Thursday, January 22, 2009

Examples of descriptive writing

Topic : Tiger is a fierce and proud wild animal

It lives in a deep forest. Sometimes it is hunted for its nice fur can be used to decorate the house. Tiger has long whiskers and teeth and its fur has stripes with yellow and black. It also has large claws for being weapons in hunting and in protecting itself. And if anyone or animals get lost in its way and if it knows, it's hard for the prey to be able to survive because it is a wild animal which cats meat. It's special abilities are that it is a fast runner, it eats animals and hides itself in grassland in order to catch the preys. It will hunt with speed and by surprise. With this fierce characteristic, tiger is breezed by no one. We can see tigers in the zoo. By the way, We have to watch them by staying far from the cage and follow the rules.

Examples of descriptive writing

Topic : My favorite sports person

My favorite sports person is Micheal Jordan, a very reputable basketball players He is a beloved man of adolescents and every basketball fans. Once he used to play for the Chicago Bulls, but now he stops playing it. However, his competences, talent and virtues is still in his solid fans, hearts. Not only tan he play basketball excellently, but also he can perform very well in the film called "Space Jams'' And in this film he has a chance to touch the warner Brothers hottoest characters like such Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety and Fussy Cat etc. That he can pass on his feelings well makes the film more interesting too. And one of the most wonderful music and songs from and inspired by the motion picture is the song called " I believe I can Fly" by R.Kelly describes his feeling which is full of hopes and never give up appreciated by the people all around the world. He is the one who can take his team to success and frame and he became the symbol of the Chicago Bulls since then. He is a rare talented and marvelous basketball player of 20th.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Writing Well for the Web

If you expect your potential clients to read the texts on your site, be especially particular about the content. Writing for the web has its own peculiarities in comparison with common publications. It is known that 79% Internet users just skip over the web pages, but rarely peruse them. It suggests that we should take pains to make their reading useful for them. Do not make these mistakes. Surely the site should make a bright and lasting first impression, but not with the help of the flash, the pet chip of many web designers. They consider flash to be very cool. In fact the visitors of the site can’t stand irritating flashes and start looking for the reference to do away with the annoying picture. The aim you make up a flash may be various, freelance technical writing for example, but the reaction to the flash will not be quite adequate. They have opened the page to acquire necessary information and the flash reel is a nuisance for them. The users don’t know if the information on your site is better than on the millions of the others. If they come across the flash at the very start they will just switch to another site. Forget about the flash and fill you site with the useful original texts.

In newspapers and magazines our attention is captured by pictures, photos and illustrations. It is not the same in the net. The research showed that first of all the users pay attention to the headline - they scan the whole page to find the seizing words. A single phrase that says: “freelance internet writing jobs” will not tell much about the offer itself. This is the key function of the titles and subtitles – they will reveal to the reader the content of the whole page so that he won’t have to delve into the details. The headlines attract the users’ attention. The first subtitle is to define the user’s problem (e.g. seeking a freelance writing job?), the second one is to scream – “Here is the solution!” Thus the reader gets the general idea of the site and if he swallowed this hook, he is likely to return and read the whole page. If your site welcomes the visitors in this way, you are just missing the real advantages. It might be the first and the last phrase the user reads on your site. Remember, that the Internet surfers came to your site to get what they, not you need. So, find out what their wants are. Describe the benefits, he will have, appeal to the emotions. The users must be sure that they deal with a trustworthy company and they have made a good bargain. Gain their favor: persuade them with the specific text highlighting the main benefits and advantages. Here everything is simple. The users write key words in search engines and phrases (e.g. freelance writing jobs).

The search engines present a list of the sites relevant to the inquiry. The users are inclined to choose the first sites from the list. The sites with the pertinent key words are placed at the top of the search list. So, you should define the key words of your potential clients and use them in your texts. Don’t clutter up the page with a great number of useless options or heavy graphics, downloading for too long. Use the empty space to lead the reader through the whole text from the first to the last word. Remember that screen reading tires the eyes. The screen reading is 25% slower than common reading that is why you should not strain your visitors. Divide the information into small portions, use short saturate sentences (e.g. Freelance writing jobs available) A paragraph should contain only one major idea. But you can make a lot of lists, as you never know which one magically turns a reader into a buyer. Your text will face serious trials. The users will not read it until they want it. Your task is to attract them with something new and interesting all the time. A famous marketing specialist Joseph Sugarman shared his secret of a successful text: “The aim of the text is to make you read the first sentence. It makes you read the second. The second one aims at reading the next and so on.” Mind that the text should describe your products or service and incite the reader to action. If you propose online freelance writing jobs you should mention, at least that your company or magazine or another facility that gives a freelance writing job opportunity, that you have a variety of possibilities starting from freelance writing editing jobs that is going to be a turning point in somebody’s career.

