Please select the articles.
★ Successful Essay Writing: a Step-by-step Guide to Essay Papers
★ Speak Up for Success Speaking
★ How To Learn 30 Languages
★ Foreign Language Degrees Prepare You for Much More Than Teaching
★ How We Can Make Sure Language and Dialect are Different?
★ Tips on How to Learn a Foreign Language
★ Essay Writing
★ Improve Your Speaking Skills For The TOEFL
★ 7 Powerful Ways to Learn ANY Language
★ Listening Skills Enhancement Listening
Why Developing An Individual Writing Process Is Key To Your Writing Success
Developing an individual writing process is key to your success as a writer. Studies of struggling writers show that one of the reasons they struggle is that they focus on only one aspect of writing.
So what is the writing process? First it is important to note that there is no such thing as "the writing process". Yes, there is a writing process that embraces the notion that there are certain essential steps that successful writers employ when writing but that process varies greatly depending on the writer and then individual writers also vary their process according to the writing task at hand. That means that there is no such as "the writing process" but that a personal, individual writing process which you adjust to the varying circumstances of your writing can be tremendously helpful.
However, before you can begin to individualize your writing process and then adjust it to different tasks, you must learn more about the theory behind the writing process.
The theory of writing process begins with prewriting or invention stage. This is when you may need to do brainstorming, research, and planning to get started with your writing project. This is the stage that struggling writers spend the least time on and experienced writers spend much more time as they know that more attention and thought at this stage can save time and effort later. This stage may have a lot to show for it in terms of prewriting and research or it might take place primarily inside the writer's brain. This depends on the individual writer, the complexity of the task, and the familiarity of the writer with the task.
Only after spending time at the prewriting stage do writers move on to drafting. This is where the actual writing takes place but encompasses more than one draft and several sessions of writing spread over time. Drafting focuses on simply getting words on paper and emptying the brain of ideas for this project.
Writers move on to revision after those early drafts have filled out and developed some substance. It is during the multiple drafts of the revision stage that the writing project shapes into something resembling the intended final project. The paper is not yet done but it looks and feels like the intended genre, the ideas are fully developed and the organization is functional.
Then writers move on the editing stage where they attend to correctness issues including cleaning up spelling, grammar, word choice, and polishing the writing. This is the correct time to deal with these issues as concentrating on them earlier in the writing process will slow down the development of ideas.
After editing, writers should seek out feedback for the final stage of the writing process to determine what further revision or editing might be necessary to complete the writing project. Feedback should be sought from skilled readers familiar with either the subject matter or the type of writing project so they can offer more informed review.
While each individual writing process will include some general variation of these elements it is important for writers to recognize that an effective writing process reflects their own individual strengths, weaknesses, and work habits. The writing process should also vary according to the project as well. Obviously a new, complex project will demand much more during prewriting and invention than a familiar topic and comfortable project genre.
So what is the writing process? First it is important to note that there is no such thing as "the writing process". Yes, there is a writing process that embraces the notion that there are certain essential steps that successful writers employ when writing but that process varies greatly depending on the writer and then individual writers also vary their process according to the writing task at hand. That means that there is no such as "the writing process" but that a personal, individual writing process which you adjust to the varying circumstances of your writing can be tremendously helpful.
However, before you can begin to individualize your writing process and then adjust it to different tasks, you must learn more about the theory behind the writing process.
The theory of writing process begins with prewriting or invention stage. This is when you may need to do brainstorming, research, and planning to get started with your writing project. This is the stage that struggling writers spend the least time on and experienced writers spend much more time as they know that more attention and thought at this stage can save time and effort later. This stage may have a lot to show for it in terms of prewriting and research or it might take place primarily inside the writer's brain. This depends on the individual writer, the complexity of the task, and the familiarity of the writer with the task.
Only after spending time at the prewriting stage do writers move on to drafting. This is where the actual writing takes place but encompasses more than one draft and several sessions of writing spread over time. Drafting focuses on simply getting words on paper and emptying the brain of ideas for this project.
Writers move on to revision after those early drafts have filled out and developed some substance. It is during the multiple drafts of the revision stage that the writing project shapes into something resembling the intended final project. The paper is not yet done but it looks and feels like the intended genre, the ideas are fully developed and the organization is functional.
