Advice for Authors and Writers

Where to Get Your Information

There are people who can find just about anything on the internet just short of hacking into top government websites. Then, there are those people who can’t find anything at all. Google can only get you so far. Then, you have to learn a few tricks to get you the rest of the way.

Speaking of Google, it really is a good way to search for just about anything. When you type in a few keywords, rather relevant sites come up in the search. Some search engines will only show you the sites that pay the most money. But, Google does a good job at creating analytics and sending out digital spiders to crawl all over websites. With all of their science put together, you can’t help but get some really relevant websites in a search.

I have a few favorite sites that I know off the top of my head, and for writing they come in handy all the time. Merriam-Webster has an online dictionary where you can verify your definitions. But, it also has a pretty good thesaurus. EBSCOhost is a research database that has literally millions of articles from newspapers, magazines and encyclopedias all over the globe. But, you need to be a subscriber. The backdoor for many of us comes from having a library card and accessing a public information network like Sailor, Maryland’s Public Information Network.

What are style guides?

Michael has covered the APA and MLA writing styles in an earlier post that you can find here. There are numerous writing styles and you should always check to ensure which style you will be using for a particular piece of work. Simply putting “Style guide” into Google or other search engine will throw up a whole list of these guides.

Every publication will have it’s own writing style guide which you will be expected to follow for your own work if you expect to see it published. Fortunately, getting hold of a style guide is free if the publication has it stored online and is available for th elikes of you and me to download gratis. You can find the Guardian’s here and for the academics, the Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA) has their’s here.

What are you going to uncover in these Style Guides?
[Read more…] about What are style guides?

The Dynamics of Writing an Article: And How it Applies to Today

The art of writing articles has changed a bit due to the internet explosion. Yes, it still works the same way in many of the traditional venues. But, articles have changed mainly because of article submission sites and blogs.

Many people in the internet world consider blogs to be articles and in some ways they are. Blogs started as bits of information a writer intended to get across in an informal setting. Now, they are actually relied upon by many readers. If you Google a topic, you will find a hundred blogs compared to one authoritative site. And blogs have become very authoritative of themselves.

But, article submission sites such as EzineArticles and AssociatedContent have made it easy for anyone to write an article and get it published. I honestly love the internet and many of its venues for giving everyone the same leverage. There are things that need to be said and it’s critical that they get said at the right time. The internet offers everyone an instant voice for anyone who is willing to listen and I love that.

But, some art gets lost in the process. The years of college a journalist goes through and all the discipline that a writer suffers is thrown out of the window when just anyone can step up to the plate. People forget or were never taught the basics of article writing. [Read more…] about The Dynamics of Writing an Article: And How it Applies to Today

Being Professional: Comes Through in First Impressions

I once sat in agony as I read through a pile of project proposals. I was looking for my competition because I wanted the project that bad. I was willing to look for the one or two people I was going to have to beat to get it. When I found them, I was going to write my proposal so that it out-shined the others in all ways.

The humor of it all is that those proposals I was reading through didn’t reflect on me at all. They reflected on the other people who were trying to get my project. I should have been grateful that they were awful. But, I was still in agony because of what I was reading.

These are no lie, no punches pulled examples of the proposals I fished through:

“lets talk in detail.company profile attached.”

No, I’m not kidding. This proposal took all of five seconds to write…errors included. The first letter isn’t capitalized. A space doesn’t exist between the first and second sentence. And that just gets me started.
[Read more…] about Being Professional: Comes Through in First Impressions

The Language of Pop Culture – Should You Use Proper English Only?

Should we use street lingo in our writing or not? Is our use of fashionable vernacular simply lazy English or a case of reflecting reality and freeing expression from the constraints of grammar Nazi’s?

There are as ever, two sides to the argument for and against the use of improper English; slang, street words, internet chat and text speak abbreviations; r u mad 4 it? G8!

Here is a comment reproduced from JTony on Lorelle Van Fossen’s WordPress blogging blog:

“The tyrrany of language academicians is a constant thorn in the side of those who wish to communicate. Language is fluid, changing and evolving faster than any virus. Trying to keep language still is like trying to hold on to a single spot on a river… it cannot be done.The rule should be that if your intended audience can understand what you are writing, then you have accomplished what you need to. The only time you should avoid any form of “everyday speech” or “jargon” or anything else is if it is something your intended audience will not understand. It is all about the context of your readers, and nothing else applies.
[Read more…] about The Language of Pop Culture – Should You Use Proper English Only?

Beginning a Conversation with Your Intended Audience…PT 2

See how I did that? Drew you right into my conversation didn’t I? That’s one way you begin a conversation with your intended audience.

No, I’m not giving away confidential secrets of the government. I’m not about ready to divulge the ancient secrets of a sacred society that lives among us as quiet and beneficial members. I don’t want to let you know the meaning of life just yet. It is merely a suggestion for the way you communicate a message to your intended audience. But nonetheless, I drew you into my conversation when I wrapped up Part I of Beginning a Conversation with Your Intended Audience published December 5, 2007.

When you read that blog entry published earlier, you instantly thought, “Shucks, I have to wait to get the beat.” You may not have said it quite that way, but I’m paraphrasing your thoughts for you. Yes, you resumed with the rest of your day. You haven’t been sitting still waiting patiently for Part II. It didn’t ruin your day or anything like that at all. But, it did make you curious.
[Read more…] about Beginning a Conversation with Your Intended Audience…PT 2