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As a new writer, are you confident you understand the practical process involved when you write a novel? If not, this may help.

Whenever a potential client asks one particular question, I know the person is a new writer who doesn’t (yet) understand the practical side of being a fiction or non-fiction writer. What’s the question?

“What is your best guess about how long it will take to edit my manuscript?”

It’s a logical question, right? So what’s the matter with it?

Let’s say you’ve completed your first draft and used Spell Check. The very next step that should be taken is to print out a copy and put it away for a few days or one week. Plan a time to sit comfortably with the printed copy, pencil and eraser on hand, and read it, preferably aloud. You find errors and what I call hiccups far easier when you do this than if you work solely from the computer screen.

You don’t do this simply to find typos, but also to see and listen to whether the story, as written, works. Does it flow from start to finish? What about plot and character development? Does character dialogue sound natural? It’s very easy to be so pleased you completed a draft you forget you also need to be an editor.

Do you think one attempt at this guarantees that your manuscript is now ready for the next step? I hope your answer is no. Make your changes, print out another copy, put it down for a few days, and repeat this process as many times as reasonably needed.

What writers usually do when they feel their manuscript is ready is ask one or more people to read it and give feedback. Often, what a new writer looks for is approval, a pat on the back (completing a manuscript is an accomplishment). What they need is honest feedback that helps them write a good read. Some people ask family or friends to do this for them. Sometimes this is beneficial; but it depends on whether the individual(s) can contribute quality comments.

New writers eventually reach out to an editor, which is important; but they don’t always understand what working with an editor involves. They may not realize if it took them months to write and edit their manuscript, it will take more than a few or several hours for an editor to work on it. How long it takes an editor has all to do with the technical and creative quality of the writing.

I always ask potential clients to send their first chapter to me so I get a sense of what will be involved on my part, and to determine if their manuscript is actually ready for editing. When I see a manuscript and writer would benefit more from a thorough critique, I tell the person so. Writers who need and get a critique learn how to improve the technical and creative aspects. They get information and rewrite examples that assist them to become better writers. A critique also benefits a new writer who has reworked a manuscript so many times she or he can no longer tell if it’s good or what it needs.

There’s another reason to get a critique: Cost. New writers know an editor needs to assist them, but some writers may be cost-conscious because of a penurious nature or necessity. A critique helps them write a better story, tidy the text, and write tighter. This can reduce the expense of working with an editor, especially if heavy editing was required and done before the editor gets it.

When a manuscript is in the edit stage, it takes hours and a good deal of them because the manuscript makes several trips between the writer and editor as the writer makes or approves suggested adjustments.* This part of the process can go on for a few months because changes or additions the writer makes has to be reviewed and considered as part of the whole story. Another reason for the extended time is that neither the writer nor editor works full-time on the manuscript, but as their schedules allow. With each revision, the time either person has to spend on it is reduced.

*Most writers prefer an editor use Track Changes so they can decide to accept changes or not.

Once I read a revised manuscript that flows from start to finish, with no hiccups, it’s ready for whatever the author intends to do with it, whether that’s self-publishing or submission to an agent.

If you are a new writer and committed to your creativity, learn what’s required of you and the process. It’s worth it when you hold a copy of your book in your hands and when readers give rave reviews.

Joyce Shafer, LEC and Author, has been a published writer and assisting fellow writers for nearly two decades. Her books/e-books, including, “Write, Get Published, and Promote: An Easy e-Guide for New and Aspiring Writers,” are available at lulu.com. Visit her Website at http://www.freewebs.com/editmybookandmore to learn more and get the e-guide at a discount. Email: jls1422@yahoo.com.

I am a struggling writer! I struggle to write something worthwhile!

Just the other day, during my brains agonising struggles, it dawned on me that over the last two months I had not written one article, not one sad ‘memo-to-self’ nor had I entered one word into my sad Blog, yet I have been sitting at my computer struggling about it all! I now see myself as the struggling painter, the one who has achieved nothing more than re-coating the drab-grey front door of my sister-in-laws house; she assuming that she has helped me somewhat on the road to enlightenment.

