Writing Online

Pros/Cons Essay Writing: Take Both Sides, Present Stehgths a

2008-10-17T07:25:00.000-07:00

Pros/Cons Essay Writing: Take Both Sides, Present Stehgths a: "A how to write a pros and cons essay article by an English teacher."

Term paper: A Very Large Research Paper

2008-10-07T12:06:00.000-07:00

Term paper: A Very Large Research Paper: "Term paper writing guide with an outlined template. Written by an English teacher."

How to Write a Feedback Essay

2008-09-26T08:06:00.000-07:00

How to Write a Feedback Essay: "A feedback essay is a way for the writer to critique how well a person has done something."

Research Essay: Discover New Ideas

2008-09-11T04:43:00.000-07:00

Research Essay: Discover New Ideas: "The idea behind a research essay is for the writer to propose a new discovery and trying to persuade the reader that it is a valid discovery."

Classification Essay Writing Tips

2008-07-07T10:33:00.000-07:00

Classification Essay Writing Tips: "A classification essay writer is tasked with the job of taking many different types of information and making sense of it and placing it in a proper order."

Tags: Writing, Academic Writing, Article Writing, Copywriting, Newsletter Writing

How to Write a Persuasive Essay

2008-06-25T15:22:00.000-07:00

How to Write a Persuasive Essay: "A persuasive essay is very similar to an argumentative essay in that information is presented to attempt to persuade the reader that a certain point of view is more legitimate than another. Another element of a persuasive essay will try to convince the reader to take a certain action or to modify a behavior they are already performing."

Title page template and tips

2008-06-23T06:20:00.000-07:00

Title page template and tips: "Cool APA title page template with explanation."

Tags: Writing, Academic Writing, Article Writing, Copywriting, Newsletter Writing

Dilemma on NATO s Purpose After Cold War

2008-06-14T23:11:00.000-07:00

The collapse of socialistic block by the late 1990s gave rise to doubts as to timeliness of the North Treaty Alliance Organization that in fact had accomplished its mission and essential role. Realistic logic concerning military alliances, based on historic experience of the Cold War, gave reasons to believe in incapability of either military block to outlast the collapse of the other.

Read the rest of Dilemma on NATO s Purpose After Cold War →

How to Write an Exploratory Essay

2008-06-13T13:19:00.000-07:00

How to Write an Exploratory Essay: "Whereas most essays are designed to have the writer prove a thesis by backing it up with specific thesis by backing it up with specific evidence, an exploratory essay leads the writer by exploring, not proving."

Tags: Writing, Academic Writing, Article Writing, Copywriting, Newsletter Writing

Template of a Definition Essay

2008-06-13T04:29:00.000-07:00

Template of a Definition Essay: "A definition paper is one that is purely factual and simply explains a situation or topic in a relatively un-emotive manner. Although a definition paper can support a thesis and does reach a conclusion the information contained in the paper does not reflect the writer s opinion on the subject matter."

Hats Off

2006-09-29T14:25:00.000-07:00

I was browsing across random blogs at Technocrati and occasionally found this post. The guy here cites Massumi (I believe he knows the author better than I do):

So why not hang up the academic hat of critical self-seriousness, set aside the intemperate arrogance of debunking--and enjoy? If you don't enjoy concepts and writing and don't feel that when you write you are adding something to the world, if only the enjoyment itself, and that by adding that ounce of positive experience to the world you are affirming it, celebrating its potential, tending its growth, in however small a way, however really abstractly--well, just hang it up.

The man is damn right, I must say. This is what the whole approach to real/genuine/sincere writing is all about!

Read along these lines over and over as they are the most adequate, the most accurate definition for writing ever.

Top ten longest titles of research papers

2006-09-29T14:24:00.000-07:00

by Trevor's Bike Shed

One of the things you learn as a Ph.D. student is how to do research. Though I’m still far from mastering that particular lesson, there’s something I’ve discovered along the way: Academic researchers love coming up with long titles for their papers. In fact, a colleague’s recent 27-word Ph.D. thesis had me wondering, “Just how long do these titles get?”

