your resources – hard copy like books and articles, Web access, interview contact information.

2. Arrange for interviews if you need them, it always takes a while to track down the interviewees. Note: If you’re ghostwriting an article for a company, you may not have an interview past the initial meeting.

3. Make sure you know the following: a) the reader’s challenge, b) the key message relating to their challenge, and c) the type of reader you’re writing to.

4. Understand the main message the client want to communicate. Many technologies are similar, but your client will have a defined slant on their implementation. (If they don’t, they should – this is your chance to offer them your strategic message building services.)

5. Even “vendor-neutral” articles are written with a point of view – either the writer’s or the company the writer is working for. This is only a problem if the article bias makes for a misleading article, or tells a whopping big lie.

Outline

6. Never skip this step, for your own or your readers’ sakes. Outlines speed up your writing, and readers will follow your argument much better.

7. Organize your research into three themes. Some thematic organizations are obvious – for example, I wrote an article on three steps to optimizing your storage. In other articles, there may be several possibilities. There is probably no one right choice, so if two or three seem fine to you, just pick one and go with it.

8. Remember your junior high school/high school/college outline lessons? They apply. If you don’t remember your lessons, here’s a reminder: I. Introduction (Outline problem, introduce solution, state theme) II. Body A. 1st major point B. 2nd major point C. 3rd major point III. Conclusion (short case study/example, restate solution, concluding paragraph)

9. Put your outline on paper and let it guide you as you go. It’s not iron-clad – if a new organization presents itself while you’re writing you can change it – but don’t do it too much or you’ll defeat the outline’s purpose.

Writing the Rough Draft

10. Here’s the key to writing your rough draft: Just Do It. Write without thinking about it. Paste in random chunks of text from your research. Write some more. Write in any bizarre, random order. All you want to do at this point is get down large masses of information onto paper.

11. Keep going until you’ve got 2-3 times the words you actually need, then you can stop.

12. Once you have your mass of information on paper, you can organize it into your outline. No big deal – just cut and paste paragraphs under the points they best fit.

13. Now that you’ve slapped all of your rough text and research into your outline, guess what? The draft is done. Congratulate yourself and take a break.

Subsequent Drafts

14. Now it’s time to whip this rough mass into shape. Start by saving your rough draft under a different name. You’re going to be doing a lot of deletions in this stage, and you don’t want to accidentally delete something you meant to use.

15. Working with the new copy, start your edits. Paraphrase the notes you have from other sources — memos, product briefs, other articles, brochures. (Journalists do it all the time. It’s called “research.”)

16. I′ll often download online research but mark it in a different color, so as not to commit the embarrassing – not to mention illegal — mistake of repeating someone else’s writing. When I’ve learned what I need to from the research, I capture the facts in my own words and delete the original notes.

17. Borrow freely from your client’s Website and other materials. Don’t repeat the text – that’s bad policy and bad writing – but you’re not going to be accused of plagiarism. Laziness maybe, but not plagiarism.

18. Music can be helpful on writing assignments. Personally, I like Vivaldi for drafting and movie scores for revising. Quite the combo. (As I write this sentence, The Last of the Mohicans is playing. Baroque is better for the draft stage.)

19. You might find that dictating works better for you at the rough draft stage. Probably not the old-fashioned kind, where the hard-bitten boss called in his trusty secretary to “Take a memo!” You’re more likely to use an application like Naturally Speaking. This type of application needs a lot of training beforehand – the application, not you – but can be very helpful for writers who try to critique themselves out the gate.

Writing the Final Draft

20. You’ve done the rough draft, 1st draft, and are into the 2nd draft. You’ve put everything in your own words and are observing your outline structure. The article is starting to sound less like something you’ll get blamed for, and more like something you might actually claim.

21. Edit for readability, grammar and style.

22. Use active voice in all your writing. “Active voice” is a sentence construction where the subject performs the verb action. Don’t go to sleep on me, this is important. Example: “The dog bit the boy.” Quick, active, easy. Here’s an example of passive voice: “The boy was bitten by the dog.” Yikes!

23. Technology writing is full of hideous passive voice construction. Here’s another example from a technology marketing document: “This successful vendor interoperability was demonstrated at the Summit in Chicago.” Ack! Instead, write: “Vendor teams successfully demonstrated interoperability at the Summit in Chicago.” See how easy that was? PLEASE use active voice. Everyone will be so much happier.

24. If you learn nothing else about business writing in all your born days, learn to write in active voice. Subject all of your sentences to this simple little exercise and you will improve your writing 100%.

25. Please don’t be boring, but don′t get too cute. I will stick in something funny every once in a while — mostly because I get a big kick out of myself — but don’t get too chummy.

Final Draft

26. You’re almost there – you see light at the end of tunnel, and it isn’t a train. Now is the time to polish sentence structure and word choice, and punch up your paragraphs.

27. Polish your opening paragraphs. Add a snappy lead, define what you’re talking about and why it’s important, and list the three or so points you’re going to make.

28. Read through your article and make sure you’ve made those points. If you did an outline, the main points should already be subheads. (See why an outline is so great?)

29. Polish your conclusion. The conclusion doesn’t have to be undying prose, but do restate your points and conclusions.

30. Read through one more time for overall readability.

31. Run your spelling and grammar check.

32. Save and send – but be careful to send the right file! I accidentally turned in my rough draft once instead of the completed final. Luckily this was with one of my oldest clients, so they contacted me and asked me for the real article. A new client would simply have assumed complete incompetence on my part.

33. And for the final tip: everything gets easier with practice. Good thing, too.

About The Author

Christine Taylor writes expert white papers, case studies and bylined articles for technology and business clients. Subscribe today to “The Taylor Marketing Report” at ctaylor-co.com/Newsletter/news_landing.htm ctaylor-co.com/Newsletter/news_landing.htm and learn how lead generating marketing materials increase market leadership, customer reach and sales.