I looked around the other day (or twenty) for some path to follow, some enlightenment on the search engines for struggling writers and realised that here was the last place that I should be looking and that I should after all just write something and write it well instead of searching for the answer!

When I started writing four years ago I took pains to correct my grammar and to re-read closely the finished works. Then after one year I simply wrote for the sake of writing and forgot all about the presentation factor – I fell into the trap of quantity over quality! I would hastily write one article of about 2000 words, usually in-less than one hour, and then spend three or more hours publishing it to my Blog or website and any other websites who would take it!

To look at the Internet more deeply; the statistics last month (March 2007) show clearly that 500 people hopped along to my website! Now, of those 500 people, 400 of them did not stay longer than 5 seconds! In fact, of those 500 people only 12 of them spent longer than 30 minutes. This states that less than 5% of visitors spent any time reading anything at all! 95% of them just flicked through, skip read a couple of sentences and then moved on! And it could be possible that of those 12 people who actually logged on to my website for longer than 30 minutes, three of them fell asleep with my website still up, another three couldn’t get away from it as their mouse had failed, three more were Chinese and were just looking at the pretty pictures and the last three were all family members who felt sorry for me (I was one of them)!

I certainly have questioned these horrible statistics; do they go to prove that my articles and writing are not worth being read and that a simple skip over proves this or are the large search engines simply providing wrong results? I talked this over with a friend of mine and he said “if a web searcher does not find what he is looking for within 3 seconds he/she will promptly move on”! That is the average time it takes to make a judgement on a website and regardless of a sites alternative worth, if it does not immediately captivate and hold, then ‘swish’, away they go! In other words; if a searcher is looking for tips on modern-day cannibalism then an article on head-hunting in the 18th century would not hold sway, however well written and researched the article maybe!

A person going to the bookshop can spend hours meandering along the shelves, reading snippets on ‘Travel by Harley Davidson through Tibet’, a book on ‘how to translate in sixteen different languages all at once’ and laughing out loud at some graphically boosted diary titled ‘life at sixteen as a bitch”. And they only went there for five-minutes to pick up some postcards for Granny! Surfers who use search engines do not typically retain the same relaxed approach; they speed through results on a mission, they sit on the edge of the chair and rattle through websites with unexplained nervousness, typically boosted by a teaspoon-standing jug of coffee laced with an unreasonable amount of artificial sweetener!

And in this tone; the major search engines that host adverts relish in this type of behaviour from its customer base. Take Google, Amazon or Yahoo for example, companies whose revenue is largely generated through surfers clicking on opportune adverts! If a surfer clicks on an advert the hosting website is paid a certain fee; advertisers pay the likes of Google and Yahoo to host their advertisements on certain websites and these stay up for as many clicks on these adverts as they have paid for. Following on therefore, I can only assume that a website that has no content and is filled simply with adverts is the most ideal website possible for these search engines. Web crawlers will not be wasting time at websites reading interesting articles; they will be clicking on an advert to move away from this extremely boring site!

Since I started writing (and from the day that I started to submit my articles to article banks and websites in the hope of becoming known and extremely popular) I soon realised that I was becoming well-known but not in the way that I wanted to be. My articles started to appear everywhere, on sites that bear no relation to the articles content and in many cases amongst a mass of adverts – quite clearly the webmaster hosting my articles hopes that the reader will find my articles sufficiently boring as to click on an advert to escape and thus generate a couple of cents, pennies or roubles for the pockets of the host.

Today, I typed in ‘Seadolby Articles’ into the Google Search Engine. A few of the results that came up were;

1.The Grumpy Edinburgh article. I wrote this piece many years ago, a look into the typical grumpiness of the Edinburgh inhabitants through personal experience – a trait that still remains today. This article appears on a page with 16 different Google generated adverts and two affiliate money-generating links to Google products. The article is clearly displayed on a page with the title “Asia Information”. The last time I looked Edinburgh was in Scotland not in Asia, or was that the village of Edinburgh in Indonesia?????

