Last week, I was excited to field a call from a local reporter looking for some a woman-on-the-street perspective on Obama’s immigration reform proposals. Thanks to the super awesome SEO plug-in of this site, and my constant blathering on Twitter, my name came up via the Google gods.

I have indeed seen some serious action and interest in immigration reform content and communications needs lately, which has not only been a boon for GardenWall, but also makes me feel some serious responsibility for supporting the reform that myself, my family, and many of my clients have been working for over the past 7ish years. As I have deep respect for the reform movement, the weight I feel in “getting it right” for my clients is not to be minimized. We hope “this is it”!

Here’s the link: Allena Tapia, Immigration Reform, WLNS (good as of 2/5/13).

English transcript: (Español abajo)

News Anchor: Well, it has been a rocky road leading to a new proposal for immigration reform, but President Obama sounds optimistic about getting it done. Now here’s his plan. Give illegal immigrants temporary legal status if they 1) pass a criminal background check, 2) pay a fine and back taxes, and, of course, 3) learn English. Well today, Will Robinson-Smith talked with a local woman who tells us that this really hits close to home.

Reporter: President Obama has spelled out his vision for immigration reform.

President Obama: We can’t allow immigration reform to get bogged down in an endless debate. We’ve been debating this for a long time.

Reporter: And while the president did lay out his idea for changing the system, for professional writer and mother Allena Tapia of Eaton County, it was all a bit abstract.

Allena Tapia: I was just really wondering where we are going to go. How long is it going to take? How are these bullet points going to, you know, change as we get closer and closer to the real thing?

Reporter: Tapia is to mother of 12-year-old Maricela and 9-year-old Benicio. Their father was the first person on that side of the family to be born legally in the U.S. His father was naturalized, but came over illegally.

Allena Tapia: We can’t make this into an ‘us/them’ thing. We can’t have that ‘other’ mentality. It’s just not going to work. This is our community now. This is everyone. This is, you know, the new U.S.

Reporter: Tapia knows for this to pass with bipartisan support, there will need to be beefed up (stronger) border enforcement. But she says that the most important thing is a pathway to citizenship.

Allena Tapia: Anything less will put an entire group of our community members, you know, our neighbors, our coworkers, it would put them into a second-class citizenship, like a second-class group. And that’s unacceptable.

Reporter: And that’s a future Tapia hopes to prevent. In Lansing, Will Robinson-Smith, 6 news.

News Anchor: Well, thank you. The president hopes congress will have legislation ready on this in a timely fashion, and if not he will hand down his own version of a bill, and insist on a vote.

—————–

Presentador de noticias: Bueno, ha sido un camino difícil que conduce a una nueva propuesta de reforma migratoria, pero el presidente Obama suena optimista acerca de conseguir que se haga. Ahora aquí está su plan. Dar a inmigrantes ilegales un estatus legal temporal si cumplen con los siguientes requisitos; 1) superar una verificación de antecedentes penales, 2) pagar una multa y los impuestos atrasados y por supuesto, 3) aprender inglés. Pues bien, el día de hoy, Will Robinson-Smith habló con una mujer de esta área que nos dice que esto realmente tiene un impacto emocional en ella.

Reportero: El presidente Obama ha explicado su visión de la reforma migratoria.

Presidente Obama: No podemos permitir que la reforma migratoria se estanque en un debate interminable. Hemos estado discutiendo esto durante mucho tiempo.

Reportero: Y mientras que el presidente expone su idea de cambiar el sistema, para la escritora profesional y madre Allena Tapia del Condado de Eaton, todo era un poco abstracto.

Allena Tapia: Yo estaba realmente preguntando a dónde vamos a llegar. ¿Cuánto tiempo va a tomar? ¿Cómo estos puntos del presidente van a, ya sabe, cambiar a medida que nos acercamos más y más a la realidad?

Reportero: Tapia es madre de Maricela de 12 años de edad y Benicio de 9 años de edad. Su padre fue el primero de ese lado de la familia que nació legalmente en los EE.UU. Su padre se naturalizó, pero llego aquí ilegalmente.

Allena Tapia: No podemos convertir esto en una cosa de “nosotros / ellos”. No podemos tener esa “otra” mentalidad. Simplemente no va a funcionar. Esta es nuestra comunidad ahora. Se trata de todo el mundo. Esto es, ya sabe, los nuevos EE.UU.

