Archive for the 'Writing' Category
January 22nd, 2010 -- Posted in Writing |
The most popular style of our time is the ‘free verse’ style. This form originated in the late 19th century, with Walt Whitman being credited for it. Before this form was introduced, poetry was restricted to certain form.
Formal poetry generally follows a set pattern, in rhyme and meter. We commonly place a letter at the end of the last word in each line. Analyzing these patterns is called scansion.
Using letter to signify the rhymes is a great way to determine the pattern. If line one and two rhyme, an A would be placed beside them. If line three and four rhyme with each other but not one and two, we would place B’s beside them. The pattern would be AABB. If line 5 rhymes with either, an A or B would be used. If it does not rhyme, we would use a C.
The number of beats in each line is called the meter. “Iambic pentameter” is the most commonly used. Words with this type of beat consist of a short pulse followed by a strong pulse. Examples would be arrest, domain, forsooth, etc. The accent is on the second syllable.
OK, enough rules and on to the fun stuff. What do you start with when you tell stories or write letters? Do you begin with something you overheard? Witnessed? Read About? Start with what you are comfortable with, that’s the best way to start.
Think of what type of poem you had in mind. Will it be a story, a comment, a character study? It is best to skim through some examples to get you started off. It is also important to take breaks like going for a walk or to bed. When you come back, jot things down. It does not have to be orderly.
It may take many weeks or months to get your poem finished. If your having trouble, take a break. When you come back, carry on from the last line in your poem. You will be delighted at what comes out.
Visit dashboardarticles for many articles on poetry
June 17th, 2009 -- Posted in Writing |
by Louis R Burns
I recently finished reading a book titled, “Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else.” I gleaned a few lessons for copywriters.
What I got out of the book was that it’s not “natural” talent or even experience that give us greatness. And if you think it’s hard work, you’d be in good company, but that’s not it either. There are plenty of people who work hard but aren’t the best.
The author says the big difference is something he calls “deliberate practice.” It’s more than regular practice. A good way to explain that is in considering how most adult city league soccer teams practice. A few practice deliberately and most either just practice or do nothing.
Most adult soccer teams here don’t have a coach. If they practice as a team (many don’t) they simply divide up into 2 teams, set up two small goals and then play (scrimmage) until people get tired of it or the time runs out. Do we get better doing that? Not really. Is it fun? Most of the time. That’s why they do it.
A team I once played on was able to recognize we needed to do some skill specific drills. We practiced playing “keep away” where the goal is to maintain possession of the ball. We put goals in the middle that had to be dribbled through. We put a limit on the number of times we could touch the ball before passing. We played offense against defense so we’d recognize game scenarios.
These drills challenged us in game specific ways. While I played with that team, we moved up from 5th division to 2nd on the strength of our practicing. I’ve seen other teams do that as well. It’s really pretty easy to be better than everyone else. Deliberate practice can make it happen.
How about copywriters? You’ve probably heard you ought to copy other good letters so you absorb the language. There were 3 models for deliberate practicing researched: the music model, the chess model and the sports model.
Music Model
When you perform music, you know exactly what it’s supposed to sound like and you rehearse it. If you get hung up at a part, you step back and rehearse that part until it’s perfect. In copywriting, that’s what we’re doing when we copy other good letters. But we have two other ways to improve as well.
Chess Model
This is the scenario based solution model. In chess, you learn greatness by studying the choices masters made in a particular situation. That’s also how Harvard Business School teaches… through case studies. You look at specific scenarios and think about what you would do. Then you compare that to what actually happened and how you did by comparison.
For copywriting, you can re-write letters. That’s testing what you would have done under similar circumstances. You could also pick a product, write a letter for it and then see how it compares to the real one. You could also critique letters.
You can also chunk it down to smaller elements. How would you rewrite just a headline or offer? There are plenty of smaller opportunities if you want to test yourself against PPC ads or catalog copy.
Sports Model
This is where you condition yourself with specific skills. In copywriting, you can build your swipe file and then analyze each letter. You can take courses. You can read books on the topic. You can cross train in other applicable fields like sales, story telling, NLP and hypnosis, logic and debate or getting mentoring.
If you’ve been stuck at reading books and copying good letters take heart. Now you have plenty to keep you busy and take your copywriting skills to the top.
January 31st, 2009 -- Posted in Writing |
by Michael J
Here is something to make your wedding an easier and smoother affair. Wedding program templates are an integral and important part of any wedding. This is significantly important because these templates will help you to design your invitations, providing details of date and venue, and other necessary information. The good news is that you can get free wedding program templates if you know where to look. Lets find out what are the best places to find free wedding programs template.
