The Six Most Destructive Words For Writers by Jacob Krueger

The following are six of the most destructive words writers can say to themselves: "Maybe I Don't Really Want This..."

If you're a writer, you've probably uttered these words more times than you'd like to admit.

A day spent procrastinating. "Maybe I don't really want this..."

A missed deadline. "Maybe I don't really want this..."

That tortured feeling of sitting in front of your keyboard, wondering if you actually have anything to say. "Maybe I don't really want this..."

Let's put this myth to rest right now. OF COURSE YOU WANT THIS! No one spends that much time and energy beating themselves up about something they don't truly care about.

Think about the things you use for procrastination: dishes, vacuuming, laundry, errands, email, television, the internet and a thousand other things you don't really care about but spend so much time doing.

If a day went by and you never logged onto the internet, you probably wouldn't spend the next week furiously bashing yourself over your lack of real dedication to Facebook. If a day went by and you never switched on the cable box, you wouldn't spend hours morosely pondering your ability to make the sacrifices necessary to be a reality show viewer.

Of course you want this!

If writing was really just a hobby for you, you wouldn't be agonizing over your missed writing days, abandoned deadlines, and whatever it is you feel your writing is lacking. You'd simply find another hobby.

Usually when a writer is thinking about giving up, it stems from plain old fear. Fear of not being good enough. Fear of trying and failing. Fear that your greatest dreams and fiercest desires won't come true. Sadly it's often the things we want most desperately that we're most afraid to admit to ourselves.

So, next time you find yourself asking that dreaded question, beating yourself up over your lack of dedication, lack of skill, lack of discipline or lack of inspiration, accept what it really means.

It means you're a writer. It's not an easy life, but it's a good one, and it's yours. Admit it now. And set it to rest. You want this. You want this badly. And you are going to pursue it.

There are days you are going to fall short. Days you will miss your deadlines. And days you will feel lost and uninspired. Questioning "Maybe I don't really want this..." is not going to protect you from those days.

It's only going to make you feel worse, by undermining the dedication that could get you back on track. And who are you fooling anyway? So next time you hear that familiar question bubbling up in your head, just go ahead and laugh it off. Nobody said this was going to be easy. And not even the best writers are perfect every day. Take a moment to remind yourself about just how badly you want this, and then find something you can do right now to bring yourself closer to achieving it.

Take a step toward your real goal, and you'll be surprised at how quickly those doubts begin to lose their power. The best way to start is with something small. Grab your notepad right now and spend a few minutes jotting down notes or ideas. Make a date with a writer friend to sit down and write together. Or sign up for a screenwriting workshop with a teacher who inspires you.

Accept that you want this. And then accept this: Most writers don't have trouble writing. They have trouble starting. How will you start today?

ABOUT JACOB KRUEGER: Jacob's writing includes the screenplay for "The Matthew Shepard Story," which won the Writers Guild of America Paul Selvin Award, earned Stockard Channing an Emmy for Best Actress, and was nominated a Gemini Award for Best Screenplay. He is also a critically acclaimed director and creative coach.

copyright (c) 2009 Jacob Krueger

Ready To Take The Next Step? Sign up for a Screenwriting Workshop or Master Class with Jacob Krueger today and learn a new approach to screenwriting, in a supportive community of writers just like you. More Information:
Web: http://www.jacobkrueger.com

2 Features That Technical Writing Shares With Screenplay Writing, and 2 Others That it Does Not by Ugur Akinci

At first sight, there cannot be any two writing niches as different as technical and screenplay writing.

Their 2 differences are very obvious:

Difference 1) Screenplay writing aims to put us into the shoes of a fictitious character and take us through a roller-coaster emotional experience. It aims to move us.

Technical writing is the exact opposite. It actually tries to AVOID any emotional reactions whatsoever on the part of the users. A technical document that elicits an emotional reaction is probably a not-so-good technical document.

Difference 2) Screenplay writing is built around characters. No character means no story and no screenplay.