Then writers move on the editing stage where they attend to correctness issues including cleaning up spelling, grammar, word choice, and polishing the writing. This is the correct time to deal with these issues as concentrating on them earlier in the writing process will slow down the development of ideas.
After editing, writers should seek out feedback for the final stage of the writing process to determine what further revision or editing might be necessary to complete the writing project. Feedback should be sought from skilled readers familiar with either the subject matter or the type of writing project so they can offer more informed review.
While each individual writing process will include some general variation of these elements it is important for writers to recognize that an effective writing process reflects their own individual strengths, weaknesses, and work habits. The writing process should also vary according to the project as well. Obviously a new, complex project will demand much more during prewriting and invention than a familiar topic and comfortable project genre.
Writing - Become A Brand Name Writer And Succeed
Want to become a successful writer? You can, even if you've never been published before, if you understand one thing: you need to build your name until you become a "brand name" writer.
Although you may never succeed in your brand-building efforts to the level of JK Rowling or Stephen King, as long as some editors and other buyers know your name, you will always have a long list of clients and will build a successful writing career.
It's very simple: the more people who know your name, the more people will buy your writing. Large companies understand the value of their brand; much of their advertising is solely brand-building - they want to get their name known, and they realize that they must constantly remind people of their brand.
Brand-building is Vital: People Do Business with People They Know
Writing is actually a very small world. People pass your name around. So if you've written for a magazine, an editor will pass your name on to another editor who's looking for a writer for a book.
If you've sold several articles to a Web site, another site owner will see your name and contact you. If you're writing a blog, many people will contact you to write for them.
It's been said that people have to see your name at least seven times before they'll do business with you, so the more you build your brand as a writer, the more writing jobs you'll get.
Brand-building for writers never, ever stops. If you understand this, you will succeed beyond your dreams.
So let's assume you're a neophyte writer, and discover how you can start building your brand.
It's a two-step process: decide what you want to write, and get your name in front of the people who can buy your writing. I tell my writing students that a writer's life is a simple one; there are just two things you must do each day - create, and promote.
1. Create: Decide what you want to write, and write
What do you want to write? Whatever it is, start writing. A writer by definition is someone who writes, and writes every day. So whether your writing is selling or not, you must keep writing.
If you're writing a book, send out proposals to agents and editors at publishing houses, and when you finish the book, write another one. It's common for writers to send out proposals for years, and finally get a multi-book contract. If you've only ever written one book, you'll never get to the multi-book contract stage.
If you're writing articles, send out queries to magazines, and keep sending them. Create a blog. Keep writing.
2. Promote: Get your writing out to people who can buy your writing
The second step (and remember that you do this every day, just as you create every day) is to promote - to get your writing out to people who can buy your writing.
Remember that people need to see your name at least seven times, before they're comfortable doing business with you. Whenever you contact an editor or other buyer of your writing, that contact builds a relationship.
Even if it seems there is no response (the editor or agent never got in touch), you're still building the relationship. Sooner or later, if you stay in touch, you'll get a phone call, and you'll have made a sale.
Have you started to build your brand as a writer? Whether you have or not, create and promote every day. And as you build your brand, you'll succeed as a writer.
Although you may never succeed in your brand-building efforts to the level of JK Rowling or Stephen King, as long as some editors and other buyers know your name, you will always have a long list of clients and will build a successful writing career.
It's very simple: the more people who know your name, the more people will buy your writing. Large companies understand the value of their brand; much of their advertising is solely brand-building - they want to get their name known, and they realize that they must constantly remind people of their brand.
Brand-building is Vital: People Do Business with People They Know
Writing is actually a very small world. People pass your name around. So if you've written for a magazine, an editor will pass your name on to another editor who's looking for a writer for a book.
If you've sold several articles to a Web site, another site owner will see your name and contact you. If you're writing a blog, many people will contact you to write for them.
It's been said that people have to see your name at least seven times before they'll do business with you, so the more you build your brand as a writer, the more writing jobs you'll get.
Brand-building for writers never, ever stops. If you understand this, you will succeed beyond your dreams.
So let's assume you're a neophyte writer, and discover how you can start building your brand.
It's a two-step process: decide what you want to write, and get your name in front of the people who can buy your writing. I tell my writing students that a writer's life is a simple one; there are just two things you must do each day - create, and promote.
