8 Writing Tips for Beginners

8 Writing Tips for Beginners 8 Writing Tips for Beginners 8 Writing Tips for Beginners By Ali Hale Welcome to the wonderful world of writing! However young or old you are, writing can be so rewarding. For some writers, it’s a fun hobby and a creative outlet; for others, it’s a dream career. When you’re just getting started, you might feel excited but also a little daunted – where should you begin? What do you need to know and learn? The great thing about writing is that whatever stage you’re at, you can keep growing your skills and honing your craft. This applies whether you’re a total beginner or a best-selling author: there’s always something new to learn or try. In your early months (or even years) as a writer, these eight tips should help you on your way Tip #1: Try Lots of Different Types of Writing When you’re just starting out, you might not know what you want to write – you just want to write! Or, you might have a firm idea of the type of writing you’d like to do (maybe you want to be a novelist or a poet, for instance). As a beginner, you’re in a great position to try out lots of different types of writing, without needing to commit to one in particular: no-one’s (yet!) demanding your next book. So have a go at a wide range of genres and styles – you might surprise yourself with what you enjoy. I never set out to be a freelancer (my writing dreams were all about being a novelist) †¦ but ten years into freelancing, I still love it, and I’ve written and published three novels too. Tip #2: Read Some Good Writing Blogs or Books †¦ But Not Too Many There are some brilliant books and blogs out there that’ll teach you the basics of writing (and much more): Daily Writing Tips is a great place to begin, of course! For fiction-writers, I always recommend K.M. Weiland’s blog Helping Writers Become Authors, and Nigel Watts’ book Get Started in †¦ Writing a Novel; for non-fiction writers, the Copyblogger blog is a great read, as is Joanna Penn’s book How to Write Non-Fiction. One trap that beginner writers sometimes fall into, though, is that they read and read, trying to learn everything there is to know about writing – but they don’t actually write! So don’t get too caught up in reading: make sure you’re also setting aside time to try out writing exercises, or to develop your own ideas. Tip #3: Start With Small Projects, Not Book-Length Works If you’ve never written much before, launching straight into a novel probably won’t work: either you’ll run out of steam within a few chapters, or you’ll keep writing but you’ll end up with a story that needs an awful lot of work to make it publishable. It’s better to hone your skills on smaller projects first: think short stories if you’re a fiction-writer, or short articles or blog posts if you’re a non-fiction writer. These can be a great way to explore potential ideas and topics without committing to a book-length work straight away. Tip #4: Write Regularly So You Don’t Lose Momentum Some writers think you should write every day: personally, I don’t think that’s very good advice. Maybe your weekdays are very busy, because you work long hours, but your weekends are clear. Or perhaps it’s the other way round: you have some time during the week while your kids are at school, but your weekends are packed with activities. It’s fine to set a writing schedule that suits you and your life †¦ but do make sure you’re allowing yourself time to write on a regular basis. If weeks go by without you writing anything, you’ll inevitably lose momentum. Writing at least once a week works for most people. For those who need extra help fighting procrastination, this post has many tips to beat writers block. Tip #5: Use Clear, Straightforward Words While I’m a huge fan of words, and love the sound of some more unusual ones (eclectic is one of my favourites!) †¦ I think that as a writer, it’s normally best to keep things simple. Even if, in school, you got extra marks for showing off your impressive vocabulary, readers frankly don’t care! You should, of course, use the word that best fits what you mean: sometimes a precise, technical word is the best choice, even if it isn’t the simplest. But in general, keep George Orwell’s advice in mind: â€Å"Never use a long word where a short one will do,† and â€Å"Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.† Needless to say that you should use clear, correct English as well. Using a spellchecker is not enough. Proofreading and editing is essential to produce quality prose. Tip #6: (Fiction Writers) Don’t Mix Past and Present Tense This can sometimes be tricky to get to grips with when you’re new to writing: but if you’re writing piece of fiction, you need to choose between past and present tense. You can tell the story as though it’s already happened: John hurried down the street. Sue ran after him, furious. â€Å"John!† she shouted. â€Å"Come back here!† Alternatively, you can tell the story as if it’s currently happening: John hurries down the street. Sue runs after him, furious. â€Å"John!† she shouts. â€Å"Come back here!† What you can’t do is mix past and present: John hurried down the street. Sue runs after him, furious†¦ Sometimes, there’s a place for switching from past to present tense or vice versa – but be careful that you don’t switch accidentally. Tip #7: (Fiction Writers) Don’t Use the Same Word Too Often If you use the same word repeatedly within a short space of time, it can start to stand out for the reader and become a distraction from your writing. This is particularly true of unusual words (I read a novel recently by an author with a particular liking for the word â€Å"stolid†). Here’s an example: John locked the door before opening the letter. He could hear Sue moving around in the kitchen, just outside the door. As he drew the letter from the envelope, there was a knock on the door. â€Å"John? What are you doing in there? Open the door!† The word â€Å"door† appears four times in that paragraph, and there’s a danger of it having a slightly comic effect. Some words are fine to repeat as often as you like, however: little ones like â€Å"a†, â€Å"the†, â€Å"and†, â€Å"he†, â€Å"she and so on. With character names, too, it’s best to just pick something to call them and stick with it. So don’t try to remove all repeated words – but do keep an eye out for words or phrases that you tend to over-use. Tip #8: (Fiction Writers) Stick to One Character’s Perspective at a Time Even if you’re writing in the third-person rather than the first-person, it’s a good idea to stick to just one character’s perspective in any given scene or passage – this is called â€Å"third-person limited† or sometimes â€Å"deep POV† and contrasts with the â€Å"third-person omniscient† viewpoint that’s typical of classic 19th century literature. Readers expect this close third-person perspective, and it allows you to give the thoughts and viewpoint of one character at a time – helping the reader to identify with that person and to really understand them. Beyond all these tips, though, there’s one thing I want to leave you with: the fact that no-one is born able to write. You may not yet have the skills you want as a writer †¦ but you can develop those skills. A year or so ago, my five-year-old daughter could only write a few words (and often got her letters backwards); now, it’s fascinating to watch her fledgling attempts at writing stories, messages, and even puzzles. Just like her, you could look back a year from now and be surprised at how far you’ve come. Wherever you are right now with your writing, keep on working at it, keep enjoying it, and keep finding new things to learn as you go along. Good luck! Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Writing Basics category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:When to Capitalize Animal and Plant NamesThe Writing Process20 Names of Body Parts and Elements and Their Figurative Meanings