Technical writing, on the other hand, is not built on a narrative that centers on a character. There is one abstract "character" in every technical document - "you," or the "user" which is also referred to as the "operator" or "administrator" depending on the document, task and context.

But these two different writing niches share two important characteristics as well:

1) NARRATIVE. Every document must have a logical, sequential narrative, explaining topic/step A after topic/step B, and not the other way around.

In the movie world we of course have "non-linear narratives," the kind made famous by Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction." But still the screen writer must write the script in such a fashion that, at the very end, all those non-linear scenes must still make sense linearly when the viewers re-order them in their imagination. The narrative order is there even in "Pulp Fiction" but it's just concealed and broken into many jigsaw puzzle pieces.

In technical writing the narrative also needs to be there, as clearly stated in the Table of Contents, clear enough for all readers to understand and follow easily.

2) STRUCTURAL HIERARCHY. A screenplay, just like a technical manual, is a highly structured document.

Conceptually, a screenplay is made up of Acts (usually 3), which are divided into Sequences, which are made up of individual Scenes.

And what's more, each scene is structurally constructed out of clearly defined elements. First comes the Scene TITLE, followed by Scene Description, Character Name, Parenthetical Note, and Dialog. Each "Dialog Set" is repeated for all the characters talking in a scene, interspersed by additional Descriptions, as needed. Then the scene ends with a Transition, if any (like FADE OUT etc.).

Similarly, a technical document (I'm assuming a printed one here) also starts with a Front Cover and ends with a Back Cover. In between we have the Front Matter, TOC, Lists of Figures and Tables (if any), followed by individual Chapters each of which is divided into sections, paragraphs and individual sentences. Most technical documents are capped off with an Index in the back.

Following a built-in and time-honored structure is ingrained in the training of every screen and technical writer. That's why I believe those screenwriters with a technical bend would make great technical writers, and easily create traditional as well as XML-based structured documents.

If you are interested to read more about technical writing as a career and how it can help you earn a steady living, visit http://www.learntechnicalwriting.com/. You might be pleasantly surprised with what you'll find out. Join the thousands who are already helped and inspired by this information provided by a Fortune 500 Senior Technical Writer. Visit today and claim your free report "How Much Do Technical Writers Make?"

Interviewing Tips For Your Writing Project by Krystalina Soash

When working on a writing project that requires an interview, whether for a business, a press release, a newsletter, or even for your school homework, it's very important to be organized and take your writing project serious.

* Get to the point: Time is of the essence when it comes to interviewing prominent personnel. Their time is valuable and you will want to use your time wisely. If you're on a ten to fifteen minute time limit ask only those questions which will support the main reason for your interview.

* Never ask a 'yes or no' question: This type of question will end the answer in an instant. Some examples of 'yes or no' questions begin with the words Are or Did. For example: Are you...? Did you...?

* Always ask 'open ended' questions: Open ended questions allow your interviewee to elaborate on their answer. Open ended questions always begin with the all important, what, why, where, how, when, or who. For example: What are your plans for the...?

* Always review your own questions for clarity: Before the interview, make sure you can read your own questions whether written or typed. The last thing you want to do is stumble over your own questions, you're already nervous as it is.

* Ask for clarification: Don't be afraid to ask for clarification if you don't understand an answer. For example, if a word comes up you don't understand, ask for the meaning or restate the phrase the way you understood it.

* Assume nothing when it comes to jargon: Never assume you know what an unfamiliar word means. The same word in pharmacology may have a totally different meaning in technology. Listen for its use in context and be honest; say you're not familiar with that term.

* Always review your notes before ending your interview: Review is important just in case you missed some important technicality like a date, place, person, or a business name.

* Make sure you always send a thank you note or card for the interviewee's time. This will let them know that you understand their time is valuable and the interview was important.

These interviewing tips will help guide you through a successful interviewing process for your writing project. These points boil down to being prepared and taking your writing project serious. By following these tips you will look more professional and it will do wonders for your communication skills.