2.My Article titled, Surviving Retirement, which is basically an insight into saving money for old-age, can be found on a website titled, Beach Umbrellas. This article is displayed there simply because I mention the word ‘umbrella’ in a sentence; “The financial security umbrella that most wage earners would like to shelter under after retirement is “. Of course the article is liberally inter-spaced with Google adverts!

3.A Website titled, ” Dental health, good gums”, has a link to my article on Free Gifts in Taiwan. The connection here passes me by! This website is filled with adverts from Amazon.Com and Google. Strangely enough the Google adverts give links to five-star hotels which confuses the issue even more!

4. And the one that I laugh hysterically about in a depreciative manner is an article that seriously criticises website advertisers and states how terrible they are, titled, The Online Advertising Scandal. This attacking article appears on a website titled ” Website Advertising”, a site whose sole purpose is to gain income from potential advertisers. Naturally this website comes resplendent with adverts that certainly give colour to the site and also lots of income, despite my article telling all and sundry that they are being ripped-off!

NB: I only give links here to my original articles as posted on my website. I simply have no wish to advertise or link to those external sites who host my articles to boost profits.

I’m no purist! My own website comes with its fair share of advertisements – should any visitor become seriously bored with my articles then they can click on an advert and generate some income for me. The difference is that my articles are original (I did after all write them myself), they are apt for the page they reside on and from my point of view are interesting to read, should anybody stay longer than to simply skip read the title in the hope of finding information on wooden legs or ‘how to make pancakes from wood chips’!

I fell into this trap four years ago! I regurgitated endless streams of articles, quantity to satisfy those websites who will display my articles in conjunction with advertisements! I wrote articles that nobody would ever read and scripts that were only useful because they carried an apt word here or certain content there and so would draw a particular category of advert or customer. Nearly forty percent (if not more) of websites out there seem to be totally arranged around adverts, many of them with my content, apt or not, to draw the crowds! I’m not proud of what I have done!

But now it is time to change! I cannot, it seems, erase the last four years of bad writing – the web does not give up the past, it keeps the ghosts of time gone by to be replayed time and again like a bad record! My bad articles will stay on the internet to haunt me, the only thing that I can do is to correct those that I display on my site and to only write new ones that I like and that I have researched well and then only to display them on sites to which they are appropriate.

And I must seriously get around to writing articles for magazines and journals, those in-print, so that some people might actually stop by to read in leisure!

But now that I am faced with this task I find myself unable to write anything worthwhile and so I sit here struggling with nary a word to put down onto paper!

We’ve all been there…”I know I need to be writing more articles to promote my business and my website and my affiliate projects, but I just don’t know what to write
about”.

Article writing can be a daunting task for many internet marketers, and most people will avoid it and delay it like the plague.

Fact is…if you just write what you know about then article writing is not that difficult. Don’t struggle initally with the details of your articles such as structure, paragraphing and correct grammar. If you spend too much time critiquing
and reviewing every word you write then you’ll probably end up never submitting a single article at all. In your mind it just won’t be good enough for anyone to read so “why bother at all?”

You can always go back and edit your article before you submit it, but if you spend all of your time editing as you write you’ll never be happy with your article and probably end up never submitting it to anyone.

I personally enjoy the “task” of article writing. Some days I may spend hours and hours working on something as simple as installing a plug-in to my Wordpress blog,
and at the end of the day I find myself wondering why I didn’t just outsource the whole thing to an expert.

Maybe you’ve just spent the last three weeks building your website with a particularly horrible or great website building program. You now know exactly how to use the program and what you think about it…so write about it.

These are the types of things that make allow me to turn to my article writing…because I now know how to install that particular plug-in to Wordpress or what I think of that website building program, and I can tell everyone else the pitfalls to avoid and the shortcuts I’ve learned. I’m now an “expert” at installing that plug-in and I want to share my knowledge with everyone else.

That sitebuilding program was “awesome” and I think everyone should get it. Or, this “sitebuilding program” was really hard to work with and the number of hours spent working with it were not worth the money saved.