I decided to find out. I wrote a little script that scans the DBLP database and spits out the longest titles it finds (based on number of characters, not words). Excluding non-English titles, here’s the top-ten list:

10. In silico exploration of the fructose-6-phosphate phosphorylation step in glycolysis: genomic evidence of the coexistence of an atypical ATP-dependent along with a PPi-dependent phosphofructokinase in Propionibacterium freudenreichii subsp. shermanii

9. A Comparative Study of Artificial Neural Networks Using Reinforcement Learning and Multidimensional Bayesian Classification Using Parzen Density Estimation for Identification of GC-EIMS Spectra of Partially Methylated Alditol Acetates on the World Wide Web

8. Performance of empirical potentials (AMBER, CFF95, CVFF, CHARMM, OPLS, POLTEV), semiempirical quantum chemical methods (AM1, MNDO/M, PM3), and ab initio Hartree-Fock method for interaction of DNA bases: Comparison with nonempirical beyond Hartree-Fock results

7. Joint quantum chemical and polarizable molecular mechanics investigation of formate complexes with penta- and hexahydrated Zn2+: Comparison between energetics of model bidentate, monodentate, and through-water Zn2+ binding modes and evaluation of nonadditivity effects

6. A Simple Flexible Program for the Computational Analysis of Amyl Acyl Residue Distribution in Proteins: Application to the Distribution of Aromatic versus Aliphatic Hydrophobic Amino Acids in Transmembrane alpha-Helical Spanners of Integral Membrane Transport Proteins

5. Three-Dimensional Quantitative Structure-Property Relationship (3D-QSPR) Models for Prediction of Thermodynamic Properties of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs): Enthalpies of Fusion and Their Application to Estimates of Enthalpies of Sublimation and Aqueous Solubilities

4. WEB OBJECTS TIME: When Microsoft Started Speaking Like a Good Open-Standards Citizen, The Netscape Extensions Tail Tried to Wag The Dog and Object-Oriented Software Turned Static Web Pages Into Dynamically-Linked Access Boulevards to Significant Online Collection Databases

3. Hydrogen bonding in diols and binary diol-water systems investigated using DFT methods. II. Calculated infrared OH-stretch frequencies, force constants, and NMR chemical shifts correlate with hydrogen bond geometry and electron density topology. A reevaluation of geometrical criteria for hydrogen bonding

2. Molecular mechanical models for organic and biological systems going beyond the atom centered two body additive approximation: aqueous solution free energies of methanol and N-methyl acetamide, nucleic acid base, and amide hydrogen bonding and chloroform/water partition coefficients of the nucleic acid bases

1. The nucleotide sequence of a 3.2 kb segment of mitochondrial maxicircle DNA from Crithidia fasciculata containing the gene for cytochrome oxidase subunit III, the N-terminal part of the apocytochrome b gene and a possible frameshift gene; further evidence for the use of unusual initiator triplets in trypanosome mitochondria

Of course, a trivia researcher’s work is never done. For future analysis, I’ll focus on papers with the highest number of authors. (I’ve already discovered a potential candidate.)

New Articles on Academic Writing

2006-09-26T10:26:00.000-07:00

Greetings folks,

I would like to announce the new series of fine articles on academic writing containing research writing tips and advise based on personal experience. There are 5 issues, some broken in to parts:

What You Really Should Know about Research Papers in 2 parts:

What You Really Should Know about Research Papers and
Know What You Write

Choose wrong research paper type and you'll likely never get a good grade! in 9 parts (!):

Research Paper Types
Template of an Argumentative or Persuasive Paper
Template of an Analytical Paper
Template of a Definition Paper
Template of a Compare and Contrast Paper
Template of a Cause and Effect Paper
Template of a Report
Template of an Interpretive Paper
Title Page Template

Organizing Your Writing Process: Invention, Research, Writing, Revising in 2 parts:

Organizing Your Writing Process: Invention & Research and
Organizing Your Writing Process: Writing and Revising

Understanding Your Assignment Is The Key To Your Success!

and finally

What Is Critical Thinking and How Can It Help You

Enjoy the articles and come back for more!

Home Business Writing Made Simple

2006-06-11T13:48:00.000-07:00

by Dan J. Fry

Have you ever written a letter to a friend? Ever written an outline for any project you were about to start? What about a shopping list? If you have, and I imagine most have, you can then write focused, brief, content articles for your online home business.

Why write? Well, of course you can spend lots of money to drive traffic to your site with absolutely no guarantee that you will obtain a single sale. Moreover, most of the traffic, although targeted, may leave your site and forget it ever existed. Writing puts you personally, your site, and your products/services within the same framework as a well-honed opt-in list of subscribers. People remember you, learn to trust you, eventually purchase from you, and most importantly return to purchase again and again, as long as you continue to offer what they need.