Krystalina Soash is a freelance writer specializing in article writing. Her writing services include: proofreading, editing, and ghostwriting. You may visit her at http://writingforyounow.com/

Using web copywriting to attract the right customers

Good web copywriting can ensure that readers become loyal customers. However, it isn't just about writing the reasons why your business is better than competitors. There is a lot of preparation to go which will help your writing speak to your readers in the most effective way.

This article will show you how you can create personas for potential clients, which are a useful tool on the road to creating copy which readers can relate to. By putting yourself in your customers' shoes, you will find that effective web copywriting is easier.

When it comes to web copywriting, you have to ensure that you are using language that is appropriate for your audience.

This means before beginning your writing, you should spend some time identifying your main audience. You don't need to survey your current customers - just a little common sense will come in handy.

To help make your writing really speak to the people that visit your site, you should try to develop identities for potential clients. Your clients will vary depending on your industry, so don't be afraid to experiment with the personas you create.

For example, an online investment guide will be geared towards businesspeople with a secure amount of disposable income. You could develop an appropriate persona for a potential client by:

* Searching for pictures based on your client base. This could be anything, such as "businessman", "sports fan", "scientist" or "amateur cook". The possibilities are endless.

* Thinking about your customers' goals. Businessmen may want a healthy return on investment, while an amateur cook may want a healthy recipe using forgotten things from the back of the freezer.

* Judging your readers' knowledge of the subject. If they are an amateur, a cook may be attempting a romantic meal for the first time and will need simple, step-by-step instructions. A scientist will obviously be able to cope with much more technical language and jargon.

* Filling in your example customers' background. This could include giving them a name, age and short biography.

Once you have this information, print your profile along with the most appropriate picture. If you have this beside you as you write, you fill find your web copywriting becomes more geared towards the sort of client that is likely to become a loyal customer.

When you are writing, you should also ensure that you know what is most likely to impress your target audience.

Few people buy into unjustified claims and hype. Be sure to support what you say with testimonials from satisfied customers, as well as facts and figures to show the benefits of your business.

The tone of voice is also very important, and this will change depending on your audience when you are writing online. Whoever your customers are, they will be most likely to buy from a site that speaks to them in a way they can relate to.

Empathise with your readers, relate to them, and you will find you are attracting the customers you want.

Source: MediaCo (UK) Ltd
web: http://www.media.co.uk/

The Importance of Clarifying Tone When Writing Professional Correspondence by Robert L. Bacon

The craft of creating professional correspondence has as much to do with understanding the tone in which the letter is to be presented as in any other factor. A letter's purpose can be diminished, misconstrued, or lost in total if the correspondence is not written with the desired inflection. If you are writing or editing for someone, to avoid these pitfalls, it is imperative to communicate with your boss or client so that the letter's premise can be converted to the perfect write for that person's needs.

In conversation, a tone of voice may indicate one thing when the intention is quite different. Should the speaker recognize the error, this misspeak can be remedied by an apology, by glossing over the infraction, or simply by an abundance of rhetoric intended to cause the listener to forget what had been said, earlier. But when the words are committed to paper, the luxury of remedy is not always possible.

We were trained via our business communications textbooks (a hundred years ago in my case) to practice certain techniques related to tone that unfortunately were seldom applied in the real world of professional correspondence, then or now. The correct tone from the outset makes the task of the letter that much easier, unfortunately, this vital precept is often violated.

Someone might still ask if consistency of tone is really that important. Here is my response: After writing a complicated personal or business letter, how often does one ask if what was written really conveyed what the person wanted to say? And after several rewrites, it is still not uncommon to pose the same question? In an overwhelming number of instances, the problem is not the content, but an issue--somewhere--with the tone of the narrative. Check it out and see how often this is true.

Robert L. Bacon
http://theperfectwrite.com/

The Perfect Write (TM) provides an affordable, easy-to-use, and 100% confidential solution for converting a letter's premise into the most effective correspondence possible.

Resume and Cover Letter Writers Reach Out Through the Media

Leading local career consultants and group of professional resume writers has decided to challenge the rough economy by turning themselves into a media outlet. The Resume Bay announced recently that it would be able to help the millions of recent college graduates, unemployed and "career-challenged" individuals by creating an Internet radio show called "Resume Bay Radio."

