Writing Inrochester

Quite a sizeable proportion of people and organizations in the developing countries are yet to grasp the essence of proofreading services. It is surprising that even some newspapers and magazines either because of ignorance or little financial cost implications skip this function, thus relying on the reporters and contributors to submit error-free articles. It is no wonder that a glance at a sample of magazines, newspapers, and even textbooks would reveal varying degrees of errors. This all shows that proofreading services are yet to be fully appreciated.

Defects in a publication can be grouped into factual, typographical and grammatical. A factual error is simply an error made due to inaccurate or wrong information while typographical mistakes are due to wrong keying in of information. Grammatical errors are usually due to poor sentence structure, tenses and wrong use of words. Here is an illustration from ‘A book on HTML’, which was to be recommended by an uncle to his son but was declined as a result of numerous inaccurate, misleading statements and inability of the author to explain critical issues.

Example:

Lesson 1. The basics, has an unclear and misleading information of what it means to set background color, and wrongly states that the symbol are referred to as Carats.

Lesson 8. Color Choice, uses hexadecimal without shedding light on its use.

Worse still, the lessons are numbered inconsistently in the title, and table of contents.

Sometimes, a well-written piece may be marred by factual/typographical blunders. The text could be reporting an event, probably; the visit of the External Affairs Minister of Nigeria to the United Nations, but the picture of the Ghanaian Head of State is tucked beside. There are also instances when the contents of a major report are totally at variance with the captioned news item.

Example.

A caption in a leading newspaper reads “The Geshi celebrates Ndi Ani Day’’ while the body states “ The Lagos branch of the Geshi Town celebrates the end of 2003 on Sunday, December22, 2003.

The truth is that the human mind is structured such that it is more difficult to detect errors one is familiar with immediately. This is because our familiarity with the document we have just written makes it difficult to spot errors in the piece. Besides, because of tight work schedule, creating another time to check the manuscript is usually not possible. Also, the need to meet deadlines exerts unusual pressure on writers. All these show that proofreading services should be relegated to the background.

Poor publications have adverse effects on the image, reputation, credibility of your company and clients. For instance, if a document contains errors in pricing, or incomplete information, money will be lost on accounts and the company might fail to get another account while spending money in reprints, second mailings and overtime. Such blunders can also make customers to doubt the company’s professionalism and downgrade the company on the priority list.

Secondly, there is the cost of space paid in the newspapers for retracting misleading information as well as apology tendered for very harmful errors.

Equally important is the loss of man-hours expended in effecting necessary corrections, which should have been utilized for productive ventures that would improve the company’s bottom-line.

Thirdly, inappropriately crafted and incompletely written, edited, proofread documents such as employee handbooks could easily be exploited by aggrieved staff to the detriment of the company.

Fourthly, documents that are consistently poorly edited could lead to a dip in sales volume, as your client may be forced to review their relationship with the company. This will invariably have adverse effects on the bottom-line. Proofreading services are therefore essential to the survival of any organization

So, you don’t have to continue to lose clients, time, money and probably jobs to carelessness and indifference. The solution to these problems is to seek the services of tested and proven publication consultants to handle the frequent embarrassments.

DANIEL AZUH is the CEO of Mission Communications, an organization made up of consultants and professional writers dedicated to improving the quality of your manuscripts. Daniel has authored several articles in newspapers and journals and is on the verge of completing two of his books titled Credit Vocabulary and Marking Strategies in a period of Scarcity. Details of services being offered can be found in missioncomms.com missioncomms.com

Copywriting for the web is a very well paying business these days. People write for different web sites and earn a lot of money through this effort. Some people are naturally good at writing. Others are not that good. If you want to write for the web, you may do it even if you are not very good at it. You must organize yourself and your work to take any benefit from your writing abilities and to earn through copywriting for the web. This is a must. Without arranging the way you work, and the way you write, you cannot make money through copywriting for the web.