How To Look For Self Assessment Essay Samples

How To Look For Self Assessment Essay SamplesIt is very important to be able to write your own personal self assessment essay. You should be aware of how you are evaluated by others and what they are going to be judging you on. It is for this reason that many people are taking the time to write their own essays. They do it so that they will be able to come up with a much better idea about themselves and their abilities.The first thing that you need to do is to find out if you can actually write a self assessment essay. If you are just a regular college student or somebody who just has started to go to college, chances are that you have never written a personal essay before. And you really should because it can really help you when you are writing your own. However, if you do not want to write a personal essay and you do not have any kind of skill with the English language, you can always hire somebody to write it for you. This way, you will be able to be in control of the essays as w ell as where it is going to end up being published.When you are looking for self assessment essay samples to help you with your writing, make sure that you choose those that are going to help you do your essay. After all, you do not want to get into a situation where you do not have the information that you need. In that case, you will not be able to properly write your essay.The next and final point that you should be concerned with is that the sample you are using should not take too long to read. You need to be able to get through it within a few minutes. This is so that you will not get bogged down with all of the reading material that you have to read. That will mean that you will end up not having the information that you need and therefore you will not be able to get through the essay as fast as you would like.Now, when you are looking for self assessment essay samples to help you with your writing, make sure that you find the ones that are going to give you some information and examples. They will also be able to show you some different ways of how you can improve on your essay. Then, you will be able to find out what your strengths and weaknesses are. These can help you to see what areas you need to work on and what things you need to learn.One last thing that you should keep in mind is that when you are writing your self assessment essay, you need to focus on what you should be getting out of the whole experience. After all, you do not want to focus on the mistakes that you made and the mistakes that others may have made. Instead, you should focus on how you are going to make them all up so that you can make sure that you can write the best essay that you can. So, you should look for all of these different things when you are looking for your self assessment essay samples.All in all, the time that you spend on looking for self assessment essay samples can be well worth it. These can really help you focus on what you are going to write in the essay. I n addition, they can help you know more about yourself and where you are going to be heading with your life.