The show is focused on providing career insight to candidates on the job search, including interviewing tips, salary negotiation, creative ways to network (and why it is important), the importance of a customized resume, proper follow-up after an interview, how to convert a phone interview to a face-to-face interview and how to leverage web 2.0 in the job search.

The radio show is already creating a buzz among social networks, which is certainly a response to the strong series of interviews the show has aired in the past month. Last month, Resume Bay Radio interviewed Dr. Debra Condren, author of Ambition is Not a Dirty Word. Dr. Condren explained how freelancing opportunities are an excellent way to bounce back after unemployment. She gave specific examples as to how freelancers can get businesses to pay part of their fees upfront.

"By acting like a professional, rather than someone who is willing to give his or her services away by low-balling prices, you can work with companies to receive up to half of your fees upfront," Dr. Condren said during her interview. "Even in this market, people want to make sure that they are hiring the very best talent - the very best experts and freelancers."

David Horne, author of Career Secret Sauce, was also interviewed for the show last month. Horne went into specific detail about the challenges facing today's college graduates and explained the one skill that, once mastered, can take any career to the next level.

Resume Bay Radio already has several interviews scheduled for May, including interviews with featured career authors Michael Port, Jay Conrad Levinson and Monroe Mann. Previous shows include interviews with Frances Coles Jones, author of How to Wow; Jill Spiegel, featured guest on the Oprah Show and the Today Show; Linda C. Thompson, author of I Am My Own Dragon; Dr. Nancy and Randall Bell. Once recorded, all interviews are available at the Resume Bay for download.

Additionally, the creative minds at the Resume Bay are in the process of completing an informative career advice webinar series. The "Career Empowerment Series" webinar will be sectioned into four parts:

i. Sharpening Your Axe - Preparing for your job search
ii. Catching the Big Fish - Strategies for getting noticed in a crowded job market
iii. Selling Yourself Without Selling Out - Proven interview methods you can use immediately
iv. Too Cool for School - Negotiating a great job package and how to handle your first 30 days

Look for more information about this webinar series and future news for the Resume Bay to follow in the next few months.

Website: http://www.live365.com/stations/resumebayradio

Top Ten Tips and Best Practices for Resume Writing Success

Based on the caliber of resumes that make it into hiring managers' hands today, many job seekers don't know the first thing about how to write an effective resume. In today's highly competitive job market, job seekers need all the help they can get.

Here, Pongo Resume's certified resume writers offer their Top Ten Tips and Best Practices for writing a resume that can help job seekers secure an interview.

1. Make sure they know how to contact you. Always include your most frequently used phone numbers (except work, of course!) and an e-mail address on your resume.

2. Stress accomplishments over duties. Merely listing your job responsibilities does nothing to make your resume stand out among the others. Instead, show how you have contributed to a company's or department's success, whether by helping save money, make money, improve productivity, etc. Use numbers, such as, Generated extra $1 million in annual revenue or Helped reduce costs by $250,000 a year.

3. Make it sing with scintillating language. There are bland, factual words to describe your skills and experience, and then there are "vivid, vigorous verbs," such as spearheaded, developed, drove, and established. Use these and other action-oriented words to describe your accomplishments.

4. Tailor your resume to the job description. Write a "master" resume, then duplicate and tailor it to the job you're applying for by including the most relevant skills and experience.

5. "Ask not what the employer can do for you; tell what you can do for the employer." Hiring managers don't care what you want. They want to know how you can solve their problems and contribute to the company's fortunes. So, don't lead your resume with an objective statement that says you want "A managerial position in a Fortune 500 company that provides professional growth opportunities."

6. Put your best stuff in the top half of the first page. Think about the front page of a newspaper or the home page of a news web site. They put the most important news in the first few lines or paragraphs. You want the hiring manager to have a clear picture—right up front—of what you can do and how it can help the company.