Writing That Resume

When preparing your resume make sure the skills you list are accurately conveying your experience and knowledge in each area. It is also recommended that time be spent reviewing the skills the company is looking for in order to highlight these skills in a job interview or cover letter. The cover letter should briefly outline any skills or achievements that you might have and explain why you are a suitable candidate for the position.

Make sure when creating your resume you ...


Keywords:
resume,getting job,jobs,writing,employment


Article Body:
When preparing your resume make sure the skills you list are accurately conveying your experience and knowledge in each area. It is also recommended that time be spent reviewing the skills the company is looking for in order to highlight these skills in a job interview or cover letter. The cover letter should briefly outline any skills or achievements that you might have and explain why you are a suitable candidate for the position.

Make sure when creating your resume you don’t have job functions that are not related to your skills this can make the person hiring you believe that you are not qualified for the job you are applying for and cause them not to read the rest of your resume. Clearly highlight the special skills and experience you have that the hiring manager is looking for. The employer looking to fill the opening will be interested in the work experience and job skills that correspond to the position they are trying to fill.

What skills do you want to utilize. All you need are the basic skills and knowledge:. A clear understanding of what specifically you have to offer; Thorough knowledge of your market place and what is wanted; An excellent command of the English Language.

For some job opening, employers receive hundreds and even thousands of resumes. A resume makes it easier for employers to evaluate whether a person who is applying for a job is a possible candidate. When creating a resume there are key points that employers are looking for in a resume, make sure you list the most important key points and keep the other less important points off the resume. On the negative side narrow resume objectives can be used by employers to eliminate a candidate, and often objectives are over-used, generic, and state the obvious.

Because employers want to know in a few seconds what you can do. The people who have similar careers to what you want will tell you about their own personal experiences in obtaining and maintaining the job, while those in human resources will be able to discuss what the employers in that field are truly seeking.

Avoid clich้s and don’t copy a resume format or wording from someone else. Your resume outline is the blueprint to success containing everything you need to fill-in-the-blanks of your resume regardless of the format (chronological, functional, or combination).

The most popular style for resumes is the Chronological Resume. Practice with a few, and then see how comfortable you are with that resume style and your own employment history. To do this, you should choose a resume style that is tailored to your educational and professional experience.

You can also access other people’s resume’s that are posted online which will give some great ideas for style and content.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

The World of Writing

Question:

What was it like as new authors in the publishing world?

Answer:

As free-lance writers of informative articles, we had no prior experience with book publishers. We did a lot of research and were aware of some basic contract and publishing procedures, yet there were many things we were not prepared for. For instance, there was the book cover design to conceive of - which our good friend Brian McAndrew created. The back cover text had to be developed, an author's bio written, photos to have taken and lists of nearly 2 hundred contacts to sort out. The marketing research took weeks to do, but it resulted in a 12-page plan to ease our way.

Then there were formal things like dealing with the Library of Congress and Copyrighting. For instance, copies of the book had to be sent to the Library of Congress at our expense. There are rules to be aware of as well. The rights for free use (using quotes from other people) is so gray that we opted out of including this kind of text. Unfortunately, that meant more editing. We were disappointed because there were some very good quotes that would have added a great deal to the book.


Question:

What were some publishing experiences or unexpected turn of events?

Answer:

While Lillian was browsing the Internet looking up information on other publishers, she came upon Publish America's website. It inspired her to send a query in on the spot. Within 3-days we received a request for a sample manuscript. Now, these publishers only accept 20% of the thousands of queries that cross their desks, so we were excited to have such a good response in a very short time.

Unfortunately, we were also relocating our home from one part of town to another, finishing a garden year and working as well. Time was short and stress was high. We got that sample manuscript off in a timely fashion, however, and we received an acceptance within a few days. The heady sensation of signing the 7-year contract flew by us in a blur.


Question:

What time and resources do we put in for promoting the book?