1. Create: Decide what you want to write, and write
What do you want to write? Whatever it is, start writing. A writer by definition is someone who writes, and writes every day. So whether your writing is selling or not, you must keep writing.
If you're writing a book, send out proposals to agents and editors at publishing houses, and when you finish the book, write another one. It's common for writers to send out proposals for years, and finally get a multi-book contract. If you've only ever written one book, you'll never get to the multi-book contract stage.
If you're writing articles, send out queries to magazines, and keep sending them. Create a blog. Keep writing.
2. Promote: Get your writing out to people who can buy your writing
The second step (and remember that you do this every day, just as you create every day) is to promote - to get your writing out to people who can buy your writing.
Remember that people need to see your name at least seven times, before they're comfortable doing business with you. Whenever you contact an editor or other buyer of your writing, that contact builds a relationship.
Even if it seems there is no response (the editor or agent never got in touch), you're still building the relationship. Sooner or later, if you stay in touch, you'll get a phone call, and you'll have made a sale.
Have you started to build your brand as a writer? Whether you have or not, create and promote every day. And as you build your brand, you'll succeed as a writer.
Writing With Confidence - Unlock Your Potential
The biggest bugbear for new freelance writers, and for some established ones too, is a lack of confidence.
Are you a confident writer? A confident writer knows his words have value, and enjoys writing. He also knows that since there are unlimited markets for his words, any rejections are just feedback, and blithely submits his words elsewhere.
When you lack confidence you:
* Procrastinate, because you're unsure of yourself;
* Charge less than you're worth - you overestimate each project, and underestimate your own resources and skills;
* Trash your intuition (your creativity). A confident writer has formed a writing habit which is a partnership with his creativity, and he trusts the words will be there when he needs them. And, magically, they are. Trusting yourself is a big part of being a confident writer;
* Get stuck in writing ruts. You're nervous about writing anything which is new to you. You write for publications way below your skill level, because you lack the confidence to move out of your comfort zone.
Let's try a little experiment. Rate your confidence as a writer on a scale from one to ten. One is Extreme Lack of Confidence, and ten is Highly Confident.
Write down the number, and today's date. Then follow the program below to become extremely confident about your writing within a month.
How to Get Confident in a 30 Days or Less
There's a simple program which I've recommended to many writers, because it once worked for me, many years ago. It works for everyone who follows the program.
Here it is.
Write an article a day, and publish your article.
Yes, that's all there is to the program. It works, because before the month is over, you'll have shifted your focus from thinking about the effects of writing (where you are now) to WRITING itself. Put another way, you will have changed your mental focus from thinking to doing.
When you're writing, your thoughts are about writing. They're either focused on what you're currently writing, or they're focused on finding ideas and finding markets. This is the mark of a confident writer: eagerness to WRITE.
So write an article a day, of 400 to 800 words. Your articles can be about anything you choose.
Now, let's talk about publication. If you're writing for magazines, or want to, then write a magazine query for the article you're writing each day, and send it off to a magazine on the same day. Add this to your cover letter: "Many thanks for your consideration. I'll assume that this article is not for you if I don't hear from you within a week."
Keep records. Note down the article's title, and where you sent it. Fourteen days after you send off the query for an article, send it somewhere else. You've informed the first editor that that's what you're doing, so do it.
If you want to write for the Web rather than print publications, you have a choice.
You can submit your articles to Web sites, using the query method as you'd use for magazines. Or, you can publish your articles on a blog, or you can collect your articles into packages of ten, and sell them on your Web site. If you're selling packages, all articles in a package should be on the same topic; weight loss, for example, or parenting, or - any topic you choose.
So, rate your confidence on a scale of one to ten. Then, write an article a day, and publish your article. Continue for 30 days. Rate yourself again. You'll be at TEN on the confidence scale, I promise you.
Are you a confident writer? A confident writer knows his words have value, and enjoys writing. He also knows that since there are unlimited markets for his words, any rejections are just feedback, and blithely submits his words elsewhere.