There are millions of web sites which currently exist on the web. All these web sites need to keep their page rankings in check. To maintain a high page ranking it is a must that you keep on refreshing the content of your web site. Failing to do so will result in a set back to your business as the page ranking of your web site will drop. Millions of web sites need you to write for them. In this situation, it is not very difficult to make money through copywriting for the web.

If you want to do this kind of work, you need to be a bit creative and imaginative. Find those companies which can give you paid assignments of writing. You can very easily work as freelance copywriter. After you have found the right platform, you can start writing. Be sure about the topic. Collect required information. Organize it. Write original stuff. Originality of the stuff is very important to the web sites. Make sure that you follow these steps. These steps will help you become a successful copywriter for the web.

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:

In two previous articles, I′ve played a one-man Olympic judge and awarded gold and silver medals to competing writing formats.

The gold–or number 1 spot–went to the “how-to” story format. The silver–or second-place–winner was the Q&ampA. My choice for the bronze medal is (drum roll, please):

The inquiring photographer.

It’s kind of a Q&A and it therefore shares many of its benefits. The difference is there’s only one question asked, followed by the answers of several individuals along with their photos.

Why I like it: In addition to its simplicity, you can select your responders to demonstrate your organization’s diversity (gender, ethnicity, organization level, type of job and geographic location).

Questions can range from broad to narrow business subjects to non-business humorous. Some top-of-the-head examples:

o What new thing did you learn at (a recent) training program?

o Why did you sign up for first aid training?

o Where do you volunteer your time (to charity) and why?

o What was the funniest April Fool’s scam pulled on you?

o What New Year’s resolution are you determined to keep this year?

o How do you personally exceed our customers’ delight-related expectations? (I’m kidding!)

As you can see, several of these can be timed to specific times of the year. Others can run at any time.

Depending on how narrow or broad your question is, your answers can run from a couple of sentences to several paragraphs. Just be sure the writing is conversational. People don’t talk in the language of inter-office memos. That means no jargon, management-speak or any other kind of blather.

One more, very important, thing: Make sure the photos show happy people.

Copyright (c) 2007 by Bob Lory

Bob Lory is an author/teacher of business communication strategy, management and writing with 30 years of corporate and independent consulting experience. He’s also written 35 published novels. Get more of his good-writing insights at write-to-communicate.blogspot.com write-to-communicate.blogspot.com

Before going into the how’s of making money from articles, one must arrive at a convergence as to “how much money ” is to be made through articles. The execution of a strategy depends upon your monetary expectation from this medium and article marketing acquires another dimension in proportion to your requirements. If you want some hefty amount to be generated from the article then your article must be undoubtedly like a semi-sales copy preceding the link to your web site. You have to sincerely and without compromise strive to make the article as convincing as possible so that it supplements for a landing page through which you can send traffic to your merchant’s page. But at the same time you have to strike a balance between the content of an article and a sales copy.

Another option is that you can link your article to your website which for some unfortunate reasons is not receiving sustainable page rankings and is pathetically performing as far as traffic generation is concerned. By virtue of your articles being featured in a comparatively good
article submission site , you can be confident that they will initiate the appropriate SEO techniques for your article to show up. It is absolutely imperative that you should put a lot of research, hard work and some essence of consumer psychology into the article to make the
reader compelled to not leave without clicking your affiliate link or the link to your website.

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:

Imagine you plunk down $1.50 for the Sunday paper and the headline reads, “Some Stuff Happened But We Didn’t Feel Like Researching it, Check Back Tomorrow.” You’d be upset and probably want your money back. After all if those lazy reporters can’t do their jobs then why should you waste your money?

Yet, there are countless books out there with chapters where nothing really happens. Why should a reader waist their time?

If dramatic tension stays flat chapter after chapter why are those chapters in the book? Exposition? Boring! Look for these tension killers and eliminate them.

Repetitiveness - Writers want to make sure the reader understands what’s happening in the story. Then make sure what you wrote was clear the first time, instead of slowing the pace by repeating yourself.