Answer:

Every day we put in 2-6 hours into some aspect of the book. The Internet has proven to be a powerful tool where an immense amount of information can be found from newsletters, publishers, forums and authors. Every on-line communication we have is an opportunity to plug our book by simply attaching an auto signature. We developed promotional materials (flyers, mini-posters, large posters, bookmarks, and labels) and, of course, galleys and sample packages for editors and booksellers. Most importantly, we had a great website built for us by Brian McAndrew of Beyond Graphix (www.openminder.com).


Question:

What did you learn in researching the book?

Answer:

We thought we were committed to the concept of the book in our lives, but when researching and writing this book we found we became much more motivated, more committed and more informed about waste reduction.


Question:

As a writer, what have you learned about staying organized or motivated?


Answer:

Having a plan of action for every project is vital. Every project should have an outline starting from the title through to the end. There should also be a market plan laid out. Who are you marketing to? How you are going about it? What will you do first? These are the most important tools of a writer. Most people think of a writing career being one where you have lots of leisure time and creating with words. On the contrary, most of the time is spent marketing and organizing projects. For instance, we might write an article and query it to a market. That market may take a few days to get back to us, but it may also be as long as a year before we hear from them. That article is idle and we do not get paid until after it is published.

A writer may have hundreds of pieces of their work at various stages of writing and marketing at one time. They need to know where it is and its status, at a glance. We use the Excel program to take care of this. For the book, plans were indispensable. The market plan alone is a book in itself and will take us years to complete. That is normal, actually. A writer must spend much of their time promoting the book for years after publication in order to keep sales happening. Unfortunately, promotion and writing time are unpaid hours in the meantime.


Question:

When do you write?

Answer:

We have to do a bit of juggling to manage our business, day job and writing career with some kind of balance. Usually, We work as a team, though we write separately and then conglomerate and edit the work together. Because we share one computer, this can be a bit of a juggle. Dave works shift work so when he is at work or sleeping Lillian will use the computer to research and promote.

Question:

What is your professional background?

Answer:

Dave and Lillian began their (paid) writing career working as staff writers at Openminder Newsletter where they experienced the harried pace of getting several articles and even feature or interview articles ready for a by-weekly deadline. It was our start in the writing world and plunged us head-first into the community, interviewing unique and enterprising people. The concept of Trash Talk was already developed and this market snatched up the column immediately. When Openminder closed shop, we started a free-lance career. Our articles have since appeared in a variety of magazines including Seeds of Diversity, Country Connection and ISKRA.


Question:

Have you won any awards or contests?

Answer:

Yes, Dave has recently won first prize in the Nature category of BC Cottage Magazine's 2004 Photo contest. Lillian has won several editorial awards for her poetry and has had her work published in 5 hardcover anthology books of poetry through contests.

Question:

What is the most important lesson in your writing career?

Answer:

Research. If you know something is coming up, research it and make a plan of action well ahead of time. If we did not start the market plan and develop a plan of action and estimated schedule soon after finding out the manuscript was accepted, we would have never been ready for the myriad of work ahead of us, much of which is time-sensitive. Doing it right is essential - there is but little chance to make an impression with a reviewer, reader or publication. Even with the best of preparation you will be caught off guard or unprepared. Don't sweat it too much if you make a mistake. Think of it as a lesson.


Question:

Have you any advice for new writers?

Answer:

We hate to sound redundant, but again, do your research. Join forums and research the previous messages for several months ago. You will find many novice questions are thoroughly answered with many different people contributing ideas and opinions. Always research your market and query them in a professional manner before sending a finished product.

Seven Tips To Article Writing

Having difficulty to start writing an article? Actually, writing articles isn’t as hard as you may think. If you understand the rules of proper grammar, own a word processor or word processing software that includes a spell checker, writing articles becomes quite easy. You will find the following 7 tips useful to you.

1. One step at a time. This is a common mistake, especially by the newbies in article writing. Think about what you want to say, then ignoring about spelling...


Keywords:
articles marketing, good quality articles, Private Labels Rights articles, PLR articles, articles


Article Body:
Having difficulty to start writing an article? Actually, writing articles isn’t as hard as you may think. If you understand the rules of proper grammar, own a word processor or word processing software that includes a spell checker, writing articles becomes quite easy. You will find the following 7 tips useful to you.

1. One step at a time. This is a common mistake, especially by the newbies in article writing. Think about what you want to say, then ignoring about spelling or grammar, just write until you have said all that you wanted to say. When all’s done, then that’s when editing comes in.

