The Netwriting Masters Course written by Ken Evoy President of SiteSellcom is
an intensive course on writing high value content that builds targeted traffic, PREsells effectively, makes the sale, and builds a successful online business. SiteSell.com, is a leader in Net marketing products that work. Their flagship product, Site Build It , is considered a quantum leap product that puts the power of the Net into the average, non-tech-savvy small business person who may not know tech but knows his her business http buildit.sitesell.com . Just starting your own small business...
Humor Magazines
Cartoon World, George Hartman, Editor, P.O. Box 30367, Lincoln, NE 68503 Cracked, Michael Delle-Femine, Editor, Larken Communications, 535 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Croc, Patrick Beaudin, Editor, Ludcom Inc., Edifice Plaza Drummond-ville, 5800 Avenue Monkland, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H4A 1G1 Humor Magazine, Edward Savaria Jr., and Suzanne Tschanz, Editors, P.O. Box 41070, Philadelphia, PA 19127 Intra-Tent Journal, Rick Greene, Editor, Sons of the Desert, P.O. Box 8341, University City,...
Executive summary
For longer documents, summarize up front including your bottom line. An executive summary is like an elevator briefing. Here's what I mean Suppose you get on an elevator with your boss, who asks, How's your project going You need to finish your answer by the time you get to the fourth floor. What would you say You'd probably give a quick, bottom-line summary. And what's effective for a busy person on an elevator is also effective for a busy person sitting at a desk. An executive summary, then,...
Sample Research Paper
Enough Is Enough Rosa Parks, American Hero Thesis A hero is someone who can do the unexpected, one who pushes beyond personal losses and fears to commit an heroic act that helps others. A hero is strong, stands up for his beliefs, and takes charge when others don't. Everyone can be heroic and do heroic things but not everyone can be a hero. Through overcoming obstacles, fighting against the evil of racism, and standing up for her beliefs, one small woman changed the course of American history....
A poster is a synopsis not a paper
A scientific poster should follow the same organizational conventions used for other scientific writing, with an Introduction, Objectives, Materials and Methods, and Results. The Discussion should be limited, and can be included under the single heading of Results and Discussion. If literature is cited, a References section must be included however, it can be in smaller type and in a less prominent position than other sections. Include Acknowledgments to recognize contributions to the research...
Three Quick Fixes for Stronger Prose
After you've done the hard labor on your essay, you'll want to do the finish work, the small things that make the prose really shine. We don't mean to suggest these two processes are mutually exclusive naturally you will find yourself adjusting the prose as you go along. We have three quick fixes that make any piece stronger search and destroy, the adjective adverb purge, and the punch. The most overused verbs in the English language are variations of to be these include is, are, were, was, and...
Find alternatives to sexist language
Though it may be unconscious and unintentional, sexism is common in scientific writing. Consider these examples. Hard-driving veterinarians in private practice should take more time for their wives and children. Fuch's endothelial dystrophy in man occurs with a predilection for aged females. The client's behavior was typically male. Some people are also quite sensitive to nonparallel usage that seems to suggest an inequality. The study included 10 men and 16 females. The researchers were...
Sample ideas for writing a technical document
Write the minutes of a meeting. Prepare a plan for how to put on a school function dance, fundraiser, festival, art show, etc. . Explain how to complete a task. Write a report on how a science project was completed. Create a document explaining the results of an event that occurred at your school. Develop a school brochure explaining how to succeed at your school. Submit a proposal to a teacher on how you'd like to change the appearance of the classroom. Craft a proposal to your principal...
A Workshop Checklist
Here is an intuitive way to read an essay to be discussed 1. Jot down the scenes, descriptions, and images that stick with you the Velcro words and phrases, as writer and teacher Sheila Bender put it. Put the essay down and make note of the first thing you remember about it. Generally these passages are the ones that not only are the best written, but the most key to what the essay is doing at a deep level. 2. Identify the emotional tones of the essay and its prose. You may sense the pleasure...