“So how can I simplify what seems to be the arduous task of writing”, you ask?

Try this:

(1) Take out pen and paper and go someplace quiet where you can trigger the creative side of your brain. (Yes, I said pen and paper. Don’t sit in front of the computer for this exercise.)

(2) Sit back and think for a moment about your online home business. What do you offer? What have you learned so far about building traffic? Have you noticed any patterns for certain promotion methods that work? What about anything that can be considered well needed advice to others just starting out?

(3) Now write down the first thoughts that come to your mind. Don’t edit. Your not at that stage yet. Just write the ideas, and do this for several minutes, or until you have at least a single page filled up.

(4) Done? Good. Now go back to the top of the list. Slowly go through and hone the ideas. Anything that pops out as particularly intriguing or immediately brings up related ideas mark off for the next step. These are the ones to develop further.

(5) Now take out a sheet of paper for several of the ideas marked off and write the idea at the top of the paper. (You can use your computer now, but I tend to think better with pen in hand.)

(6) O.k. Ready? At the beginning I asked if you ever have written a letter to a friend? Remember? Keep this in the back of your mind always. Write like you speak. I promise you that for short content articles to develop your online home business, this is the tone that works. If people need a textbook they will buy one.

(7) First make a list, sort of a shopping list of related things to cover. Try not to get carried away. Remember - short content articles.

(8) Now fill in the details as if you were explaining it to a friend.

That’s it. All there is to it. I think you will be surprised how easy it is once you write a few. Personally, I keep a notebook handy at all times just for ideas that I later cultivate into short articles. When I learn something new that I believe will be of benefit to others I make a note.

The power in this technique resides in the fact that you are not a robot and neither are your prospects. When you write, and take it from the perspective of friends sharing information, you step onto a personal level. Now who wouldn’t pick up on that. Eventually, with continually writing and publishing your articles in newsgroups, e-zines, and other web site, your credibility builds, your persona builds, and your traffic and sales will build. You absolutely cannot loose with this cost effective traffic generating strategy.

About The Author

Dan J. Fry is an independent researcher and owner of e-Kinetic.com, a site devoted to providing resources for small budget home businesses. He has a PhD in Physics and is married with two daughters and two cats. Subscribe to his free E-Zine on home business resources at mailto:e-kinetic@GetResponse.com or by visiting his Home Business Resources and Tips site. He can be reached at mailto:comp@e-kinetic.com.

How to Create Incredible Characters Easily

2006-06-08T05:07:00.000-07:00

by Caterina Christakos

Creating incredible characters can be easy if you know of a few simple rules:

1. Each character should have his own voice. If your character is from Brooklyn, give him brooklyn accent and mannerisms.

2. Before you write, decide on his or her background and outline it thoroughly. If she is supposed to be from a high profile Georgia family, know what her parents do for a living. Is she trying to live up to their standards or does she move to California in rebellion? Why?

3. Know your character’s motivations. If he is a seriel killer, what about his upbringing or his mind created him into the pathological criminal that he is.

The lesson is know your characters. Know what makes them tick. Know what drives them wild and what drives them crazy. Know them as well as you know yourself otherwise your audience never will.

By creating a thorough outline on each characters before you begin writing, the decisions are made for you. You will know your characters well enough to know what they would and wouldn’t say and how they would say it. More importantly, your readers will believe in them and in you.

Writing Newsletter Articles that have Appeal

2006-06-06T03:28:00.000-07:00

by Pino Shriver

Are you verbally challenged? Most people claim that they can't write well. While we could diverge on a long discussion about the American school system, let's just take a three minute tour of what it takes to write a newsletter article that will appeal to readers. Just follow these simple steps and you can write an article about your work or hobby for a newsletter.

1. Know your audience. If you are writing about your work, for example, and the audience is your colleagues, you can use all the technical jargon you wish. However, if you are giving a tutorial to a general audience, keep it simple and focus your article on less technical points. If you are writing for a market segment, presumably you have some information about the demographic group that is your audience. For example, your approach would be different if you were writing about the latest options for a BMW versus the features of a modified street rod. The target audience would be quite different.