2. Know your topic. Don’t be stressed over it. Knowing what you want to sell is not enough. Visit forums to find out what your customers are looking for. Answer their questions through your articles.

3. The length of your article. Articles should be between 300 and 750 words. Most word processors come with the “word count” tool, so make use of this tool.

4. Submission of your article. Do not submit your article immediately after you have completed it. Read it over and make sure you included all that you want to say, and most importantly, get someone else to read it, and sincerely accept any criticism from the reader.

5. The objective of your article. Remember, you are writing an article, not a sales letter. The article should inform and lead readers to your website, where the selling will begin at the website. You do not want to risk losing your credibility with articles that are obvious sales letters.

6. Stay focused. That is, make sure your article stays on track. Should you deviate from your original intention, make a note about the new article idea that you have accidentally found, and get back on track with your original plan.

7. Last but not least, write in simple and easy to understand language. In short, write like the way you talk. In this way, your personality will shine through, and this is the first step to building a relationship with your readers.

Action. Ideas. Motivation

The Concept of A.I.M was born out of necessity while I was writing (well more to the point attempting to write) my book called Financial Dignity. The book took many years to research and develop but I was to realise just now much of the time was taken up doing nothing. Many months would go by without me even lifting a pen, tapping a key on the word processor, or turning a page. In between times I would feel highly motivated and would get stuck into the research and bang out a few more pages then do nothing for months.

In the introduction of Financial Dignity I refer to my age at the time and recall quite clearly when I realised I was 3 years older than when I had first started writing the book, but it was still nowhere near finished. I shudder to think that those 3 years had crept up on me so swiftly. The inexorable movement of time had caught me out while I was looking the other way and I had wasted so much of it. Then it had dawned on me why I had not finished the book I had started to so long ago. I knew I was not lazy and worked hard and enthusiastically when motivated. The mistake I had made was waiting for the motivation to happen.

The Motivation Cycle

I thought “Well if I only work on this thing while I feel like it will take for ever”. I was stunned and demoralised and that nearly ended book writing for me. Without the stimulating ‘high’ of motivation the task was just to enormous. Give up! Give up! Pestered the little voice in my head. I think it is human nature to subconsciously take the easy route, to do the more pleasurable things in life and leave the difficult things to last or just hope they go away. I was torn between wanting to complete the book I had persevered with for so long and quitting to do something easy.

I suppose my motivation cycle like most others would go from high to low. The high producing a burst of frantic effort and activity followed by a burn out where you are physically, mentally and creatively drained. I found this took a long time to recover from and it had a de-motivating effect. The problem was the time when I was not motivated; I was not motivated a lot longer than I was motivated. Stoking up the motivation to write and continue pushing your brain to work after a hard days graft ‘at the day job’ is very difficult.

Just doing the time filling, wasteful things like watching TV takes its place all to easy.

The real question

Several months past by… my conscious continued to troubled me about not continuing with the book and then…

A Eureka moment came at 4 o’clock one morning when I awoke with a moment of clarity that often follows a good night sleep when the mind does that marvellous peculiarity of unravelling and sorting the problems and discourse of the day.

“The real problem was not how to get motivated more. It was what to do when I was not motivated”.

The question was how was I to motivate myself to work at something for an hour or two following a hard days work? The Answer was simple “DON’T ”. Don’t wait for the motivation, just take some action every day if you feel like it or not. The action to take is ‘do the next task’ and don’t try to eat elephants whole! Split the project into smaller more manageable and less daunting chunks.

The habit of taking action

In practice I found to my delight reduced periods of energy sapping high motivation and the inevitable un-motivated down time that followed. It was replaced with a steady state where you are achieving on a regular basis, motivated or not.

To start with, it will take will power and effort. If you persevere and keep doing it, it will embed in your subconscious and become habitual. You will be able to carry out the task with hardly a conscious thought.

My preference was to come in from the day job, get a drink (Tea!) and then…just do the next task, which could be research, writing up, editing, whatever useful task needed to be done (sharpening pencils does not count as a task!!!). Doing it at the same time of day everyday trains your mind and body to anticipate what is going to happen next and become habit forming. Once I had acquired this habit of taking Action the new pages to the book started to accumulate along with new Ideas and inspiration. Seeing the book starting to take shape after so long then motivated me to do more and help reinforce the habit of taking action.

“If you want to achieve something just do the next task. Ideas and motivation do not just happen you need to AIM for them”.