Acknowledgements 1
Most academic articles contain acknowledgements to various sources of help received during their preparation, although one editor of my acquaintance steadfastly deletes them on the grounds that they add nothing to the content. However, I believe that it is courteous to thank sources of financial support and colleagues and referees for their help in improving articles. Slatcher and Pennebaker conclude Portions of this research were funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health MH53291...
Economy
Credible prose uses only as many words as it needs to create its effects. It doesn't sprawl. That doesn't mean, of course, that it can't be repetitious. Repetition can be used to great effect if it's deliberately used to create a mood, an atmosphere, or a state of mind. Here's William Faulkner, the Great Repeater himself, describing Quentin Compson listening to Miss Rosa Coldfield in Absalom, Absalom Her voice would not cease, it would just vanish. There would be the dim coffin-smelling gloom...
Reference Manager Tools
Nowadays, many authors use a reference manager software to facilitate the formatting of reference lists. Such tools provide the formats for many of the standard reference styles accepted by journals. At the touch of a key, the entire reference list is formatted in a selected style. If your manuscript is rejected by the chosen journal, you can reformat the references to meet the requirements of another journal. Reference manager tools are very accurate and tend to facilitate the handling of...
Shock Therapy
The frenzy of modern communications makes it more and more difficult to get attention. Advertising research claims nearly one thousand ads vie for our attention each day, so our attention span gets shorter. When future generations open today's buried time capsules, they'll feel positive that every major decision in our lives was made in thirty seconds. They could be right. If Moses brought down the Ten Commandments today, Dan Rather would probably broadcast the news this way Today, in the...
Personal Experience
Most creative nonfiction writers write from personal experience, with varying degrees of self-revelation. Scott Russell Sanders' disturbing, cathartic essay, Under the Influence, describes his childhood with an alcoholic father. In the passage below, Sanders contextual-izes the term alcoholic, setting up a contrast between his own life and what he knew of alcoholism. How far a man could slide was gauged by observing our back-road neighbors the out-of-work miners who had dragged their families...
Historical Investigation Or Research Rubric Grades
Advanced Proficient The paper does all or most of the following Clearly addresses all parts of the writing task. Provides a meaningful thesis and maintains a consistent tone and focus and purposefully illustrates a control of organization. Thoughtfully supports the thesis and main ideas with specific details and examples. Provides a variety of sentence types, transitional devices, and uses precise, descriptive language. Demonstrates a clear sense of audience and purpose. Uses a consistent and...
Mirage
Suddenly there is motion in the desert. Arms like scarves signal me over out of the sun, under the tent strewn with pillows, plates of fruit and wine. As I stare at the billowing walls I'm grabbed by a man in armor who doesn't speak but stretches his tongue out beyond the grid of his helmet licking each crevice, each turn my body takes. of his steps close by. I'm allowed to touch nothing but him, feel nothing but him, Again, you can make a case for calling this an erotic poem one that focuses...
Brenda Miller Suzanne Paola
New York Chicago San Francisco Lisbon London Madrid Mexico City Milan New Delhi San Juan Seoul Singapore Sydney Toronto Copyright 2005 by Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. The...
Challenge Your Readers with a Question
Ending with a question involves readers by inviting them to think. I wanted to challenge people to come up with ideas, Max says. Creative director of an internal advertising department in the textile industry, Max ended a staff E-mail looking for new promotional ideas with T-shirts and baseball caps. Tote bags and pens. We need a fresh approach. Any ideas He explained, Ending with a question helps people focus. Sarah, a freelance writer, wanted to win approval for an article idea. She ended her...
Modern Love
The rain streams past the gutters, overflowing a drain clogged with leaves. From inside the sound is cool and precise, and though the door lies open and the light spills out, the kitchen keeps its warmth. The refrigerator hums, the girl works on beneath the pools of light, and the man outside her window sees her pull on a cigarette his eyes follow the orange-bright tip he flicks water from his eyes and wonders what to do next, how to proceed, whether to use the knife or his hands to open the...
Mirroring Characters
Two children, one rich, one poor, who look just alike, change places. That's the basis of Twain's The Prince and the Pauper. He uses the boys, alike in everything but expectation and upbringing, to show and satirize the conditions of both rich and poor during the reign of Henry VIII. Two men, alike enough to be brothers, love the same woman. One goes to the guillotine in the other's place, because the other is the woman's husband. Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. Two men inhabit the same body....