2. Select your topic and outline your material. Out of all your knowledge about the topic, what is it that you want to write about? Avoid selecting a topic that is too broad. Focus on one issue that will be of interest to your readers. Once you've selected a topic, verify your facts and make an outline of the major points you wish to make in the article. Put the points in the correct order so that the ideas flow naturally from one point to the next. Take time to complete the outline; if you are having trouble getting the outline right, you will have more trouble writing the article without a good outline.

After you know your material, find a twist or special appeal. This in the newspaper industry helps make the article newsworthy. For instance, how will this article make a difference?

4. Write an interesting title and first line. First impressions make a difference. The title and first line are the "hook" that brings the reader in to read your article. Get the reader's attention with your title and first line. The title should accurately reflect the content of your article. The first line should arouse the reader's interest. A question, a play on words or a quote may be the right thing to pique interest.

You're not out of the woods yet. Your reader may put down your newsletter if the first paragraph doesn't clearly state what the whole article will cover. A quick introduction in the first paragraph lets the reader know what to look forward to from beginning to end.

A good article intrigues the reader with its title, tells the reader where its heading in the first paragraph, and finally gives the reader information. With a little knowledge and planning you can write a newsletter article about your favorite topic.

Copyright 2005 Pino Shriver. All rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Pino Shriver is the owner and operator of F S Newsletter which one of the best resources for information about newsletters on the internet. For further info visit his archive of articles: http://www.fsnewsletter.com/archive/

Hooks, Lines & Sinkers

2006-05-31T04:20:00.000-07:00

Hands up if the title to this article made you think that you’d strayed into a fishing feature?

Perhaps you didn’t quite go that far, but hopefully you were puzzled or curious enough to wonder what on earth those three angling associated words have to do with writing. The answer of course is nothing at all if you are thinking of metal barbs, yards of tangled nylon and blobs of lead weights.

Think, however, of the good opening lines used to begin most successful short stories, novels and articles then the “hook” in our title takes on a whole new range of meanings and equates very well with the world of creative writing.

What most beginners fail to understand when they first begin writing, and this applies as much to articles as it does to short stories and novels, is that when they submit their work to an editor, competition judge or publisher there is only a brief moment to impress which is why a lot of attention needs to be paid to that first opening sentence.

Hooking your reader with a good beginning isn’t a guarantee to success, but it will serve to focus attention and make the judge, publisher or editor take more notice of the rest of the article, story etc. If nothing else, it presses an subconscious alert button in the reader’s mind that marks up the writer as a professional who knows his or her craft.

This in turn builds expectation and again focuses attention. As long as the rest of the piece lives up to its early promise, you can be sure that your effort will at the very least receive close inspection and hopefully much more!

So, just how do you come up with a good hook? It would be nice if I could say that there was some magic formula available but unfortunately I haven’t found it even if it does exist! Still there are several things that you can do to get things moving.

First of all don’t sit staring at your screen trying to think of a good opening line when you have a mind boiling with ideas struggling to spread themselves over the page! All this will do is make you tense up with frustration and dam your creativity.

Instead, start hitting the keys and slap those ideas across the screen! Once you have the basic outline down then you can start the editing process, including the opening sentence. If at this stage you are still stuck, try leaving the work for a few days, there’s a good chance you’ll come up with something when you’re mind is focused on something else and the first flush of enthusiasm has cleared from your brain.

Analogy, such as I’ve used to the fishing world, often provides a good hook. In the case of this article I used it in the title but hooks are used just as often or more so in the opening sentence. My actual opening “hook” made use of a question, which again is a very good way to start, as questions by their very nature demand a response from the reader, even if it is only to read to the end of the sentence!

I took this a step further by demanding physical action, “hands up”, which of course is a ridiculous thing to expect a reader to do when there is no way of knowing whether they have complied or not! It is this stupidity that hopefully grabs attention and carries on from where the title left off. PR writers are well aware of this process and often mis-spell words to create a similar effect .

Quotations and deliberate mis-quotations also make good hooks either from songs, proverbs or other literary works, but also try putting together unusual combinations of words.

For instance, you wouldn’t think that brussel sprouts could possibly have any effect on good or evil and I’m sure they haven’t! One of my son’s however has different ideas and his annual grumble during our recent Christmas meal gave me a marvellous opening line, or hook, for what will be a festive article taking a close look at this, in my opinion, much maligned vegetable!