When you lack confidence you:
* Procrastinate, because you're unsure of yourself;
* Charge less than you're worth - you overestimate each project, and underestimate your own resources and skills;
* Trash your intuition (your creativity). A confident writer has formed a writing habit which is a partnership with his creativity, and he trusts the words will be there when he needs them. And, magically, they are. Trusting yourself is a big part of being a confident writer;
* Get stuck in writing ruts. You're nervous about writing anything which is new to you. You write for publications way below your skill level, because you lack the confidence to move out of your comfort zone.
Let's try a little experiment. Rate your confidence as a writer on a scale from one to ten. One is Extreme Lack of Confidence, and ten is Highly Confident.
Write down the number, and today's date. Then follow the program below to become extremely confident about your writing within a month.
How to Get Confident in a 30 Days or Less
There's a simple program which I've recommended to many writers, because it once worked for me, many years ago. It works for everyone who follows the program.
Here it is.
Write an article a day, and publish your article.
Yes, that's all there is to the program. It works, because before the month is over, you'll have shifted your focus from thinking about the effects of writing (where you are now) to WRITING itself. Put another way, you will have changed your mental focus from thinking to doing.
When you're writing, your thoughts are about writing. They're either focused on what you're currently writing, or they're focused on finding ideas and finding markets. This is the mark of a confident writer: eagerness to WRITE.
So write an article a day, of 400 to 800 words. Your articles can be about anything you choose.
Now, let's talk about publication. If you're writing for magazines, or want to, then write a magazine query for the article you're writing each day, and send it off to a magazine on the same day. Add this to your cover letter: "Many thanks for your consideration. I'll assume that this article is not for you if I don't hear from you within a week."
Keep records. Note down the article's title, and where you sent it. Fourteen days after you send off the query for an article, send it somewhere else. You've informed the first editor that that's what you're doing, so do it.
If you want to write for the Web rather than print publications, you have a choice.
You can submit your articles to Web sites, using the query method as you'd use for magazines. Or, you can publish your articles on a blog, or you can collect your articles into packages of ten, and sell them on your Web site. If you're selling packages, all articles in a package should be on the same topic; weight loss, for example, or parenting, or - any topic you choose.
So, rate your confidence on a scale of one to ten. Then, write an article a day, and publish your article. Continue for 30 days. Rate yourself again. You'll be at TEN on the confidence scale, I promise you.
Write Articles Fast - Plan And Write More
Want to write articles fast? The major secret is simple: it's planning. Let's discover how to plan your articles.
Your ability to write quickly is essential because content is king online - and offline too. As the Web becomes more competitive, site owners and businesses realize that the more content on their site, the better. Additional pages provide additional access points for site visitors.
Those additional pages are often in the form of articles, so if you can provide articles fast on demand, you're golden.
I separate the planning stage of writing from from the drafting and straight writing stages, not only for speed, but also because each stage of the writing process demands a different mind state. Since it takes around ten to 15 minutes or switch from one mind state to another, separating planning from the other stages makes sense, speed-wise.
Writers often worry that quality will suffer when they write faster. Paradoxically, the opposite is true. When you separate the writing stages, and write FAST at EVERY stage your article quality improves. Try it and see.
Please realize that all writing is experiential - you learn by doing. You'll need to follow the process below at least four times to get accustomed to it. By the fifth time you use it, the process will be part of you, and will help you to speed up all the writing you do, no matter what you're writing.
Here we go:
1. Fill in Who, What, etc
Rudyard Kipling's Six Honest Serving men are the writer's best friend. Kipling wrote: "I keep six honest serving men: They taught me all I knew: Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who".
So write down the page, in a list: What, Why, When, How, Where, Who.
Let's see how this works. I'll use this article as an example.
What - write articles fast.
Why - speed is essential for Web and other writers too.
When - every day.
How - planning, one of the elements of fast writing.
Where - Web and print.
Who - Writers.
Using the Six Honest Serving gives you something useful: your article's title. You can see that I created this article's title from "What", and "How" above. It also gives you pegs on which you can hang the entire article.
2. Create a mind map or cluster diagram
Next, I create a mind map or cluster diagram on an index card. I date the card, and keep it - old cards often provide the seeds of new articles.
For this article, I created a cluster diagram with the "write articles fast" phrase centered and circled on the card. Around this central phrase, I wrote and circled other points: "fast", "Web writers", "speed", "every day", "planning", "writers", and "Web and print".
3. Write a rough draft
I actually created the cluster diagram for this article several weeks ago, so because I knew what I wanted to say, the writing of the article has taken around 15 minutes.