Onetoone administration
One-to-one administration refers to a situation when someone delivers the questionnaire by hand to the designated person and arranges the completed form to be picked up later e.g., handing out questionnaires to colleagues at work . This is a much more personal form of administration than mail surveys and therefore the chances for the questionnaires to be returned are significantly better. The personal contact also allows the questionnaire administrator to create rapport with the respondent, to...
The patchwork writer see Figure
When I write I try to get down some headings that seem to relate to the question. At least they give me an idea of what topics and divisions my writing will have. But I am not yet sure exactly if I have an argument. I start to write what I can under these headings and as I go I am trying to find a way of making these fit together. When I have got my first draft like this I will go back and put in bits that will show the links between the different parts. I may have to move around some material....
The Wizard of Oz
Glinda Wicked Witch Glinda Wizard Help Hinder Conscience Temptation Action Passenger Quad Decision Passenger Quad Scarecrow Tin Man Tin Man Scarecrow Uncontrolled Control Feeling Logic In looking at these patterns, the Passenger Characters in The Wizard of Oz seem very much like the Passenger Characters in Star Wars, with that one notable exception of the flipping of Logic and Feeling in relation to Control and Uncontrolled. In other words, the two Characters simply traded places on one Dynamic...
Rank order items
It is a common human mental activity to rank order people, objects, or even abstract concepts according to some criterion, and rank order items in questionnaires capitalize on our familiarity with this process. As the name suggests, these items contain some sort of a list and respondents are asked to order the items by assigning a number to them according to their preferences. Wilson and McClean 1994 warn us that it may be very demanding to arrange items in order of importance whenever there...
Sensitive topics and anonymity
It was mentioned in Section 1.2.2 that respondents are sometimes reluctant to give honest answers to sensitive questions. Questionnaire items differ greatly in terms of how threatening imposing sensitive embarrassing they feel. It requires little justification that we need to approach the issue of constructing and administering the questionnaire in a very different way if it concerns, for example, the evalua tion of the L2 teacher or the school rather than one's interest in travelling abroad....
Delays In Book Publishing
When the contract has been signed, authors can get on with completing their text, but a number of things can hold them up. One of these, in particular, is having to obtain permission to reproduce tables, figures and quotations from previously published materials even if they are your own originals . . . Some people counsel authors to start doing this almost as soon as they think they will need to copy something when they set out writing their text. However, because permissions have to be given...
DiaLogs MonoLogs and Other Logs Dialogs CapturEd CoNvErsatioNs
Both fiction and nonfiction writers have a basic choice to make when faced with establishing character They can do it directly through a written summary of traits telling or indirectly through dialog and action showing . Teachers of fiction writing usually tell new students that they can characterize best by showing a character in different situations and letting us note how he or she behaves and what he or she says. One fundamental reason for this is that readers begin to suspect a writer who...
Military Headquarters
A messenger brings news of the Centralia massacre, intended for Capt. Smith. It is intercepted by MAJOR A V E. JOHNSTON, 20's, an inexperienced new officer at the head of new recruits. He's been assigned the task of tracking Anderson's movements, and is excited at the prospect of doing battle with the guerrillas - especially when he learns that there are only thirty of them. Although he's reminded that he has orders not to engage them in battle, leaving that to Capt. Smith, he is determined to...
Free Verse
Free verse features an irregular cadence instead of standard meter. Unfortunately, the words that make up the term free verse suggest a kind of poetry that lacks distinctive form or tradition. Although its history dates back to early English versions of the Bible, serious discussion of the form usually begins with Robert Frost who said he would rather play tennis without a net than compose free verse. Ever since, some people have seized on that analogy to argue that free verse really isn't...
Sample Student Narrative Lph
There was no time in the room except dark and light. It was illuminated by the readouts of the machines she was hooked up to and the flickering of the soundless TV She sat up suddenly from a half sleep. Am I going to miss Halloween Halloween is next week. Honey. I'm sure you'll be home by then. They're just pumping this juice in your body so you'll be extra sweet. She knitted her forehead in a frown. My small joke did not work. It's saline. Saline is salt. I'll be too salty by next week. Hey...