What was it? Oh yes, when faced with a heap of those shiny green gems he muttered murderously, “If it wasn’t for brussel sprouts there’d be no evil in the world …” now is that a hook or what?

Which brings me on to another point. Hooks, I’ve found seem to have a power in their own right and often serve as a catalyst to the story or article itself which is why you should be on the alert for when they occur.

The brussel sprout incident is a prime example. Writing in any shape or form was the furthest thing from my mind, but the startled looks and laughter from the rest of the family were enough to confirm what I’d immediately thought, here was a hook begging for exploitation and with a enough power of its own to begin generating several lines of thought.

Being aware of hooks and the power they have on the reader is something every writer has to get to grips with if they want to achieve success so it is a good idea to train yourself to both generate hooks and be on the alert for them by listening to what other people say.

Having a small notebook handy makes a lot of sense, but reading what other people have done before you will also pay dividends. Try this quiz of opening lines to famous novels. It’s not easy, but don’t worry about your score, the real benefit of the quiz is seeing what worked for the author.

1. The scent of slaughter, some believe, can linger in a place for years.

2. When Mr Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday …

3. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth …

4. Scarlett O’Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were.

5. The stranger came early in February one wintry day, through a biting wind and a driving snow …

6. “The marvellous thing is that it’s painless,” he said. “That’s how you know when it starts.”

7. Last night I dreamed of Mandalay …

8. A wide plain, where the broadening Floss hurries on between its green banks to the sea, and the loving tide rushing to meet it …

9. Mr Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-house for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop-holes.

10. “Tom!”

Well, what did you think? Some were definitely intriguing but others in my opinion left a lot to be desired which just goes to show that the proof of the pudding is in the eat… er reading so don’t fall into the trap of thinking that the beginning is the be all and end all!

Oh and before you ask, I haven’t forgotten the lines and sinkers either, call those plots and twist endings and to find out more sign up for the WriteLink Short Story Writing Workshop, it’s free! www.writebytes.co.uk

ANSWERS:

1. The Loop by Nicholas Evans

2. The Lord of the Rings by J R R Tolkein

3. The Bible

4. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

5. The Invisible Man by H G Wells

6. The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway

7. Rebecca by Daphne De Maurier

8. The Mill on the Floss by George Elliot

9. Animal Farm by George Orwell

10. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

About The Author

Sue Kendrick is a freelance writer and graphic designer living in the English Midlands. She writes regularl news items for her regional newspaper, has had many articles published in special interest magazines and won prizes in several short story contests. She is now the editor and publisher of www.writelink.co.uk one of the UK’s premier writing websites and monthly newsletter. She has written several ebooks including READ ALL ABOUT IT! The WriteLink to Newspaper Writing www.writelink.dabsolco.uk/Newspaper_Book/newspaper_book.html and Poetry For Profit, four reports on how to make money from writing poetry. www.writelink.dabsol.co.uk/Poetry_for_profit/poetry_for_profit.html

Sue’s personal website can be seen here: - Sue@writelink.co.uk

EXTREME RESEARCH: 10 SNAPPY RULES FOR SUCCESS

2006-05-25T05:15:00.000-07:00

by Christopher Brown

So you want to learn to research well, and not waste any time. Let's do it. Here are a few NECESSARY preliminary points.

1. First, adopt an aggressive I-am-taking-over-this-place mindset.

2. Develop a system for executing the research process. By creating your own rules to follow systematically, you really speed things up. Don't have one? No worries. You can use mine. I happen to have "research animal" stamped on my forehead.

3. Follow the rules. You can tweek them to suit your own style after a couple of runs with this method. But these make for great training wheels.

4. Before going into battle, always ready your weapons.

Do not go near a library or desk to start research unless and until everything you will need sits neatly arranged all about you for quick access. This one is your call. I use 2 or 3 pens and a pad of paper to scratch out notes and thoughts, and a pack of index cards for especially important notes. Then come the highlighters. In college, I used to work the highlighters until they overheated.

Some people like sticky notes (post-its). You can stick 'em all around you as you work. You will want a rolodex and a phone nearby in case you have to call someone you know to ask questions. For instance, if you have a specially-gifted techie friend in your inner circle, or know a professor, you may want to put him on speed dial. Think a bit about anything else you might need. Some folks study and research well to music, so get your headphones if you need them. Okay, here we have the system lined up for you.