Your rough draft is fast. Don't worry about word choice, or even grammar. Just write whatever comes into your head, glancing at your mind map or cluster when you get stuck.
Write more than you need - you can cut later.
4. Final copy
A day or two later, look over your rough draft and revise it. Cut it down, add information, move paragraphs around and improve your word choice.
For a print article, you may want to do another fast draft or two - or not.
For the Web, your article should be in good shape by now. You're done.
Your ability to write quickly is essential because content is king online - and offline too. As the Web becomes more competitive, site owners and businesses realize that the more content on their site, the better. Additional pages provide additional access points for site visitors.
Those additional pages are often in the form of articles, so if you can provide articles fast on demand, you're golden.
I separate the planning stage of writing from from the drafting and straight writing stages, not only for speed, but also because each stage of the writing process demands a different mind state. Since it takes around ten to 15 minutes or switch from one mind state to another, separating planning from the other stages makes sense, speed-wise.
Writers often worry that quality will suffer when they write faster. Paradoxically, the opposite is true. When you separate the writing stages, and write FAST at EVERY stage your article quality improves. Try it and see.
Please realize that all writing is experiential - you learn by doing. You'll need to follow the process below at least four times to get accustomed to it. By the fifth time you use it, the process will be part of you, and will help you to speed up all the writing you do, no matter what you're writing.
Here we go:
1. Fill in Who, What, etc
Rudyard Kipling's Six Honest Serving men are the writer's best friend. Kipling wrote: "I keep six honest serving men: They taught me all I knew: Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who".
So write down the page, in a list: What, Why, When, How, Where, Who.
Let's see how this works. I'll use this article as an example.
What - write articles fast.
Why - speed is essential for Web and other writers too.
When - every day.
How - planning, one of the elements of fast writing.
Where - Web and print.
Who - Writers.
Using the Six Honest Serving gives you something useful: your article's title. You can see that I created this article's title from "What", and "How" above. It also gives you pegs on which you can hang the entire article.
2. Create a mind map or cluster diagram
Next, I create a mind map or cluster diagram on an index card. I date the card, and keep it - old cards often provide the seeds of new articles.
For this article, I created a cluster diagram with the "write articles fast" phrase centered and circled on the card. Around this central phrase, I wrote and circled other points: "fast", "Web writers", "speed", "every day", "planning", "writers", and "Web and print".
3. Write a rough draft
I actually created the cluster diagram for this article several weeks ago, so because I knew what I wanted to say, the writing of the article has taken around 15 minutes.
Your rough draft is fast. Don't worry about word choice, or even grammar. Just write whatever comes into your head, glancing at your mind map or cluster when you get stuck.
Write more than you need - you can cut later.
4. Final copy
A day or two later, look over your rough draft and revise it. Cut it down, add information, move paragraphs around and improve your word choice.
For a print article, you may want to do another fast draft or two - or not.
For the Web, your article should be in good shape by now. You're done.
Journal Writing Techniques – Secrets of Great Journal Writing
Whether you are writing a journal for an assignment or for personal purposes, having good journal writing techniques will really come in handy.
There are times that you will encounter what is known as a writer’s block. But with the right journal writing techniques, you can overcome this challenge in no time.
What is Journal Writing?
Journal writing is the process of recording your own personal experiences. You can write the detail of your experience as well as your comments, reactions, and reflections on that particular event.
You need not be a great writer to be able to write your own journal. You only have to organize your thoughts well so you can easily put them into words.
Basic Journal Writing Techniques
Journal writing can be as free formed as possible. There is no standard rule to follow. The important thing to remember is that the content should be coming from your own ideas, based on your experiences.
One of the most common problems that people usually encounter is choosing a topic to write about. You may have a plethora of ideas running through your head, but you just can’t seem to make a decision on what to choose.
A good journal writing technique that you can use is to get a piece of paper and a pen. Write down every topic that you can think about. Write every idea you have on your head until there is nothing left.
Now you have a list of topics that you can write about. Browse through your list and find that topic that strikes you emotionally more than others.
Now that you have your topic, write your thoughts about it. Some people can’t instantly organize their thoughts and put them in paragraph form.