Business Ethics Current Event Example

Business Ethics Current Event Example Business Ethics Current Event – Article Example Business Ethics Current Event Fraud’s Triangle of motivation communicates an unshareable need, which arises withinan individual’s life. It has been argued that this one of the areas of the Fraud’s triangle that an organization has least, if any, control over as well as being the most difficult to access and offer. This need can arise from a wide range of things from ordinary and common life issues to ones that are more nefarious. With increases in that need in an individual, the risk of the person acting in contrary to an organizations policies and code of ethics also increases. The problem with the motivation factor in the Fraud’s triangle results from the need perceived by employees as being unshareable. In recent times, such things as changes in finance terms can cause embarrassment and prevent an employee from sharing their hardships with their employers. There are varieties of things that can motivate people to violate ethics policies or commit fraud. Such include, a corporate controller taking part in an extra-marital affair, sales representatives being affected and infected with AIDS, sales person being addicted to heroin and a chief operating officer being blackmailed among others. Depending on the laws as well as policies within an organization, email and internet use could be monitored, which could bring issues that could affect a person’s motivation. Another way that motivation factors can be monitored is through those employees with supervisory responsibilities receiving training about the Fraud Triangle. This helps raise supervisory awareness for the commitment of fraud for an organization to address the problem. Consideration of the Fraud Triangle’s motivation factor is also important in helping an organization prioritize identified compliance risks. Work citedHanson, John. Incorporating the Fraud Triangle into Compliance Risk Assessments: The â€Å"Motivation† Factor. Retrieved on 21st April 2012 f rom corporatecomplianceinsights.com/incorporating-the-fraud-triangle-into-compliance-risk-assessments-the-motivation-factor/. Print.

Ceramics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Ceramics - Essay Example This section contains a fine selection of tiles and large scale ceramics showing the architectural ceramics that existed in the 13th century to those in the present day. The tiles displayed are from countries such as Portugal Netherlands and the Islamic world which have great history on architectural ceramics.2 This gallery forms the greatest part of the Victoria and Albert museum ceramics section and it is in this room where you find Asian and Middle East ceramics that existed before the 1800. The collection is Brobdingnagian and is displayed on the walls according to the place of origin, time of manufacture and the technique used.3 This section contains the modern day ceramics that have been manufactures in the 20th century. The large influential companies of ceramic production such as the Royal Copenhagen and the Wedgwood have a lot of products in display. The history of ceramics dates back eight thousand years ago and the first ceramics were first made by the Chinese. They constructed earthenware ceramics using the porter’s wheel technology and this is demonstrated by the terracotta ceramic carvings in the tomb of the Emperor Qin. Over the centuries ceramic production was improved by new technologies and styles the most important being tri-color stoneware of the Tang dynasty. During this period the ceramics began to be used for ornamentation functions. As years went by, the celadon style was innovated and it brought about the technology of making elegant shapes and decorations. During the song dynasty, ceramics made of whiteware became popular and helped the Chinese thrive in ceramic trade.4 An advancement of the song dynasty was the blue and white porcelain that were created in the Yuan dynasty and was characterized by the glasslike finish on whitish clay bodies. The Qing period that occurred between 1644 and 1911 was the mos t innovative since it brought about the multicolored porcelain designs that are popular in the

Motivation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Motivation - Essay Example This is an interpretation of the fact that organizational goals have been attained with the inclusion of motivational strategies among the employees. In all organizations, it is the responsibility of the managers to ensure that the employees are always motivated through a study of the needs of these employees and organizing them according to the needs of the staff. In this case, therefore, the cases of dissatisfaction among the employees will be minimal since assessment of the needs of the staff are well scrutinized, making the employers have a chance to motivate these employees towards attaining the performance of the entire organization. Moreover, motivation has been accredited for its ability to drive the employees towards goal attainance, by aiding the employees get over the factors that restrained goal achievement (Gerhart, 2005). In light to this argument, motivation can be described as the direction towards setting the pace for goal attainment and completion. If the managers h ave the need to make their organizations achieve the best, the desire for accomplishment can only be possible if they motivate the employees. However, Herrera (2002) cautions all the managers against applying motivational strategies in the organization prior to consulting the employees on their opinions. In turn, the organization enjoys productive employees, who are self directed towards making tangible decisions regarding the organizational objectives. Studies indicate that employees who are motivated are more enthusiastic and are constantly on the move to ensure that the organization attains the best through dedicated service. These groups of motivated employees must be treated with utmost respect as are the custodians of the organizations. This is emphasized in the work by Holton, Dent & Rabbetts (2009) who argue that employee preparedness cannot be overruled in a discussion of successful organizations. From the research compiled by Panisoara & Panisoara (2006), high-quality perf ormance in organizations is greatly correlated with motivated workers. In the quest to achieve organizational goals, apposite motivation among the employees has led to the employees having the ability to deal with any form of challenges that they may face. This is also linked to the fact that the managers always allocate roles to the employees that are best suited so that they get contented while performing them. An industrial company mainly depends on human labour to achieve its goals. Human labour comprises of about 50 percent of the most valuable assets in these organizations. According to Ramlall (2004), employees in manufacturing companies carry the biggest responsibility on whether the company competes relatively in the market. As almost all companies do, they should try as much as possible to retain their current group of employees. In HS Engineering, the decrease in profits and turnover may be attributed to sloppiness among employees. With multiple operations going on in the company, motivation and rewarding of employees should be the first priority if they have to get back to their profit making ways. In an argument by Schepers, et al., (2005) an organization where the needs of employees are ignored, the turnover and profits rate must be at their lowest levels. Organizations must consider several factors when dealing in employee’s welfare. For instance, the cost of acquiring a new labour workforce in the United Kingdom is very costly. The U.K as a developed country, individuals