Reportero: Tapia sabe que para que pase esto con apoyo de ambos partidos, se tendrá que reforzar la vigilancia fronteriza. Pero ella dice que lo más importante es un camino a la ciudadanía.

Allena Tapia: Cualquier cosa menos pondría a todo un grupo de miembros de nuestra comunidad, ya sabe, nuestros vecinos, nuestros compañeros de trabajo, los pondría en una ciudadanía de segunda clase, como un grupo de segunda clase. Y eso es inaceptable.

Reportero: Y eso es un futuro que Tapia espera evitar. En Lansing, Will Robinson-Smith, 6.

Presentador de noticias: Bueno, muchas gracias. El presidente espera que el Congreso tenga lista la legislación al respecto en el momento oportuno y si no él dictará su propia versión de un proyecto de ley e insistir en una votación.

In case you missed my incessant Tweets and so on, be sure to check out my new article up at Huffington Post: “5 Reasons Why YOU Should Care About Immigration Reform” by Allena Tapia (yours truly). As you may know, writing about immigration is one of my niche specialties.

I always love a HuffPo byline, as it’s one of the sites I contribute to that people (ahem, Mom) actually recognize. That’s the way it is with freelancing, I suppose. Until I break into Latina magazine or whatnot, I’m guessing my HuffPo pieces will be my plaque on the wall.

• 1099s are reports of pay given to non-employees, including independent contractors. If you hired an IC (such as an editor or writer) in 2012, you should report their pay via 1099 to both the IRS and the contractor themself *if the total pay for the year is more than $600USD.*
• If you are new to the career, you’ll likely note these handy dandy 1099s rolling into your mailbox in about a week. You’ll need to take this paperwork to your tax preparer, same as any other tax paperwork. Yup, Uncle Sam expects his cut of that project pay.
• Note for all: My hubby, the accountant, told me that the IRS isn’t even accepting tax paperwork until February 1, due to the new tax code. So much for all those new shiny big screen TVs for the Super Bowl.

Thanks much!

But, I’m about to write up a full review for “The Freelancer’s Bible” and I’m actually excited! Horowitz has managed to include all the necessary info, but her added perspective as Founder and Organizer of the Freelancers Union puts a unique and useful spin on the basics.

I actually learned a couple new things. For example, did you know that the Freelancers Union offers us a 401K plan WITH THE OPTION FOR AUTOMATIC DEDUCTIONS!!? What a lifesaver. Seriously, I seem to be patently unable to save unless things are automatic. I was also inspired by Horowitz’s professional approach to client management. I think I tend to take my clients for granted at times.

Watch for the full review at About.com soon, or grab your own copy today.

Do 12 year olds even KNOW who this guy is?

ABOUT ME

AUDIENCE!!

AWESOME!!!

(Do this by table so that there’s not a mad crowd)

Go over the assignments. Talk about why they do or don’t match with the selected audience member.

If there is time, let’s talk about the audience for the school newspaper.

I think you’ll find that her book has uses for many different kinds of writers and many different needs. For example, she covers the tech aspects of blogging with incredible clarity. She also outlines the process of writing a nonfiction book proposal IN THREE PAGES! Now, I’ve read entire books on nonfiction book proposals, but Amir managed to get the process down to its specific how-tos without sacrificing quality.

Now that’s the mark of a good writer!

Come on over to About.com and read the entire review to see if there’s a use in it for you. You might be surprised.

Best practices for your non profit website!

I thought I’d share the results of a some poking around I did on nonprofit websites, which I combined with previous knowledge gained from writing website copy for several (for-profit) clients. The foundations between the two (sites for selling versus sites for nonprofits) are quite similar, actually. After all, we’re all kind of selling something, aren’t we, whether that’s a “widget” or an idea or a crusade?

First and foremost, since we all know that web experiences continue to move toward more and more graphics, it is of the utmost importance that the few words of text that you DO use have that much more punch.

“Less copy” on your site cannot equal “less message,” or less “call-for-action.” You will lose precious donors, volunteers and advocates. Getting the message right is therefore that much more important. Perhaps this is also a plug for hiring a professional writer for this portion of your site. You’ve got precious few inches to get it right- let me take care of it for you.

Start with Your Prep Work:

• Find the end goal of your website by asking what is the end goal of your most-common site visitors? That’s your new goal, too.
• This will also require you to ask who those visitors are? Who is the target audience? Donors, media, volunteers, passive consumers? Narrow those categories down even more.
• Based on the above two brainstorms, formally list the priorities of your site. If those priorities fall into logical groups, consider those to be the goals for certain pages within your site.