Here is one of the journal writing techniques that could help you. Again, get a piece of paper and a pen, and create an outline based on your topic.
On top of the page, write your topic; below it, write every idea that pops to your mind. It would be best to just write it in a bullet or list form at first.
Once you have done that, you now have written your ideas; the only thing left to do is to arrange and organize what you have written and turn them into paragraph forms.
Developing Your Own Journal Writing Techniques
As you continue with your journal writing activities, you will be able to develop your own journal writing techniques. However, when you try to develop your own set of techniques, remember to base them on the basic principles of journal writing.
Journal writing is a very enjoyable as well as therapeutic activity that any person can do. Even people who have no inclination to writing can do this especially if they know and practice some journal writing techniques.
Author: Michael Lee
There are times that you will encounter what is known as a writer’s block. But with the right journal writing techniques, you can overcome this challenge in no time.
What is Journal Writing?
Journal writing is the process of recording your own personal experiences. You can write the detail of your experience as well as your comments, reactions, and reflections on that particular event.
You need not be a great writer to be able to write your own journal. You only have to organize your thoughts well so you can easily put them into words.
Basic Journal Writing Techniques
Journal writing can be as free formed as possible. There is no standard rule to follow. The important thing to remember is that the content should be coming from your own ideas, based on your experiences.
One of the most common problems that people usually encounter is choosing a topic to write about. You may have a plethora of ideas running through your head, but you just can’t seem to make a decision on what to choose.
A good journal writing technique that you can use is to get a piece of paper and a pen. Write down every topic that you can think about. Write every idea you have on your head until there is nothing left.
Now you have a list of topics that you can write about. Browse through your list and find that topic that strikes you emotionally more than others.
Now that you have your topic, write your thoughts about it. Some people can’t instantly organize their thoughts and put them in paragraph form.
Here is one of the journal writing techniques that could help you. Again, get a piece of paper and a pen, and create an outline based on your topic.
On top of the page, write your topic; below it, write every idea that pops to your mind. It would be best to just write it in a bullet or list form at first.
Once you have done that, you now have written your ideas; the only thing left to do is to arrange and organize what you have written and turn them into paragraph forms.
Developing Your Own Journal Writing Techniques
As you continue with your journal writing activities, you will be able to develop your own journal writing techniques. However, when you try to develop your own set of techniques, remember to base them on the basic principles of journal writing.
Journal writing is a very enjoyable as well as therapeutic activity that any person can do. Even people who have no inclination to writing can do this especially if they know and practice some journal writing techniques.
Author: Michael Lee
Writing
Please select the articles.
★ Why Developing An Individual Writing Process Is Key To Your Writing Success
★ Writing - Become A Brand Name Writer And Succeed
★ Writing With Confidence - Unlock Your Potential
★ Write Articles Fast - Plan And Write More
★ Journal Writing Techniques – Secrets of Great Journal Writing
★ Enhance Your Creative Writing Abilities Writing
★ How to Write a Book Using a Road Map for Success Writing
★ How to Write a Book in Just 3-30 Days Even If You Can't Type
★ Mind Games: How To Eliminate The 5 Negative Thoughts That Shut Down Your Writing
★ How Can I Propose: Research Proposal Writing
★ Successful Essay Writing: a Step-by-step Guide to Essay Papers
★ Business Writing: What You Write is a Direct Reflection on You and Your Company
★ Write More - Time Management For Writers Writing
★ 10 Words to Avoid When Writing Writing
★ How to Write a Letter: Writing Personal & Official Letters & Notes for All Occasions
★ The Art of Persuasive Business Writing
★ Essay Writing
★ Why Developing An Individual Writing Process Is Key To Your Writing Success
★ Writing - Become A Brand Name Writer And Succeed
★ Writing With Confidence - Unlock Your Potential
★ Write Articles Fast - Plan And Write More
★ Journal Writing Techniques – Secrets of Great Journal Writing
★ Enhance Your Creative Writing Abilities Writing
★ How to Write a Book Using a Road Map for Success Writing
★ How to Write a Book in Just 3-30 Days Even If You Can't Type
★ Mind Games: How To Eliminate The 5 Negative Thoughts That Shut Down Your Writing
★ How Can I Propose: Research Proposal Writing
★ Successful Essay Writing: a Step-by-step Guide to Essay Papers
★ Business Writing: What You Write is a Direct Reflection on You and Your Company
★ Write More - Time Management For Writers Writing
★ 10 Words to Avoid When Writing Writing
★ How to Write a Letter: Writing Personal & Official Letters & Notes for All Occasions
★ The Art of Persuasive Business Writing
★ Essay Writing
Enhance Your Creative Writing Abilities
Creative writing is considered to be one of the most perplexing forms of articulating thoughts and ideas on paper. It turns out to be a hard nut to crack because it requires the ability to think freely, giving thoughts a modicum of leeway, and express ideas and experienced feelings sincerely and openly.