A Distinctive Voice For Each Character
When a friend phones you, you recognize without being told that it's Jim on the line and not Harry. Even before you peek at the signature on a letter, you can tell from the way she describes events that it came from Karen and not Melissa. Everyone sounds different. Not only does the sound of the voice have unique qualities high-pitched or low, breathy, raspy, musical but the words we choose and the way we string them together are individual as well. Listen to the three characters below. Each...
The Essay of Ideas
The essay has long been the form for exploring the workings of the human intellect. Running the gamut from argument to rumination, authors have always used the essay as a vehicle for both developing and expressing ideas, holding political debates, and delving into personal philosophy. Many of us have bad memories of writing themes in high school the five-paragraph essay that rigidly prescribed the way an intellectual essay could work thesis, three supporting paragraphs, and a tepid conclusion....
Writing from Borrowed Experience
You have probably heard the advice that you should write what you know and as I've suggested, you certainly should write from your own experience. The things you have seen, tasted, heard, touched, and smelled with your own senses are most often more easily conveyed than sensual experiences strange to you. For example, you may describe the sensation of kayaking level 3 rapids on the Green River while you would be at a loss to write about being a bicycle courier in New York City. But we are...
The Way Essays Work
What makes an essay an essay How can you recognize one when you see it When we study fiction writing or poetry, certain elements of form are easy enough to identify, such as plot or character development in short stories or lineation and rhythm in poems. Essays can be analyzed the same way, but the task is complicated by the wide variety of styles and forms encompassed by the term personal essay. Many of these forms overlap with content, and perhaps you've already experienced several of them in...
Grammar and Mechanics Mkl
Drive slowly and carefully. Do it later. Play outside. Always tell the truth. Adverbs also describe adjectives and other adverbs. In this case, they answer the question how Describing an adjective I drive a very old car. how old Describing another adverb Don't drive too slowly, how slowly Formation of I. Most adverbs are made by adding -ly to an adjective. Write two adjective-adverb pairs of your own Adjectives Adverbs 1. A few -ly words are adjectives. There is no adverb form. 3. If a...
Bibliography
What Should I Read Now, and Where Can I Find It Read, read, read. Read everything trash, classics, good, and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read You'll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out the window. There's no getting around it. Reading and writing go hand in hand. You cannot be a good writer without also being a good reader. You must read widely, with the eye of a writer,...
Whats a Topper
Getting an audience laughing from a dead start is like pushing a truck stuck in the snow. It takes a great deal of effort and luck, and you can't start off by just gunning the motor you'll end up spinning your wheels. First you've got to rock the truck audience back and forth carefully until the wheels catch. Then, when the weight is going forward, you've got to keep that momentum going with split-second timing. If it works, you're home free. A topper is that second effort, and writing it is an...
Step Identify Your Skills
An effective career plan requires that you know your skills. If you have not spent time on this issue, we strongly suggest that you do. It is very important for both planning your career and for presenting yourself effectively throughout the job search. Most job seekers cannot answer the question, Why should I hire you The consequence of not being able to answer that question, as you might guess, is that your chances of getting a job offer are greatly reduced. Knowing your skills, therefore,...
Persuasive Rubric Grades
Advanced Proficient The paper does all or most of the followina The writing - Title enhances the composition Clearly addresses all parts of the writing task Provides a meaningful thesis and maintains a consistent tone and focus Demonstrates control of organization including transitional devices and an insightful conclusion Thoughtfully supports the thesis and main ideas with specific details and examples. Provides a variety of sentence types and uses precise, descriptive language. Demonstrates...
Coherence in your writing
The paper must be a whole. Each sentence should follow on logically from the previous one and lead into the next one, as does each paragraph, idea, concept, argument and example, on to the conclusion. For each section, decide what the function of your writing is at that particular stage. Refer to the sections in Chapter 4 Language Functions for suggested words and phrases to help you in your writing. You should not include anything that does not directly contribute to your goal. Fascinating...