Rambling Man - Moving characters from one place to another, can slow the pace of a story. If one scene is in the living room and the next dramatic scene is in a grocery store, the reader doesn’t need to follow the character into the garage, out the driveway, past the church at the end of the block, waving to Mrs. Johnson – You see my point here, right? If there isn’t a horrendous collision that sends your character into a coma, ala soap writing 101, somewhere on the way to the store your reader will lose interest. End the scene in the living room, add an extra line and then begin the scene at the store.

A Whole Lot of Thinking Going On — If your character is having a problem with indecision don’t let them sit around thinking. Get their problems out of their head and into dialog. Better yet, add a scene that shows the characters indecision through their action or inaction.

DANGER, DANGER! – Is your character in enough danger from one chapter to the next? Danger can take many different forms. The easiest and most obvious is the physical danger. Don’t forget to use emotional danger. You as the writer have a moral responsibility to torture these characters as much as you can. Pile on the emotional danger along with the physical and see where that leads you.
Moriarity he ain’t! — Your antagonist must be as smart or even smarter than your protagonist to create dramatic tension. If your antagonist is as bumbling as the three stooges then your reader won’t be interested enough to keep turning the page.

The next step is a doozy! — Is your protagonist’s goal clear and are they taking a step closer in each chapter? Think of your story as a rollercoaster. Without the slow climb toward the giant hill and killer loops, the ride wouldn’t be as satisfying. Don’t deprive your reader. Notch them up the hill slowly but make sure each chapter is another step up and not a plateau.

Stacy Verdick Case is the owner of idothewritething.com/ idothewritething.com a store that offers quality custom designed products for writers of all genres. Stacy invites you to visit her store and sign up for her free monthly ezine that offers writing tips to help keep you on track.

Stacy also has a lens squidoo.com/cafepress/thewritething squidoo.com/cafepress/thewritething where she offers free tips and tequniques and a blog idothewritethingcom-blogspot.blogspot.com/ idothewritethingcom-blogspot.blogspot.com where other writers can share their opinions about writing.

The usual definition you’ll find is something along the lines of:

The art of writing words that sell.

I take issue against that definition. I consider copywriting as much a science as it is an art. And I would define it thus:

The art and science of writing words that persuade.

Let me explain.

First, the science bit.

Writing is an art. No doubt about it. The fact that we all do it is irrelevant. After all, if I gave you a pen and a piece of paper and told you to draw an angel, then I’d expect at the very least some sort of stick figure sprouting wings. Or, you may surprise me and give me something rather special.

Either way, give yourself a clap on the back. You’ve done art. You’re an artist.
And, in the same way, if I asked you to write a paragraph on what you did over Christmas, I′m sure you’d turn up trumps.

So you’re a writer, too. A polymath, even …

But if I asked you to draw an accurate map of the Amazon basin, you might come unstuck. This would involve putting pen to paper, for sure. But knowing what you’re going to draw and how you’re going to approach the task requires knowledge of facts and principles. That’s science.

Copywriting is the same. The act of putting words on the page is an art. But knowing what to put, where and why is another matter entirely.

Copywriters aren’t reinventing the wheel all the time. There is a great body of knowledge out there, accumulated by the systematic study of great marketing successes and flops. We know, for instance, that a great headline in a sales letter has a huge impact on whether the reader is likely to read the rest of it. We also know that customers don’t want to be told how your product is going to help them, they want to be shown.

My point is simply this. Successful copywriting involves using this body of knowledge to our best advantage. We use certain techniques simply because they work. The fact that tried and tested principles exist and that we use them makes copywriting a science as well as an art.

Writing Words That Persuade

OK, I’m being a bit pedantic here. Nine times out of ten, the purpose of any copywriting is to make the reader reach for his or her credit card.

But not always.

Sometimes we′ll write copy to convince people to sign up for our free newsletter. No money changes hands, but we now have a prospect we can mail to on a regular basis. Maybe we′ll get their cash later on.