That's why putting wind in the sails with creative writing is not within every writer's grasp. It means that a person, who succeeded in process writing approach that is all about planning, revising, re-arranging, and deleting text, re-reading, and producing multiple drafts before producing finished documents, will have the same good results in creative writing.
Surely, it doesn't imply that creative writing process doesn't need proper planning and preparation, it means that creative writing permits the author to deviate from the specific writing styles and not to be consistent with all the standards of this style. In a word, creative writing gives the author leeway in terms of presentation and development of a piece of writing.
Since creative writing is not simply a matter of sitting down, putting pen to paper, following smart instructions of emeritus pundits, commence at the beginning and write through to the end. Creative approach treats all writing as a creative act that requires time, positive feedback, and inspiration to be done well. People who engage in creative writing do not merely think freely; they view the world from free-thinking perspective.
Without a doubt, creative writing is not only about inspiration and gift of the writer, and it is far from coming easy to the writer, it also needs a lot of elbow grease in order to produce a piece of writing worth the attention of the readers.
The key to success in creative writing lies in the author's ability to be frank with his readers and honest with himself. Don't be afraid to step aside from the established standards of the particular writing style, and open the door of your brain to the new ideas that cross the threshold of your imagination and knock around your mind.
Remember that process and explorations are the keystones in creative writing, rather than the finished product. Let yourself release your inner genius and vent on paper the most bizarre ideas that amassed in your mind. The source of ideas for your creative writing can be various kinds of resources of creativity such as oral tradition, dreams, childhood memories, sense perceptions and intuition.
Katrina Crosbie, a tutor of creative writing in Edinburgh University's Open Studies programme, asserts that getting in touch with subconscious mind is the key to original and creative writing. She also claims that every writer can harness three simple techniques to enhance his creative writing abilities, they are mental focusing techniques, harnessing the power of your dreams and journal writing. Harnessing these techniques takes hard work; so, if you are ready, roll up your sleeves and follow these simple strategies.
I. Mental focusing techniques
Mental focusing techniques involve focusing on the positive outcome. It implies that you should concentrate and regulate your mental activity in order to enter a quiet state of your mind. The key point in mental focusing is to get rid of all the stray thoughts and replace it with one thought; this process should gradually induce a calm sensation. The procedure is very simple, you make yourself comfortable in a cozy armchair, and in all possible ways try to awake creativity inside of you.
You should say something like "I'm getting in touch with my creativity source", and imagine physically how the stream of creativity comes into your mind. Remember the sensation of clear, cool water on your face, or a stream of fresh breeze, which is blowing in your face. Then imagine yourself sitting at your word processor, typing fluently, and writing avidly. After several minutes open your eyes and commence writing.
II. Harness the power of your dreams
Dreams have tremendous power. The subconscious memory can be the direct cause of the certain dreams. "When the mind is centered on certain things, the sleeper goes over his life again and again in phantom fashion. He lives over the experiences of his daily life."
Overall, your daydreams can be important, just write them down after waking up in the morning. Perhaps, later on, re-reading the notes of your dreams will prompt you some interesting ideas for your creative works."These can be triggers for an especially imaginative piece of work. American writer Joyce Carol Oates has said that her novel Bellefleur was inspired by a dream of a walled garden which haunted her for years 'till she felt she had to write about it."
III. Keep the writing journal
This technique of enhancing your creativity is very simple and at the same time highly productive. Buy yourself a notebook, so that you can always have it at hand and write some brief narratives in it on a daily basis.
Don't focus on the style, mistakes, and, in general, in the way you write. Just write down the first things that occur in your mind, even if you think that this is junk. The main idea is to keep your hand moving and to feel a growing sense of inspiration and confidence. In the course of time, you will become a practiced hand in writing. Surely, you'll find your journal notes a rich source of inspiration and ideas.