Separate Modifying Phrases
Modifying phrases add information, often providing valuable or interesting details that clarify or expand ideas. Setting off these phrases with punctuation helps the reader understand the relationship between the modification and the main thought. Whenever you punctuate a modifying phrase, there are always three options, and the marks are properly used in pairs. 1. Use commas to convey neutrality. 2. Use parentheses to indicate that the modifying phrase is an aside. 3. Use dashes to highlight...
PART The Writing Process
In this section, you will write a paragraph giving instructions how to do or make something. First, answer these questions to see if you have learned the main points of Unit 2. What are the two keys to writing clear instructions How do you make an outline What are some time-order transition signals What is a compound sentence, and how is one punctuated What are the meanings of and, but, or, and so in a compound sentence What is a comma splice What are two ways to correct a comma splice What are...
mainp softvnncom Imn
Issues of scope and certainty are also important in reasoning from generalisation. The purpose of linking together a particular case with a general rule in the premises is to then draw a conclusion about that specific case based on the generalisation. The scope of the conclusion, therefore, must be coherent with the generalisation. The incidence of major earthquakes in areas located away from major tectonic fault-lines is low Australia is such an area, and hence we can predict that Australia...
Flashbacks And Frames
If you tell of bygone events in narrative summary, it's exposition. If you dramatize them as a scene, it's a flashback. Flashbacks can be as brief as a single line of past dialogue or as extensive as a whole independent plot. The virtue of flashbacks is that, unlike exposition, they're showing, not telling. They have action, drama, immediate events. But they're not as strong or vivid as present-time scenes, simply because they're past. I mentioned in Chapter 7 that we tend to take the past less...
Structured Free Verse
If you have been composing free verse and following guidelines about idea, voice, title, line, stanza and other elements of craft as presented in the second section of this text, then your free verse really isn't free. It's structured. In other words, it has a preconceived form. In traditional verse using rhyme and or meter, the length of the line, and sometimes the shape of the stanza and the duration of the poem, are determined without your help. For instance, if you follow a rhyme scheme,...
Brown Shoes
Looks like little boy's shoes, they said. I didn't care if they were from daddy, I liked them rich dark brown round-toed, not quite Buster-Brownish. If they looked like little boy's shoes so what I wore them. 2. In time, the house that held 7 people was condemned uninhabitable. 7 people, torn to the ground. Levelled. In the rubble After we had revised her vignette, I asked Rutledge to comment on the experience I had used rhyme in writing poetry almost exclusively to lay an emotional foundation...
Consider person and point of view
As a writer, you can choose to present a subject in a personal or impersonal manner. In a personal point of view, you play the role of writer and reporter openly, using I, me, and my, or we, us, and our. The impersonal point of view, on the other hand, requires avoiding all explicit reference to yourself. As a writer, you also choose the level of formality of the writing, a closely related but independent factor. The decision is not solely between personal informality and impersonal formality a...
Grid of Dramatica Genres
Where What it is p Information Universe p an examination of events and situations with an emphasis on the past, present, progress, and future state of things e.g. Documentary, Historical and Period Pieces . How it works p Information Physics p an examination of how specific processes work with an emphasis on instruction e.g. Educational, Informational, Instructional . What it means p Information Mind p an examination of opinions and points of view with an emphasis on the context in which they...
Semicolon
the semi-colon is weaker than a full stop, but stronger than a comma. You can use it to join two independent but closely related sentences This section will consider the communication electronics technician another section will be devoted to the computer electronics technician. you can also use the semi-colon in complicated lists, for example, to show sub-grouping Six excellent career fields within mechanical engineering technology are heating, ventilating, and air conditioning HVAC mechanical...
Travel And A Sense Of Place
Although the writers quoted below all write about their travel experiences, they are not, in the usual sense, travel writers. Travel writers intend to help us plan our trips to places they discuss, letting us know important information about transportation, sleeping accommodations, restaurants to seek out or avoid , passport visa requirements, and the costs of everything. Their purpose is pragmatic. The writers collected here have a purpose more poetic than pragmatic. They try their best to...