7. TMI = DOA. Yes, too much information can leave your resume dead on arrival. Irrelevant data such as marital status, age, religion, and hobbies used to be standard resume fare, but not anymore. Keep it simple, and tied to the job! But if you do—or did—volunteer work that's relevant to the job you're seeking, include it.

8. Use a headline to summarize your value. Something such as "Experienced Finance Director" in large type says a lot about you and makes the resume reader's job easier, while the standard heading "Professional Summary" doesn't. Make it easy for them to see your potential value.

9. A picture of you may be worth a thousand words, but that may not be a good thing. Don't include a personal photo with your resume. A photograph can divert the reader's attention from your qualifications, and lead to judgments (conscious or not) about your looks, your age, or your fashion sense.

10. Got a profile on LinkedIn or another professional networking site? Include the URL. Social networking is important in today's job-search strategy, and you can bet that any prospective employer will do a web search for your name before they consider you. Including the URL to a professional profile on LinkedIn or another site professionals use shows you're keeping up with the latest technologies, and have nothing to hide. (Just be sure you indeed have nothing to hide.)

Source: http://www.pongoresume.com/

One Way for News Organizations to Squeeze Value From Their Archives

When news breaks, some folks will want the latest information. Others are more interested in learning the background behind the news. A new project called NPRbackstory tries to automate the process of providing that context, according to the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University.

NPRbackstory is a Twitter service that uses Google search data to see what are the hot topics people are searching for information about. It then searches National Public Radio's massive database of past stories and identifies pieces related to those topics. Those are automatically posted as links to the Twitter account.

Rather than trying to serve up the latest news, NPRbackstory is an attempt to draw upon one of the greatest resources any news organization has: its archives. "If somebody OD's in their hotel room, or they get busted for drunk driving, NPR probably wouldn't do a story," developer Keith Hopper told the Lab. "So you get the last time Terry Gross interviewed them, or something from NPR Music. You get a true backstory when that happens."

It began as an informal project for Keith Hopper; he has since joined NPR's staff, although NPRbackstory remains unofficial. Complete details about the project can be found here.


The Nieman Journalism Lab is a project at Harvard University to figure out the future of quality journalism online. Its site is http://www.niemanlab.org/.

Viking Legacy On English

They're a firm part of our language and even speak to us of our national culture -- but some words aren't quite as English as we think.

Terms such as 'law', 'ugly', 'want' and 'take' are all loanwords from Old Norse, brought to these shores by the Vikings, whose attacks on England started in AD 793. In the centuries following it wasn't just warfare and trade that the invaders gave England. Their settlement and subsequent assimilation into the country's culture brought along the introduction of something much more permanent than the silk, spices and furs that weighed down their longboats — words.

Dr Sara Pons-Sanz in the School of English is examining these Scandinavian loanwords as part of a British Academy-funded research project -- from terms that moved from Old Norse to Old English and disappeared without trace, to the words that still trip off our tongues on a daily basis.

By examining these words in context, tracking when and where they appear in surviving texts from the Old English period, Dr Pons-Sanz can research the socio-linguistic relationship between the invading and invaded cultures.

The loanwords which appear in English -- such as 'husband' -- suggest that the invaders quickly integrated with their new culture. The English language soon adopted day-to-day terms, suggesting that the cultures lived side-by-side and were soon on intimate terms. This is in marked contrast to French loanwords. Though there are many more of these terms present in the standard English language -- around 1,000 Scandinavian to more than 10,000 French — they tend to refer to high culture, law, government and hunting. French continued to be the language of the Royal Court for centuries after the invasion in 1066. In contrast, Old Norse had probably completely died out in England by the 12th century, indicating total cultural assimilation by the Scandinavian invaders.

Another clear indicator of this is the type of loanwords seen in English. The majority of loanwords tend to nouns, words and adjectives, open-ended categories which are easily adapted into a language. But one of the most commonly-seen loanwords in English today is 'they' -- a pronoun with its origins in Old Norse. Pronouns are a closed category, far more difficult to adapt into a new language, which again indicates a closeness between the two languages and cultures not present in previous or subsequent invading forces.