Or perhaps we just want someone to think about something. And hopefully convince them to think like us.

Take, for instance, charities like Oxfam and political groups like Greenpeace. They use copywriting techniques to make readers think about world poverty and the damage we’re doing to the environment respectively. They’ll commission copywriters to write articles for the media and copy for promotional posters. Not all of these will come right out and ask for a donation (but of course, they’re going to refuse one either). But they want people to come around to their way of thinking and use copy to persuade them to do so.

So copywriting is all about persuasion. Persuading people to buy our products and services, or persuading them to do other things which we consider to our advantage.

Mark Lewin
Freelance Copywriter
marklewin.com marklewin.com

“Mark is my secret weapon for online success”
Judith Morgan, Millionaire Maker

Let’s get this straight from the start.

People aren’t afraid of me, the writer here.

They’re afraid of “me” the pronoun.

Somehow, “me” has gotten a bad rap and writers and speakers everywhere are afraid of it.

Instead, they tend to misuse the word “I” or, worse yet, “myself” when all they really need to use is the word “me.”

Think of it this way and you won’t be so afraid of “me.”

“I” is a subject pronoun. Use it when it is the subject of the sentence.

Example: Jane and I are going to the store.

“Me” is an object pronoun. Use it when it is the object of the sentence.

Example: He doesn’t like Jane or me.

People think “I” is correct in most cases, but it isn’t if it’s misused as a subject pronoun.

Correct: The clothes were washed by Jane and me.

Incorrect: The clothes were washed by Jane and I.

Now here’s where people are really, really afraid to use “me” and they misuse the word “myself” instead.

Correct: If you have questions, feel free to ask Debra or me.

Incorrect: If you have questions, feel free to ask Debra or myself.

Here’s the “rule” for use of the word myself:

Myself is a reflexive pronoun. That just means you MUST use the word “I” earlier in the sentence in order to use “myself.”

Here’s an example:

Correct: I hit myself in the head.

Incorrect: I hit me in the head.

Here’s another example (since most people have such a tough time with “myself”):

Correct: Mary gave the flowers to Susan and me.

Incorrect: Mary gave the flowers to Susan and myself.

Okay, so I hope these examples have lessened your fear of the word “me.”

Just remember - “Me” is an object pronoun, not a subject pronoun.

In order to use “Myself” correctly, you must use “I” earlier in the sentence.

Now what’s so scary about that?

Nothing…right?

Suzanne Lieurance is a fulltime freelance writer, children’s author, and The Working Writer’s Coach. Visit her website at workingwriterscoach.com workingwriterscoach.com to find out more about her coaching program. Visit her blog at the-working-writers-coach.blogspot.com the-working-writers-coach.blogspot.com for more helpful tips for writers. Join her mailing list at her blog, and every weekday morning you’ll receive The Morning Nudge, a few words to motivate and inspire you to get a little writing done. For free weekly networking teleconferences for writers, visit The Lieurance Group blog at lieurancegroup.blogspot.com lieurancegroup.blogspot.com

Internet marketing success and building a powerful website that performs well in search results and brings steady traffic takes perseverance above all. Everyone has a web site and wants it to be number one but a much smaller percentage have the drive to do what it takes to get there and stay there.

Internet marketing success is about more than putting up relevant keyword rich articles and submitting to article directories. It is about doing these things day in and day out.

Perseverance and consistency is very important because the search engines tend to favor those sites that have fresh content published frequently.

Internet marketers that reach levels of steady qualified traffic have worked hard to get there using various Internet marketing strategies. This aspect of perseverance is important because it is so common for new marketers to put up a site and put a lot of energy into it for the first 30-60 days only to slowly fade away and then they wonder why it never gets any real traffic or makes any real money.

Popular trends and fads in Internet marketing news come and go but the foundation of what creates long term sustainable traffic is still and will always be content. Web content, and linking of course, is what drives the Internet and effective web site promotion.