If you’re really really struggling with your article writing you can always turn to all of those PLR articles you have saved on your hard drive, or find new ones by doing a search of private label rights.

I’m not a huge fan of writing articles this way, but if you do use PLR just make sure that you read, read, and re-read the content so that you really understand it. Then make sure you take the time to revise the PLR into your own words and your own personality with your own understanding of what the PLR article is about.

Write about what you know. Write what you’re interested in. Write about your passions. If you do this your writing will flow naturally and the articles will be easier to write.

Make your articles fun and interesting and full of yourself and your expert knowledge and youll find that what was something you avoided doing (writing articles) is now the thing you enjoy the most.

Online writing is not just about getting your spellings correct or maintaining a good flow. A good content writer is one who writes with the online readers needs and habits in mind. You may compose an eloquent and elegant piece that is packed with the big words. But if the reader cannot understand what it is that you are saying, the entire exercise will be futile.

To draw a parallel, critically acclaimed movies generally are not a big hit with the public. Or vice versa, Dabangg was held in contempt by many intellectuals but the movie raked in a lot of moolah at the box office.

As with other kinds of mass communication, the needs of the target audience should direct the style and the format of the work. A successful web content writer always thinks about the age, background, gender and technical know-how of the reader before his fingers hit the keyboard. So, what are the expectations of an online readership?

Research has revealed that online readers tend to briefly glance over sites rather than read them closely. Short and crisp sentences are a big must. The web content writer needs to capture the audience with active verbs and smart metaphors.
In addition, the great web content writer is a versatile one. The beauty of the online medium is that the target audience cannot be fitted into a single entity. A web savvy teen likes simple sentences, slang terms and most of all, plenty of multimedia accessories. Whereas an elderly Internet newcomer is interested in writing that contains lengthier explanations and detailed information with no other distractions. To be a successful web content writer, you have to be able to change your style to suit different audiences.

By understanding your core audience, you can surely become a web content writer, whose work is target oriented, valuable and has a greater chance of being read.

The Most Popular Writer Of The Urdu Popular Fiction- Razia Butt

The Urdu language is blessed to have great poetry and prose writers. Usually it is a trend that people respect the literature more than the popular fiction. However, one must realize that it is not the literature but it is the popular fiction, which reaches to most of the average Urdu speaking people. Gilbert Keith Chesterton once said, Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity, which is a great truth. The popular fiction of Urdu language is fortunate because it has writers like Razia Butt. The potential of Razia Butt cannot be undermined. Just because someones novels touch the hearts of masses, does not imply that they are too simple. In fact, it is even harder to produce bestseller novels. In the words of W. Somerset Maugham, “No one can write a best seller by trying to. He must write with complete sincerity; the clichs that make you laugh, the hackneyed characters, the well-worn situations, the commonplace story that excites your derision, seem neither hackneyed, well worn nor commonplace to him. The conclusion is obvious: you cannot write anything that will convince unless you are yourself convinced. The best seller sells because he writes with his heart’s blood.” The above quotation holds true for the Urdu bestselling novels too.
The life of Razia Butt is spent studying Urdu and writing in Urdu. From her very early childhood, Razia Butt loved to readUrdu novels. She was a very ardent reader. In her childhood, she used to buy novels whose diction she was too young to understand. Her elder sister used to accompany her in the reading sessions so that she would explain the story, plot, and diction to the little sister. Razia Butt has produced some of the best Urdu novels. Her novels were a unique blend of love, romance, and social values. The girls simply just love the heroes of the novels by Razia Butt. Razia Butts hero is always very caring, very loving, very romantic, and very expressive. Being with a hero of Razia Butts novel is just like living with a dream hunk. Therefore, it does not come as a surprise that Razia Butts Urdu novels are always the best sellers. Contrary to the popular belief, Razia Butts Urdu novels have deep moral and ethical values as well. Razia Butt always allows movie or drama serial adaptation of her novels. This is another reason why every Pakistani is familiar with Razia Butts name. Those who have not read her novels have seen their movie or the drama serial adaptations. Most famous on-screen stories of Razia Butt have been Naila, Saiqa, Shabbo, and Najia. Razia Butt is a very graceful elderly woman now. Although, she has been an ardent reader however, now she says that she is not interested in reading anymore. The reason behind this is that her eyesight is very weak now. Now Razia Butt sees cultural and literary programs on television to quench her literary thirst. Her novels will always be an enjoyable read and a great source of inspiration for the new writers.