Dr Pons-Sanz has 'cleaned up' the list of loanwords thought to have come to English from Old Norse by painstakingly tracking the origins of each word. Her original texts include legal codes, homilies, charters, literary texts and inscriptions. By comparing the texts chronologically and dialectally, the introduction and integration of words can be tracked. For example, the word 'fellow' -- which came from an Old Norse word originally meaning 'business partner' -- is first attested in East Anglia.

Dr Pons-Sanz said: “Language is constantly evolving; loanwords are being assimilated into English -- and other languages -- all the time. By examining the types of words that are adopted, we can gain insight into the relationships between different cultures.”

Source: University of Nottingham

The Learning English Video Project

The Learning English Video Project (http://eslblogs.englishclub.com/film/) is a first of its kind 7-part series of documentary films about people learning English on 5 continents. Each film features people in 7 countries who have their own methods and reasons for learning English. The series provides a glimpse into the global ESL (English as a Second Language) community. Filmed in Morocco, Romania, USA, Spain, China, Brazil and the UK, the series will be released free online (with and without English subtitles), together with free supplementary resource materials for learners and teachers, so that it can be viewed as pure documentary or learning tool as well.

UK filmmaker Daniel Emmerson and his crew are completing post-production work on "The Learning English Video Project", the world's first documentary series on English language learning. The documentary, which addresses key questions such as "Why is English so popular?", will be released monthly in a free seven-part series on EnglishClub.com, a free site for learners and teachers of English worldwide. The first film, "Stories from Morocco", will be released in April 2009, followed by films on Romania, USA, Spain, China, Brazil and the UK. The series was designed as a resource for English learners, including those interested in studying abroad, and will be available with and without English sub-titles. During their travels, Emmerson and his crew linked up with learners, teachers and school administrators from around the world to document the habits, experiences and methods used in English language learning. Interviewees share techniques, tips and concerns about the English learning industry in their own native countries as well as in their experiences abroad. On-location filming started in September 2008. Since December the crew have also been working on post-production.

To generate further interest in the film, the crew created a 20-minute "Making of the Project" video, in which Emmerson states his main goal for the film: "Essentially what I want to do is to take the things that we have filmed, to take these interviews and all of this stock footage that we got from each of the cities that we went to, and package it so that people are able to understand why these people are learning English, how they are doing it...and to be able to see a bit of the environment that they are learning in." In the "Making of the Project" Emmerson talks intimately about his personal experience in each location, including places he and his camera partner Joel Carr had never been to such as New York City. The "Making of the Project" provides insight into the crew's unique choices, such as why part of the series documents the experience of a German pastor-in-training working in a Cambridge cafe. Viewers also get sneak previews of Carr's camera footage taken around city sites such as the markets of Casablanca.

As well as editing the footage, and developing a web presence, the film crew have been developing supplementary materials that will be posted on EnglishClub.com to accompany the film series. There will be free lessons and lesson plans, worksheets and online quizzes corresponding to each film. Teachers or school admins can also print the materials out for use in the classroom. All of the background information from pre-production to launch is available on EnglishClub.com.

The first film of the series, "Stories from Morocco", will be launched, with the remaining six films following monthly. Each film is about 15 minutes in length, with a total series length of 2 hours.

Website: http://eslblogs.englishclub.com/film/

Arthur Plotnik and What's Burning Inside You - How to Improve Your Writing by Tom Aaron

We write to communicate. Two facets of this are what we want to communicate and how we communicate it. Arthur Plotnik's quote shows us both of these facets:

You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.

In this article, I would like to discuss the first facet, what's burning inside. Pick up a William Faulkner novel and read. You can see what is burning inside him by looking at this sentence from "The Mansion":

His father was the cobbler, with a little cubbyhole of a shop around a corner off the Square'a little scrawny man who wouldn't have weighed a hundred pounds with this last and bench and all his tools in his lap, with a fierce mustache which hid most of his chin too, and fierce undefeated intolerant eyes'a Hard'Shell Baptist who didn't merely have to believe it, because he knew it was so: that the earth was flat and that Lee had betrayed the whole South when he surrendered at Appomattox.