Create Your Own Template
If you’re the creative type, then you’re already ahead of the game and you can create your own template using Microsoft Word. Why not make it a fun time for you can your partner and do it together?
That’s What Friends are For
If you’re not creative, why not ask a friend to help? All of us know at least one aspiring artist that would be honored to help if asked. You’ll be helping a friend and they’ll be giving you a fantastic wedding present at the same time. All you have to do is ask.
Bridal Magazine are Good Resources
If you haven’t discovered many of the fabulous bridal magazines then you owe it to yourself to drop into your local Barnes & Noble, buy a Starbucks coffee and discover a brand new and exciting world of help.
Using the Internet
One of the best FREE resources is the Internet. There are so many online web sites devoted to wedding templates and ideas. Try keyword searches for Free Wedding Program Templates.
Wedding templates are important and to be cherished for times to come. It is only fair that you take time to prepare these and give them your own personalized touch. As a last step you can hire a designer for a short time who can give a professional look to templates you might find at these resources. Just like the wedding photography, the wedding invitations say something about you.
About the Author:
Michael J is a Dallas Photographer and author showing couples how to save money on everything from
Free Wedding Program Templates to amazing
Wedding Photography. His new ebook for brides is one of the easiest and most comprehensive guides ever written on saving money from an insiders point of view.
January 26th, 2009 -- Posted in Writing |
by Jan Shimano
Are you intimidated at the thought of writing articles that could be viewed by millions of people over the Internet? If you said ‘yes’ then you have lots of company.
A number of things hold people back from even attempting to write their first article. To begin with, they are not sure about their subject matter. Some people write strictly for pleasure and for them they would write about those things that they were passionate about and that interested them the most. However, many people wish to have their articles published to help them generate leads for their business. If that is the case, they would want their article to be able to easily relate back to their business and their website.
A stumbling block for many is the feeling that they just don’t have enough material. This is probably the easiest hurdle to overcome. If you just Google search your subject, you will come up with thousands of postings dealing with that very subject. I suggest you read quite a few of these postings to get a general idea as to where you would like to go with your particular article. A word of warning here though…..it goes without saying, that you would not copy another persons material.
There is absolutely nothing new under the sun! Everything has been written about before. Nobody holds a patent on their thoughts and ideas, so you can get as many ideas from other people as you think you need. We all have our own way of expressing ourselves so even though the ideas might be the same, each piece of writing will be unique. The very things I am writing here in this article have been written numerous times before, but no one has said them in exactly the same way as I have. You will be well on your way to producing articles when you get over this stumbling block.
The article directories recommend that an article be between 400 – 600 words. Rest assured, this is nothing like writing a book…..well, maybe one page of a book! You will not get writers block while writing a 400 – 600 word article. In fact, you might end up having to cut the article down in size at times, because you ended up writing too much.
The first paragraph should grab the reader’s attention. The middle portion of the article is quite often scanned by the reader. From there they jump to the last paragraph. It is here that you have to wrap everything up nicely for them. My suggestion is that you try to write as you speak. You want the reader to see your personality pop off the page. If you were to oursource your articles, it would be very difficult to create a personality through the writing, because there would be a number of different writers involved.
The rewards of writing your own articles are numerous and I would highly recommend that you give it an honest effort. Even though I had no prior experience in article writing, my first article landed on the front page of Google within a matter of hours of it being published. Keep in mind that you are writing for people who are hungry for information on the very subject you are writing about. You are not writing for your old English teacher. All I can say, is if you give the people the information they are searching for, they are going to be very happy….and so will you!!
About the Author:
Jan Shimano was District Manager for Health & Welfare Canada for many years. She was also self-employed as a Nutritional Consultant and a Master Herbalist. She is presently a
Business and Health Coach and operates her own
internet marketing company from her residence in British Columbia. Jan invites you to learn more about her by dropping by her youtube site at www.youtube.com/1jinny
May 26th, 2008 -- Posted in Writing |
Custom essay is done by a lot of companies in the internet. You can have all the time to check each one of them and compare. You have to be intelligent enough of inspecting their flaws and their strengths. They can be your loyal friends in your whole academic life. It is just right to put your trust on the companies that are not fraud and give you quality essays.
When it comes to dissertation, I know that it will have to be the most important paper you have to pass. Failing it will not put you in the list of graduates in your most awaited graduation rites. You can seek dissertation help anywhere. But the best place will be on the internet. Just be aware of the companies that may just give a lot of guarantees but do not fulfill them in the end.