Internet marketers that are creating large powerful and profitable web site are doing so by consistently plugging away at publishing original web content to their web sites, blog, and articles directories. Press release writing and distribution can also be key in producing inbound links and quick traffic depending on how aggressive you want to be with the distribution.

Pay per click and other paid advertising models can produce quick and instant traffic but it can also be expensive and it does not produce any lasting results.

By putting quality original content out there on the web Internet marketers have a good chance the content will be picked and reprinted on other web sites with their active links on multiple web site producing traffic for months or years to come.

If you want to be successful you have to keep plugging away on a daily basis. Those who do will reap the rewards. Remember, it takes time and hard work to bring steady traffic to your website.

Targeted traffic is the best traffic of all, and by submitting articles that are of interest to your audience, your chances of success increase dramatically.

Enrique Villalobos is the owner of MakingExtraMoneyAtHome.com MakingExtraMoneyAtHome.com, which provides free articles and resources about working from home. Visit it now and download the FREE ebook “Dotcomology: The Science of Making Money Online.”

Every time I direct a seminar on Presentation Skills for corporations, government agencies, banks, hospitals and other groups, I begin by talking about Stage Fright—because I know that’s the number one concern speakers feel.

Among the tips I share about stage fright, this may be the most helpful one: Make the right choice.

You see, speakers have three choices when they stand up to speak.

First, they can focus on themselves entirely. Their self-talk goes something like this:

“What if they don’t like me?”

“Did I wear the right outfit, or is this too informal?”

“Sometimes I stammer when I get excited. That could happen right now.”

“Are they paying attention, or do they seem distracted?”

All right, what’s the result of this choice?

Every mistake becomes magnified in importance.
We get so wrapped up in performance that we forget what we want to achieve.
“Paralysis by analysis” turns us into robotic reciters, not speakers.

The speaker’s second choice: Focus on the audience

To begin with, change your opinion about audiences. Too often we think of an audience as a room full of critics, ready to analyze our every word and gesture. Really, though, the vast majority of listeners are not critics—they are your cheerleaders. They want you to succeed. They are glad you are the one up there speaking, not them. From experience, they know how uncomfortable an event is for everyone involved if the speaker fails.

Then pick out the most responsive listeners as soon as you can. They are easy to find. They are attentive, usually smiling and physically alert. Their supportive nonverbal communication elevates your confidence. Look at them frequently to draw strength from their feedback.

Involve the audience when you can. Today’s audiences don’t want to be passive. Even in my convention keynote speeches, I ask participants to shake hands, raise their hands, stand up and stretch or carry out brief assignments as partners.

Your third choice: Focus on the message.

Haven’t you noticed that when you are genuinely involved in your message, when you are determined to persuade others about your conviction, that speaking changes from a chore to a privilege? Your creativity increases, and you come up with catchy word combinations you had not planned. Your adrenalin flows, and you become animated on the platform. You are not preoccupied with the impression you are making. Yet, amazingly, you become more impressive than ever.

Now then, which of these three choices have you usually made when you face an audience? If you have selected the first option, you have made yourself highly susceptible to Stage Fright. On the other hand, when you focus on your audience (as a friendly, receptive group of people who want you to succeed) and your message (as a deeply held conviction you can hardly wait to share with others), you will feel competent, confident and committed. That’s when speaking becomes exciting and productive.

Bill Lampton, Ph.D., helps organizations “Finish in First Place” by strengthening their communication, motivation, sales, and customer service. His speeches, seminars, and communication coaching have benefited numerous clients, including the Ritz-Carlton Cancun, Gillette, Duracell, Procter & Gamble, Missouri Bar, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Visit his Web site to sign up for his complimentary monthly E-mail newsletter: ChampionshipCommunication.com ChampionshipCommunication.com Call Dr. Lampton to discuss how his services will benefit your organization: 770-534-3425. E-mail him: mailto:drbill@ChampionshipCommunication.com drbill@ChampionshipCommunication.com