You have discovered a proven method of earning big amounts of dollars on the internet. You want to write an instructional book about it and sell it to the millions of people through your website. The first problem is that you are not a writer and you dont know how to start the book. The second problem is how to promote the completed book effectively on your website. You need a miracle to put your entire plan to work because you are not a writer. Worry no further because you can find your miracle in the person of a professional manuscript writer.

A professional manuscript writer can produce written works from books to website contents. Hiring your own personal manuscript writer is quite easy actually. You can shop around in many online sites that offer manuscript writing services. Once you find the lucky candidate you may ask him or her to start working on your project immediately. But of course you need to prepare for this extra expense because these services are kind of expensive. A copywriter typically charges clients by the hour and has to be paid on a weekly basis. Other manuscript writers prefer a flat rate.

In other words, manuscript writers will write a book for you that you can register as your own work or they can write rich articles for your website. Some call them ghost writers. Because they remain incognito even when their works are published and earned millions. The articles you paid them to do, you can proudly call your very own brainchild.

The benefits of having your own manuscript writer are that he or she can write contents for you that can move your reader into action and these articles can solicit positive reviews. A good book and web content is easier to sell to your target market therefore more earnings for you. Many business owners also hire the services of these writers simply because they dont the time to do it or even if they do write their own articles and manuscripts, they still hire a professional manuscript editor to polish their work. A manuscript writer can be a manuscript editor as well. Thus saves you the time that is required of you when writing on your own.

One of the advantages in hiring manuscript writers is that they can make of punctuation marks correctly in the document they are working on. Using punctuation marks wrongly can defeat the emotion you want to put in into the work. If you are excited about a discovery you are writing about, your readers must feel the same kind of excitement within themselves. That is what is called effective writing. Your readers should find themselves sharing your dreams and goals and if they feel that, asking them to purchase the product will be as easy as pie. A wise businessmans goal is erase any hesitations or apprehensions from the minds of his or her prospective buyers. Only through more persuasive written articles can a businessman achieve that and professional copywriters, scriptwriters, and manuscript writer can deliver just that.

If you are looking for hiring a freelance writer, the first thing you might want to do is to create a freelance content writer contract. Though, you hope to be able to trust the people you work with, many dishonest people are also out there who take advantage of you. By creating an agreement with the person you work with, you just protect yourself, your business and thus, your right to the work has been formed.

A lot of companies are there who hire online freelance writers and sign a contract while hiring them as freelance writers to their company. There are many good reasons for to create a contract before you start to work on any project. Money is the most important aspect in this regard. When you enter into an agreement with writers, you expect a certain level of quality and commitment in return for the money you pay to them.

By creating a contract, you can specify exactly what you expect to receive for your money from the content Writer. You can also create some guidelines detailing about the amount of money you will pay for the project on completion. Therefore, while Hire Freelance Writers dont forget to create a contract with them for your safety. This written agreement will also keep you out of trouble if the writer attempts to sue you for copyright infringement.

So, when you are looking for freelance Writers make sure you will keep in mind all these aspects. Its not only important for the employer but also for the hired freelance writers, as the writers will get to know all the terms and conditions and will signed it when get agreed to it.

The Interesting Web Content Writer Is The Interested One

What are the qualities of a good content writer? An online writing guru will tell you that the mark of a great content writer is one who has a strong command over language and is research oriented. Well, there is another requirement of web content writer, that ought to be stressed more strongly- the enthusiastic writer.

The fact is that being grammatically sound and a smart researcher is not enough to make a big splash in the competitive world of online writing. You, too, would not be interested in reading a lifeless piece of writing. They say that enthusiasm is like a common cold- it gets passed on. This also applies to online writing. Your writing should grab the reader by the shoulders and shake him up. Amongst the multitudes, this is the way a web content writer makes his work stand out.