If you would like to look at something more modern, pick up a Carl Hiaasen novel and read. You can see what is burning inside him by looking at this sentence from "Double Whammy":

He was two steps from opening the door when something the approximate consistency of granite crashed down on the base of his neck, and he fell headlong through a dizzy galaxy of white noise and blinding pinwheels.

Faulkner and Hiassen have different styles, but both write stories about what is burning inside them. These two quoted sections of their writing show us parts of these stories. Before starting to write, think about what is burning inside of you. This could be a novel, a love letter, or information about a commercial product. For good writing, the subject is not important. What is important is that you have something burning inside of you. If so, you need to tell your audience about it. Let's take a subject that may appear to be less than exciting: building a better mousetrap. Here is the first paragraph of the first draft:

Oscar's little one bedroom apartment was above a honeycomb of tunnels in what was once a field ruled by brown field mice. The field had become a block of apartments but the tunnels and the mice remained. The mice gnawed holes in Oscar's walls, nibbled on his cereal, and chewed on his salty sweat-soaked tennis racket. Oscar, driven to throwing books at the mice, howling curses at the sight of his chewed-up tennis racket, and pounding his fist at mousetraps that surrendered Swiss chest to the mice, went to the library and the lumberyard, surfed the Internet, and started to build the ultimate mousetrap to purge his apartment of brown field mice.

If we write well, we can encourage our audience to read what we have written, regardless of the topic. Comparing the Hiaasen and Faulkner quotations with my writing, I come in a distant third. Still, if I have something to say, something burning within me, I write. My writing is far from perfect, but I work toward improving, focusing in two areas: reading good English for the unconscious knowledge to write better and editing to consciously improve.

At Aaron Language Services, we provide Japanese to English and other translation, proofreading, and online English coaching to a primarily Japanese client base. Our site also offers many resources to ESL students, including Japanese language support and our sushi pages with many pictures of different kinds of sushi and explanations. If you are interested in editing texts in medicine and the hard sciences and have expertise, please click the link above to find out about working with us.

Knowing How to Revise by Toni Shrader

To revise you must evaluate. You assess your first (or subsequent) improvements and evaluate each on its own as well as in the context of the surrounding material. The revision process continues until you are satisfied that the work is the best that you can make it in the time available.

Keep in mind that writing, especially through the vehicle of revision, is an engaging intellectual endeavor that encourages you to stretch to the maximum.

To revise successfully you need to first expect to revise. Some people think that anyone who revises is not a good writer. Only the opposite is true. Writing is largely revising. Experienced writers know that the final draft of any writing project shows on paper only a fraction of the decisions made from draft to successive draft.

Revision means "to see again," to look with fresh eyes. Good writers can truly see their drafts and network them so that they evolve and improve.

To revise successfully you need also to distance yourself from each draft. You need to read your writing with objective eyes. A natural reaction of many writers is to want to hold onto their every word, especially if they had trouble getting started with a draft.

If you ever have such feelings, resist them and work on distancing yourself from the material. Before revising, give yourself some time for that rosy glow of authorial pride to dim a bit.

The classical writer Horace recommended waiting nine years. Given the hectic pace of modern life, you aren't expected to wait nine years; but do try to wait a few hours before going back to look anew at your work.

If an objective perspective still eludes you, try reading your draft aloud; hearing the material can give you a fresh new sense of content and organization. Another useful method of to read the paragraphs in reverse order, starting with the conclusions; eventually, of course, you must read your work from beginning to end, but to achieve distance you can temporarily depart from that sequence.

So to put this in perspective: revising is part of every writers work habit..it isn't something to be worried about. Revising will only make you a better writer. Let me help you build your online writing presence. I am totally committed to work with you and guide you with your web writing.

For more information and to join my online course "QP Starters" where you will be presented with weekly starter ideas to offer help with your writing creativity and maybe offer you subjects to write about that you never thought of before. Visit My Website now and sign up for free and receive my newest eBook: Warp Speed Writing as a bonus for signing up!