PART #1: Begin Reconnaissance. You're going in.

A. Get an overview and "contextualize" your topic. Learn its timeline of events and the major historical factors associated with it. When did it happen? What did it do? Why do people care about it at all? Find a short article that outlines the history of, or at least offers a timeline for, your topic. Everything has a history, and gaining a quick overview of your topic's chronology will give you the context into which all your other sources will fit.

B. Next, ride the wave. This is the surfing and browsing stage. Start with what you know. Pick out words associated with your topic or subject and Google them. When you land a starting topic (you can change this as you go, no worries. Just start somewhere.), use online encyclopedias and other resources to get a "quick snapshot" of the general views on the subject that exist out there already. Try to see your subject from as many angles as possible, as it were, "walking all the way round it," inspecting as you go. Ask questions in your head, or even out loud like I do (caution: this may scare people), and put them down on paper in a special spot. Slap a sticky note on it that reads "QUESTIONS I HAVE."

To aid and abet developing a "snapshot overview," start looking up books on the topic. Find 10 of them. Note the titles on maybe 50 books -- if you can find that many -- about your subject or topic. Note the overlap in words used in the titles about your topic. This will give you a quick idea about who or what this topic means to others who have already studied it.

Next, read the bibliographies of books. One good book can give you 5-10 great leads you might never have found otherwise. Note the titles that show up repeatedly in different bibliographies. In research geekspeak this is "bibbo," bibliographic overlap. Bibbo identifies your IRT's -- Initial Research Targets. Photocopy or print out from your IRT's: the table of contents; the first chapter; a middle chapter that looks interesting or helpful; and the final chapter. Then read these and highlight the Dickens out of them. This gives you a snapshot, and a working knowledge, of the entire book extremely fast. It works too. Use your scribbled out question set as a filter for "what to look for" -- and highlight or take notes on -- when reading your IRT's. Write down any further questions that develop. These can be as simple as "Who is that guy?" Let your curiosity guide you, and let the sticky notes FLY!!

Next, read journal and magazine articles. How do you find these? Try checking your Bibbo. Or just follow any that you think might land you somewhere interesting. Play the detective. Follow your nose if you smell a good lead.

PART #2: Compile and organize your sources.

Use the old-fashioned vanilla file folders and mark them up, so you know which is what. Then get a file box to keep them handy.

PART#3: Determine which are the most relevant features of your topic from its effects or imlplications in 3 different areas of study. For instance, if your topic reads, "Interesting stuff about World War II," then you will need to ask and study questions like, "Who did it cost, and how much did it cost them, to have this war?" Follow the money (economics). Then, you might ask "How did this war change the mindset or values of American society" (sociology or philosophy). Finally, ask maybe, "What inventions did Europeans develop to fight this war?" (technology).

By looking at your topic from at least three disciplinary viewpoints, you will gain a broad understanding of it, and find yourself -- somewhat suddenly -- asking GREAT questions about it.

PART#4: Find and choose a controversial feature of topic, and choose a side of the issue.

Write down your viewpoint in one sentence. This we call your "thesis." Arguing this point well now constitutes your "objective." Ask the question of your thesis, "How do you know this is the case?" Ask this three times. Each time you ask it, give a brief answer in writing from one of your three areas you chose. Each answer must reflect views formed from a different area.

PART#5: Next, Re-read or skim your sources to develop an outline (in order to support your three points offered in defense of your thesis). Now pull out the photocopied (or printed out) chapters from your IRT's and highlight and scribble all over them -- but keep it legible. Argue your case vigorously with your imaginary critic who knows what you know. Take his side and argue against your thesis the best you can. Shoot it down, developing three criticisms. Some of these will already have circulated in print in your sources. Line them up. Then answer the critic. Refute his three points. Your outline is nearly finished.

PART #6: Organize your notes into subgroups listed under the branches of your outline. Draw a picture of the flow of your argument and objections as though it were a tree, and label the parts. Modify the outline as needed. Add relevant subheadings (you will come across new info in your scribbling) under the branches of the outline. Fill out relevant details from your notes to form the arguments for each section and subsection. Your rough draft is now complete.

PART#7: Rewrite your rough draft 5 times using our rules of good writing.

PART:#8 Study the cleaned-up draft for logical errors in arguments. See our "Blogic For Writers" website for this; modify and strenghten your case. Use T Edward Damer's "Attacking Faulty Reasoning" for this too.