The best part with these companies is the way they give complete privacy and confidentiality to their clients. You can’t resist that offer!
May 26th, 2008 -- Posted in Writing |
When it comes to dissertation writing, students do not get all the fun. It is a very tough task to do that needs a lot of attention and great thinking and writing skills. In the thesis proposal alone, students have to go through steps. You need to do a lot of research to properly justify the paper.
When there are no sufficient books and magazines in the library, students have to go to the internet for more resources. It is the best place to get your thesis help. You can find many encyclopedias and articles that you can use to elaborate more on your topic.
Aside from getting resources from the internet, you can also avail of certain custom writing companies that can offer dissertation help. They strive for their client’s success and give them quality written dissertations.
You have the option to do your dissertation alone or to give your self a break, you can outsource it to these companies. You can try and check www.ma-dissertations.com. It is one of the leading companies in this kind of industry.
May 26th, 2008 -- Posted in Writing |
Teachers and professors rely on coursework to measure your proficiency in a subject such as writing workshops for term papers, literature classes, craft classes and electives. There are different ways or attacks of writing it and is not the same as other essays. Therefore, students have to learn the differences and know how to write it effectively.
If you are new with this task, it could give you a lot of hard time. You might not have the best writing skills and enough knowledge about it because of having no experience about it. But in the process, you can learn doing it the right way. You can get help from Essay Capital.
Essay Capital is one of the best companies online who is offering custom book reports, assignments and other essays. You can get your first assistance from them and learn their expert’s writing techniques. You can check their website at www.essaycapital.com. Explore their website because they can give you a lot of advice about quality writing.
May 26th, 2008 -- Posted in Writing |
Many things are already present in the Internet to help you out with every thing. There are free online games for your leisure time and there are also custom term paper companies for your essay writing needs. Aside from these, of course, you already have one in mind. You cannot really see its impact on your life until you have not tried one.
I am sure that you are curious about getting term paper help. In outsourcing your essays, you can be assured of passing your academic requirements. Relying on your own can be not enough for this and so it will be better to seek help from others.
Getting to know the companies that offer term paper help should be a serious one. To get the finest, you can visit www.masterpapers.com. They are one of the best in this industry. You can pay them through paypal or any major credit card.
May 4th, 2008 -- Posted in Writing |
There are many websites that publish freelance writing jobs on their sites. As a freelance writer, you can bid for the writing jobs that are available. If your bid is selected, you get the opportunity to complete the job. The payments are made through online virtual banks such as PayPal and e-Gold, wire transfer or checks. The market is huge and you can bid for writing jobs on more than one site.
Many outsourcing or freelancing websites operate the same way, with minor differences. In this article, we shall explore three prominent websites in the industry.
Elance -
Elance has a very simple design which doesn’t confuse the users. It is very easy to search jobs and obtain a comprehensive results’ page. The specialty in Elance is that they show the number of bidders by their name and relevant information, except for the amount bided for, unlike in some other freelance websites. The advantage in this method is that you can see who your competitors are, their reputation etc before determining the amount you want to bid for. At Elance, you can either browser or search for freelance writing jobs. But in order to bid for a project, you will need to have a registered account at Elance. Registration with Elance can be chosen over two packages. One is a free package with restrictive advantages while the other is subscription with more services and facilities. For part-time freelance writers, the basic package is recommended. Once the account is created, you can create your profile. Unlike other websites, Elance has an admission test to be passed before submitting bids.
RentACoder –
RentACoder has a professional interface and is quite straight forward compared to many other websites. It offer jobs in many categories and is one of the safest sites when it comes to payment transactions as payments for every project goes in to escrow before the start off of the project. RentACoder also, has a special team of facilitators who act as arbitrators in any case of dispute that may arise between the coder and the buyer. So all in all, it is a very professional site which works according to strict rules and regulations. If you choose to become a part time freelance writer on RentAcoder, it is vital that you read through their FAQ and other related articles on how everything works around the site. RentAcoder is a global community in its true sense because wherever in the world you are, you can work and get paid on time.
Guru
With a clear cut interface, Guru provides a high usability for freelances to navigate and find jobs. Just as any other website, you will need to create an account and a profile before you can start. In order to find a suitable project you could either browse through writing categories such as Writing/Editing/Translations or simply search with a keyword such as ‘proofreading’. As with all other websites, make sure you evaluate the deadlines and allow yourself sufficient space. Also, make sure that you place a worthy bid amount because the website will deduct a percentage from what you earn as a service fee.