Outline the arguments about the reliability Essay Example for Free

Outline the arguments about the reliability Essay Outline the arguments about the reliability of documentaries as ways of representing reality. Illustrate with reference to a range of documentary material. Documentaries aim to show information in a way that is most believable to a viewer. Realism is extremely important to a documentary and is often shown by; an authoritative presenter, the use of voice-over commentaries, recorded interviews, visual evidence via location shots or archive film, hand-held cameras and limited used of special effects. It is argued that documentaries are like plays, novels and poems the are fictional in form and have no measurable social ability whereas others argue that documentaries are the only type of genre that can really capture the spontaneity and immediacy of real life. As most viewers see a documentary as a serious programme, normally tackling a serious issue, they assume the programme will be factual and informative and this gives it certain credibility. Documentaries can appeal to a range of different audiences, as most of them are about certain topics. For example wildlife programmes would appeal to anyone with an interest in animals yet other under-cover documentaries such as The Whistle Blower can appeal to anyone who would watch documentaries. Most documentaries would require both an active and passive audience, this is because programmes such as The Whistle Blower would interest people who want to help sort out the security problems at the airport, yet other people would also watch it and not be able to do anything about it, although I think it would make them re-think about making a journey from that airport. With documentaries there are some limitations to assuming that what we see is actually real life this is because when documentaries are using like video diaries or surveillance cameras the participants can sometimes be aware of this and can act differently to how they would normally act if they didnt know the cameras were there, they could also show some biased opinions or exaggerate their actions, subconsciously or not. This suggests that documentaries with hidden/secret cameras may have more credibility as being real. This technique is shown in The Secret Policeman when they are trying to expose the way in which racism is dealt with in the police force. This document can be seen as biased as they are only really concentration on one side of the argument, they are telling viewers right from the start about police officers being suspended for racism and they are setting out to catch officers being racist, this gives the viewers a ready-made conclusion in their heads that they police force definitely are racist. This documentary does, however, represent reality to some extent because they use secret footage of the police officers and have filmed them talking in real-life locations such as pubs, clubs, in the street and whilst travelling in a car, which shows a normal world. Although many documentaries do portray certain features that question their representation of reality, other documentaries are clearly focused on showing things as close to the truth as possible. Feature documentaries such as one on animals and wildlife for example are well researched and their main aim is to simply inform the audiences rather that try to influence them in any way. Even though most documentaries try to portray as close to the truth as possible other motives behind the documentaries could suggest that they arent, in fact as reliable or close to reality as they could be.

The Advantage of School Uniforms Essay -- Arguement Argumentative Pers

Did you know that as many as twenty-five percent of the nation?s pubic elementary, middle, and junior high schools have successfully implemented a school uniform policy? (Isaacson, 1998) School uniforms greatly benefit both the students and faculty by creating an atmosphere in which the students are able to get the most out of their education. I believe that all students should wear school uniforms regardless of whether or not the school is public. Below are clear-cut arguments in favor of school uniforms. First, one of the chief benefits of school uniforms is their ability to make schools safer. Studies have shown that they help to reduce gang influences. (Isaacson, 1998) Many gang members wear particular types of colors and clothes to signify their membership to a certain gang. With every student wearing the same articles of clothing, gang members will not be able to establish a rivalry within the school. Uniforms also minimize violence by reducing some sources of conflict. A Long Beach Superintendent stated the first year that the uniforms had been implemented into his school, crimes decreased by thirty-six percent, school violence by fifty-one percent, and vandalism to the school dropped eighteen percent. (US Dept. of Ed., 1996) Uniforms will also make it easier for trespassers to be identified. (Ryan & Cooper, 2000) These trespassers will stick out like a soar thumb because they will not have on a uniform like everyone else. Identifying and properly escorting the...