PART#9 -- Write your conclusion. This final paragraph spells out "what important point or points you have learned from doing all this hard work (e-search). Here, you make the case for why your research has value. Also, here either write or rewrite your introductory paragraph to "hint at" (anticipate) the concluding paragraph. Most of the time it actually makes the best sense to write your introduction LAST, since this way you write with a view of the WHOLE work, which you did not have at the beginning.

In the introduction, hint at your conclusion, but don't give away the whole story. This makes for a smooth and logical flow from start to finish, giving your work a stylish symmetry, where the first part foresees the end, and the end reflects on the beginning. All good stories have this symmetry.

PART #10. Do the footnoting (or endnoting) and contstruct an extensive bibliography. Add title page and Table of Contents. See Kate Turabian's or an MLA manual online for this, and for grammar and style. You can also use the resources we list in our sidebar.

You are DONE. Your paper or article "so totally rocks," and you get an "A." Your readers love you, and you then become wealthy and famous. Your actual mileage may vary, batteries not included, offer void where prohibited.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Christopher Brown has taught English and philosophy for two colleges, attended the California State University, and went to seminary in Orlando, FL. In 2004, he and two friends incorporated a business (Ophir Gold Corporation) that offers free services that help people. You may find them at: http://scriberight.blogspot.com (Writing With Power) and http://ophirgoldcorp.blogspot.com (OGC's Free Web Traffic).

ARE WRITING EXERCISES EFFECTIVE?

2006-05-25T05:07:00.000-07:00

by Lana Hampton

It was reported that the great American author Sinclair Lewis was once asked to give a lecture on writing to a group of college students: "Looking out at this gathering," he said to the assembled students, "makes me want to know how many of you really and truly wish to become writers?" Every hand in the room went up. Lewis looked at them for a moment and then folded his notes and put them away. "If that's true," he said, "then the best advice I can give you is to go home and start writing." He then turned and left the room.

If the first secret of writing is to write and if you've set up some sort of writing schedule, the next step is to figure out what to write.

Opening a brand new file and looking at a blank screen often results in a kind of brain-freeze; we feel as idea-less as the empty screen we're staring at. Writing exercises can help us thaw our idea bank. The goal of a writing exercise is to open your mind and allow you to hone your skills and experiment. The joy of such an exercise is it's not 'for real.' That is, there's no thought of pleasing an editor or finding a publisher or meeting a deadline or getting paid. You're just writing, with your internal editor turned off.

Some freelancers find writing exercises so effective and freeing they actually begin every writing session with a 10 or 15-minute exercise. Others use them more sporadically. But however you do it, writing exercises will help you with your writing. Use writing exercises in your writing schedule, as a natural part of your writing discipline; use the exercises often and watch your writing improve.

Ideally, a writing exercise is short, requiring you to spend no more than 10 or 15 minutes writing, thinking and feeling about something that's unrelated to the rest of your writing work. In a way, they are like mini-meditations and mini-vacations because they clear out the cobwebs and give you a new view.

It's that new view, that different way of seeing, of expressing, that's the key to a good writing exercise. Naturally, not every exercise blows your mind every time. Sometimes you are just not ready for the challenge presented, but even then, the seed is planted. Sometimes you are simply not up for doing a writing exercise, which is okay too. Again, simply reading can set some new thoughts in motion.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lana Hampton makes it easy to improve your writing skills. Visit http://www.yowswriting.com today for the latest writing tips and information.

Abbreviations made easy

2006-01-24T04:03:00.000-08:00

Which is better usage: USA or U.S.A.?

The punctuation of abbreviations is an area that is subject to considerable differences of opinion. For example, as demonstrated by the question above, not everyone agrees on when (or if) to use full stops.

It's an indication of just how confused this area is that even the basic terminology isn't agreed upon. You'd think that a simple term like abbreviation was easy to define, wouldn't you? Sure you would, yet some camps distinguish between abbreviations and contractions (giving each different punctuation rules), while others lump everything in together as abbreviations.

A common definition of abbreviation goes something like this:

An abbreviation is a shortened version of a word or phrase and is often followed by a period. For example, c.o.d., ft-lb, St. or publ.

Unfortunately, there is rarely any cogent explanation of what is meant by "often followed by a period", so just *when* does an abbreviation take a period, and when doesn't it?