The meaning of point of view

Point of view in this context has nothing to do with its usual meaning, ‘Opinions’ , it is a technical term which can be roughly translated as ’subjective viewpoint’ , or ’subjective experience’, and it is essential that once you have chosen who’s subjective experience we are sharing you stay with it from beginning to end, because a subjective viewpoint is, by definition, exclusive of all others. Thus if your central character is John, then everything in the story represents what John experiences. We can know how John feels and what he is thinking and what he perceives, but we do not have access to this ‘inside information’ about any other character. Through John we can see how they behave and hear what they say, but we cannot know what they are feeling thinking, or perceiving inside themselves. This reproduces the way we experience other people in real life - we do not know what is going on inside them until they demonstrate it in some way.

At the same time the one character we cannot see from the outside is John himself. The only way we can get information about how others see him is when another character tells him. A good thumb-rule to bear in mind is: ‘The reader cannot know anything the central character does not know’. Another helpful way of looking at it is to see the central character as the camera through which the whole story is seen.

In some stories written in this mode you might find the author bending the rules in order to describe the central character’s appearance, or the expression on his face. In my view this should not be done because it constitutes breaking the point of view and weakens the story. If you really need to describe the central character’s appearance it can easily be done by contriving to have him look in a mirror.

As well as not knowing how he appears to others, and not being able to see his own face, John does not know what other characters are doing when he is not with them. He could soon find out though, by meeting them, being told about them by someone else. Again, this simply reproduces the way we gain knowledge about other people in real life.

The same principles apply in first person stories, when the central character is I . In fact writing from the central character’s point of view is more closely related to writing in the first person than many beginners realise. You should imagine yourself as the central character, but write ‘he′ or ‘she′ or ‘John’ or ‘Mary’ instead of I.

By the end of the first paragraph the reader should be sharing the point of view of the central character and identifying with that character. If you then switch into a different point of view you will disrupt this identification and the reader will lose interest. In a novel, when the process is very carefully controlled, it is possible to have the reader identifying with more than one character, but this is not possible in a short story, or at least it is extremely unlikely that it will result in a good short story. So choose one point of view, and stay with it.

Descriptive Passages

Deciding when and how to use descriptive passages often causes problems among beginners. The key to understanding their use is that they are never put in for their own sake, but, like everything else in the story, they are seen from the central character’s point of view, and are an extension of his or her state of mind.

Thus if Janet is feeling happy and free she will notice the sunshine, the beautiful blossom on the trees, the lovely green hills receding into the distance. If she is feeling dejected and unfulfilled she will notice the dust on the bookshelves, the rain on the windows, the dirt on the kitchen floor, and the noisy neighbours.

So descriptive passages are relevant only when they contribute to the plot by revealing the central character’s state of mind.

Point of view should be controlled

Whichever point of view you select, it is important that the point of view should be controlled, and not jump about erratically. Frequently I found that a student’s story would start off well, then part way through the first page the point of view would jump from one mode to another, and would proceed haphazardly through the rest of the story. Inconsistency in point of view is bound to disrupt the reader’s engagement with the narrative.

Point of View is all-pervasive

It will be seen from this that point of view is all-pervasive. The point of view is the window through which we see the story, and that window represents a single human consciousness. I have said enough here to enable you to study its workings in the stories you read in magazines, and in your own work, and to use it to give your stories strength and unity.

Copyright: Ian Mackean
literature-study-online.com/creativewriting/

Ian Mackean runs the sites literature-study-online.com/ literature-study-online.com, where his site on Short Story Writing can be found, and booksmadeintomovies.com/ booksmadeintomovies.com. He was a short story and novel writing tutor for many years, and had many of his own stories published in literary magazines. He is the editor of The Essentials of Literature in English post-1914, ISBN 0340882689, which was published by Hodder Arnold in 2005. When not writing about literature or short story writing he is a keen amateur photographer, and has made a site of his photography at photo-zen.com/ photo-zen.com