Key Elements of Your Landing/Home Page (note: these may not always be the same page, but this is a good place to start for now):

• An immediate grab-you-by-the-throat visual opening graphic.
• A two-second statement of who you are and what you do.
• A plain request for donation (but place this lower on the page, perhaps under the fold).
• A high-interest “capture” story that engages and drives the user deeper into the site (rotate/freshen it often).
• NO generic sign ups/email captures- saves these for specific campaigns, they will work better (the experts promise).
• Links to your social pages.

Navigation Advice:

• Base the structure of your site on visitors’ goals- not your goals. Also, navigation shouldn’t follow internal structures (like Accounting, Marketing, Board of Directors). Your website visitors don’t care, and they are your #1 concern.

Pages:

• Place your email captures/sign ups within your pages, right around or after your stories and campaigns. These campaigns are where you hook your visitor- so grab their info while you can.
• Speaking of stories, they definitely rule the day when it comes to nonprofits. These should be the heart of your site, pages and campaigns.

General practices:

• Avoid the use of insular mission statements that won’t echo with your visitors.
• If you want to have internal communications (board info, upcoming meetings, etc), place this information on its own internal page.
• Update often!
• Use your messaging research, poll data or focus group info on your website. You paid for it! You may as well get as much use out of your message parameters as possible.
• Make use of snappy headline ideas and formulas.
• Be interactive: converse, engage in dialog. Nowadays, this is more often accomplished via social media platforms, but do keep it in mind as you create your site, too.

Your website is your face to the world. Keep visitors engaged and drive them deeper down into your site with these tips and tricks from the experts! Let your website take on some of YOUR job so that you can move on to the more important things on your list.

Ok, no more hoopla. I now present to you my first infographic, a service-oriented image aimed at other freelance writers. I used the free version of Piktochart. Please to enjoy! (Be sure to click on it to enlarge in a new window)

Want to Be a Good Writer? Read!

A recent WaPo blog post, “Why Kids Hate School, Subject by Subject,” eviscerated the most common, core subject areas taught in high school, labeling almost all of them pretty much useless for students.

My favorite subject, language arts, got a bit of a pass, with the author saying that it should focus solely on writing- that is, producing students who can manage a written argument. The author gave the thumbs down to all the rest of the activities that we’re accustomed to finding in the typical English class: reading, reporting on our reading, and so on. Here’s the paragraph:

“There is exactly one thing worth paying attention to in English. Not Dickens (unless of course you like Dickens.) Not Moby Dick, or Tennyson, or Hawthorne, or Shakespeare (unless of course, you like reading them.) What matters is learning how to write well. A good English teacher would give you daily writing assignments and help you get better at writing (and speaking). By writing assignments I don’t mean term papers. I mean writing about things you care about and learning to defend your arguments. Learning to enjoy reading matters as well but that would mean picking your own books to read and not having to write a book report. Lots of luck with that.

The issue with this, though, is that reading the classics- putting that data into the developing brain- is going to help produce good writers.

I know this.

I devoured books as a student, and I know that the ability to pull and write phrasing quickly, to arrange words and sentences in an 1) aesthetic and/or 2) informative manner is directly the result of mass amounts of data being entered into my conscience/thought process/brain as a student.

My work is patterned after every piece of writing that I’ve read and digested. Even the finicky grammar rules are directly from reading. I know where to put a semi-colon- perhaps the most confusing piece of punctuation to the layperson- because I can hear what it sounds like when a semi-colon is supposed to be there. And I can hear it because X novels have done it, and done it well, and that accumulated sound is well-rooted in my head.

The author of the WaPo blog doesn’t dismiss reading entirely. But he insists that students should focus only on what they want to read. I understand this to a point, but have you SEEN what kids WANT to read?

This brings up an additional point: Can reading bad language therefore do the opposite? I’m not sure. I think the answer may be different for an established writer, or even for an adult in general. But, would I want my students or my children filling their head with sub-par writing day after day and year after year? No way.

A last thought. The input/data needs to continue. Today, I do a lot of reading and writing online. And I know that 75% of the time, I’m looking for manageable bites of information. Tell me your point, tell me why, get to it, quickly. See, that’s more data for me. I sort online reading into “good” and “eh,” and then I reference that when I’m doing my own writing. The data input has to continue.

ETA: No, reading alone won’t make good writing. Yes, one has to DO to write. Think of it like a tool- an essential tool.