In an effort to provide clear answers to these questions, I present the following more precise definitions:

An ABBREVIATION is a shortened form of a word that does not include the full word's final letter.

A CONTRACTION is a shortened form of a word that does include the full word's final letter.

Here are some examples of abbreviations:

Tues. - Tuesday
approx. - approximately
doz. - dozen
Aug. August
Prof. - Professor
Aust. - Australia
a.m. - anti meridiem
p.m. - post meridiem
i.e. - id est
e.g. - exempli gratia

Abbreviations are followed by a full stop. You can think of the full stop as being a replacement for the missing final letter.

Note that abbreviations like "p.m." are actually two separate abbreviations: "p." for "post" and "m." for "meridiem."

Here are some examples of contractions. Contractions should not be followed by a full stop as they retain the final letter of the original word.

Rd - Road
govt - government
St - Street
ft - feet
Mr - Mister
mfg - manufacturing
Dr - Doctor
Mme - Madame
Pty - Proprietary
Ltd - Limited
dept - department
yds - yards

Not everyone will agree with this approach. Still, in my view, distinguishing between abbreviations and contractions is a better way to proceed than the ambiguous definition quoted earlier that relies on you guessing what "often followed by a period" means.

I hope you find this useful.

© 2005 Tim North, http://www.betterwritingskills.com

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Yesterday I Read A Book. Yikes!

2005-09-21T23:46:00.000-07:00

Yes, I admit it. I did.

Now, don't get me wrong. I am an internet marketer. I spend hours and hours in front of my computer, answering questions from my customers, working with prospects, improving my offering. I personally take calls from my customers and I react to ensure that their needs are met. I work hard to squeeze every dollar out of my website, both for me and for my affiliates.

But yesterday I read a book.

Nope, it wasn't a book on marketing, or persuasion, or Google.
Nope, it wasn't an e-book on web design or the latest tools to create nifty buttons.
It was a real, honest-to-goodness, paperback novel.

I didn't learn a thing about how to increase my conversions or attract more people to my website. What the heck was I thinking?!

I'm a small business owner. If I don't work, I don't eat. Every bit of revenue that comes in the door is directly related to the time I spend working, thinking, planning, building...

Read full version of Yesterday I Read A Book. Yikes!

Writer's Block

2005-09-14T10:39:00.000-07:00

Writer's block is a weird thing. I'm fortunate in that I can almost always sit down at the keyboard and start tapping out thoughts. Where I struggle, though, is getting beyond that first writing session. One of the great things about blogging is that it is largely a first draft medium. Have some thoughts on the Super Bowl, politics, or a stupid TV show? Sit down, crank them out, post them. Quick, relatively painless, and with the satisfaction of being published where anyone in the world can find them.

Full version of Writer's Block is available at Writer's Block

Finding your writer's voice

2005-09-14T10:31:00.000-07:00

Don Tate brought up one of my very favorite writing topics when he asked me about voice in our writing. He wondered, "How important is it that the author's voice match the characters voice or language particularly if the character is supposedly telling the story?"

Finding your writer's voice in full

Use your doubt to fuel your work.

2005-09-14T09:28:00.000-07:00

We are all harmed in one fashion or another, on various levels. Some of us admit our harm, talk about our pain, carry it around with us like a Siamese twin. Others bury it at varying levels of their "self" sometimes knowingly, willingly, and other times the pain is so strong that their mind blocks the very idea that the pain ever existed. Some harms are imagined but the pain they inflict is just as real. Just because a fear is irrational doesn't make it any less real. And then there are many people who have been harmed, admit it, work through it or find their own way to go around it, and move on with their life. But in each instance, in each person's lifetime, we have all been harmed and we have been shaped by that harm. You cannot be alive and be any different. How you choose to let that harm affect your life is entirely up to you.

Find full version of the article at Write On Right Now!

What does it cost you to be a writer?

2005-09-14T09:25:00.000-07:00

So, what does it cost you?

With writing, as with most things in life, you have to put yourself into it before you get something out of it. That means giving up some of that time you used to spend watching television, playing games, sleeping late, or even spending time with friends and family. Because get one thing straight right now; writing is work. It means realizing that the first, or second, or third, or maybe even the tenth version of a story still might not be ready for publication and it means submitting rejected manuscripts again and again until they find a home.

Read full version of What does it cost you to be a writer?