If you are animated about a particular subject, you can write on it with authority. Your passion will cause you to uncover as much of information as you can find on the topic. To put it simply, when you write what you know, people read your work because your knowledge is an asset worth sharing.

Thus,before you embark upon the glorious ride that is online writing, consider your interests. Figure out what is the thing that makes you gabber on endlessly. Is it politics, art or science that pushes your buttons? What do you want to write about?

Of course, pure passion is will not cut it in the big bad world of online writing. You need to be articulate and up to date as well. A successful web content writer skillfully combines enthusiasm with expertise.

So, what are you waiting for? Find out your interests and start writing!

Anyone can call themselves a writer. All you have to do is write a story, an article, a journal, a novel, a poem. But you want to be successful writer. Successful writers get paid for their work.
Anyone can call themselves a writer. All you have to do is write a story, an article, a journal, a novel, a poem.
But that is rather like being called a plumber because you sort out the central heating and replace washers. Or a dressmaker because you make your own clothes. Or a bricklayer because you built your own garage.
These are hobbies you enjoy. They arent your main source of income.
The difference between writers and the other examples is that people who write are usually passionate about what they do.
If you are one of these why not become a real writer who gets paid for their work? It gives great pleasure to answer Im a writer, to the question What do you do?
It gives even greater pleasure to add For a living.
So what must you do to become a full time writer?
1. Get paid for your work.
Im afraid that there are many people who are so anxious to see their work in print that they will write for nothing. There is only one acceptable reason for doing this and that is to build a portfolio of published material.
Unfortunately editors know which publications use such material and sadly some of these publications will print material which would not be of a standard to be paid for. If your work is good enough you will get published.
I operate with two guidelines. I only offer material for which payment will be made if it is accepted even if its only a letter to a Readers Letters page.
2. Never dispose of anything you write even if its been rejected.
It can be re-worked and represented to another publication or at another time. Maybe it can be incorporated into another piece. While you decide what to do it can safely sit on file in your computer ready to be summoned when youve got writers block or a spare moment. Sometimes just re-reading it will set you off on a more productive line of thought.
3. Write every day.
Set an achievable target for doing this. Even if its only an hour a day at first you must stick to it no matter what else happens. Choose your time of day. Get up earlier if necessary. Make it a habit so that you feel uncomfortable if you dont do it.
4. Dont give in to writers block.
There will be days when you sit down at your desk and your mind goes blank. Dont sit there doing nothing or, even worse, decide to end the session and do something else. Just write anything. Even if its gibberish. Write about the fact that you cant think of anything and how cross that makes you, etc.
Before you know it your writers block will have disappeared.
5. Start small.
A good place to start submitting work for publication is the letter page of magazines and newspapers who pay for the items they publish.
Warning! Dont be tempted to present something you dashed off on the spur of the moment.
Prepare the items you submit to editors with as much care as you would if it was a short story or article. It is good practice for working on longer items and will sharpen your skills.
6. Study your market before you submit anything at all whether it is a letter, an article, a short story or a novel.
Show professionalism by choosing a suitable subject and style.
7. Edit, revise, rework and edit again until you are sure youve got it right.
Some writers study the market before they decide what to write about. When Im writing short pieces, unless Im working on a commissioned article or story, I prefer to write whatever is in my mind at the time.
Then I work on it so that it is suitable for whichever market I have chosen.
One piece of writing can often be adapted and edited to suit several different publications. But beware of the next point.
8. Never send the same article to more than one publication at a time.
You will end up in any editors black book if after publishing your piece of work it is then printed in a rival publication. Wait until your ms has been rejected before submitting it elsewhere. Before re-submitting it, re-read it. Especially take note of any comments the editor might have made. (They do sometimes do this.)
9. Do not alienate editors.
To most people that would seem to be pretty obvious but there are still tales of hopeful writers sending angry letters or making abusive phone calls when their submissions are rejected.
Remember that there are hundreds (at least) of hopeful authors sending in material. Dont pester any editor for a decision for at least a couple of months, and then a polite enquiry by phone, letter, or email is acceptable.
10. Never give up.
There are very few writers who were successful from the start. Keep a list of how many rejections the best authors had. Read it every time the heavy sound of a rejection landing on the mat depresses you.
Before long it wont be that heavy thump, it will be an acceptance or a cheque. At last youll be on your way to being a real published writer.
To see more tips for writers visit
http://www.BAwriter.co.uk/ which is a page designed for writers and small and self publishers.
Every good writer is also an avid reader. One of the best places to find the classics and old favourites is Braindex1. It really is worth a visit. Click Here!

No matter how skilled and competent we are at writing, there is always room for improvement. Below I have included ten ways to become a better writer. While many of you may already adhere to most of these, you might find some of them helpful.
1) Practice, practice, practice. As with any other discipline, the more one practices writing, the better of a writer he or she will become. I can see a marked difference between the quality of the articles I write now and that of the pieces I wrote four years ago. While practice rarely makes perfect (contrary to the old proverb), it almost always leads to steady improvement.

2) Avoid unnecessary repetition. Too much of it makes a writer seem amateurish and pedestrian. To keep away from repeating key words any more than is absolutely required, use an online thesaurus to find synonyms for them. For example, don’t keep repeating the word ‘necessary.’ That word has plenty of synonyms like ‘required’, ‘needed’, ‘requisite’, ‘essential’, ‘compulsory’, ‘obligatory’, ‘crucial’, etc. Make good use of them.
In addition, don’t repeat people’s first names throughout an article. Except when required for disambiguation (i.e., when your article includes two or more persons with the same surname), include a person’s first name only on your article’s your first mention of him or her. All subsequent references to that person should be limited to his or her title and surname (ex., Mr. Smith), or just the surname (ex., Smith).
3) Read newspapers on a daily basis, especially the editorial sections. Read the letters to the editor, but give special attention to pieces authored by prestigious, accomplished writers like George Will and William F. Buckley, Jr., and study their writing styles. Although Buckley is no longer with us, much of his work is still available for perusal on the Internet. And don’t just read the work of the people you like – also read the opinions of those with whom you disagree. You need perspective from all sides of any issue.
4) Listen to intelligent people when they speak. Tune in to what they have to say. Through osmosis, you might begin to speak and write like they do. What goes into your ears comes out of your mouth, and is hopefully reflected in your writing.
5) Use numerals in sentences only for values of 11 or greater. Spell out zero through ten. And never use a numeral of any kind at the beginning of a sentence. Exception: It is okay to use a numeral for any numeric value, if it is not part of a sentence. An example would be numbered items that are followed by a period or right parenthesis.
6) Don’t write about the same stuff all the time. Write about a broad cross-section of subjects. That shouldn’t be too difficult, as most people are interested in more than one thing.
7) Expand your vocabulary. Learn new words, become familiar with their usage, and then start using them. Use an online dictionary to aid in this process. Use short paragraphs of no more than four sentences. As many have pointed out before, people just won’t read articles that include long paragraphs. Many readers find them intimidating and most of the remainder don’t have time to read them anyway.
9) Don’t ramble. William Shakespeare once said that “Brevity is the soul of wit.” Brevity is indeed a good thing in all forms of writing. Don’t use ten words to say something that could just as easily be said with five. The use of superfluous words will not make you seem any more intelligent.
10) Use commas and shorter sentences for clarity. Long sentences without commas are very difficult to follow and are easily misunderstood. Here’s an example:
“On my way to the doctor’s office I witnessed a traffic accident in which two people were injured I stopped my car got out and offered assistance you would have done the same thing right.”
Now here are the same words, but broken down into three sentences, and with some commas inserted:
“On my way to the doctor’s office, I witnessed a traffic accident in which two people were injured. I stopped my car, got out, and offered assistance. You would have done the same thing, right?”
Now, isn’t the latter a lot easier to follow?