If you really want to enhance you creative writing abilities, give a try to these simple techniques, and bring your craft as a writer into play!
Author: Linda
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/writing-articles/enhance-your-creative-writing-abilities-23086.html
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/writing-articles/enhance-your-creative-writing-abilities-23086.html
How to Write a Book Using a Road Map for Success
Everyday someone hops a train to start writing a book. Unfortunately as one person gets on the train to write a book there are several people who decide that it's hopeless, they'll never complete their book and get off the train.
My hope is that you will be the one who starts the journey of writing a book and stays on to completion. Staying on track to write a book is not without effort and diligence; even so you can do it with an easy road map (a system.) If you're reading this article, I'm almost certain you'll have to change your priorities, the times that you write and the amount that you write. This is why writing a book is so difficult for some because it requires you to change your priorities. Or at the least it requires you to move your book writing project to one of the top 3 priorities in your day.
Most of us, don't want to change, we put our goal of writing a book at the bottom of our list and think voila, and someday soon I'll have a book! In reality, this way it could be years before we reach our goal.
The people who get off the train of writing a book are most likely the ones who didn't use a roadmap for success. They did not sit down and create a book writing plan. You must have a plan for your book writing; if you don't then there's no point in starting. You might be on a program that brings you close to finishing your book but because you didn't have a plan or a practical goal you abandon it and say it was not working.
The road map for success in your book writing program is to have a specific, but sensible goal. Be specific about your book writing goal. Do not tell yourself that you would like to write a book by the end of this year. That is not a specific goal. You have not set a start date, you have not set an end date and you have not stated what book you would like to write.
A specific book writing goal is stating that you are going to start your book writing program on January 28th at 5:00 a.m. during which time you want to complete your 156-page book '10 Ways to Stop Divorce Before It's Too Late' and it will end at midnight on June 30. Be as precise as you can. Now you have the beginning of the road map to start your book writing journey.
Your next step in this plan is to be practical. Your goals have to consist of a goal that can be achieved. If you state that you would like to write a book in the next few weeks working a couple of hours a week, you are setting yourself up for failure. Not only will you not achieve this goal but also it will cause you to possibly give up because your plan was unrealistic.
Start your book writing plan with a goal that you know you will be able to achieve if you just challenge yourself to achieve. Writing a book in 6 weeks working at least 20 hours a week is something you can do and you will not have to say good-bye to your family and become a hermit to achieve it.
Don't wait any longer; begin your book writing journey with a road map. Start seeing yourself writing and completing a book by your end date. Before you know it, you'll have a finished book in your hand all because you started with a road map to guide you to the finish line.
My hope is that you will be the one who starts the journey of writing a book and stays on to completion. Staying on track to write a book is not without effort and diligence; even so you can do it with an easy road map (a system.) If you're reading this article, I'm almost certain you'll have to change your priorities, the times that you write and the amount that you write. This is why writing a book is so difficult for some because it requires you to change your priorities. Or at the least it requires you to move your book writing project to one of the top 3 priorities in your day.
Most of us, don't want to change, we put our goal of writing a book at the bottom of our list and think voila, and someday soon I'll have a book! In reality, this way it could be years before we reach our goal.
The people who get off the train of writing a book are most likely the ones who didn't use a roadmap for success. They did not sit down and create a book writing plan. You must have a plan for your book writing; if you don't then there's no point in starting. You might be on a program that brings you close to finishing your book but because you didn't have a plan or a practical goal you abandon it and say it was not working.
The road map for success in your book writing program is to have a specific, but sensible goal. Be specific about your book writing goal. Do not tell yourself that you would like to write a book by the end of this year. That is not a specific goal. You have not set a start date, you have not set an end date and you have not stated what book you would like to write.
A specific book writing goal is stating that you are going to start your book writing program on January 28th at 5:00 a.m. during which time you want to complete your 156-page book '10 Ways to Stop Divorce Before It's Too Late' and it will end at midnight on June 30. Be as precise as you can. Now you have the beginning of the road map to start your book writing journey.
Your next step in this plan is to be practical. Your goals have to consist of a goal that can be achieved. If you state that you would like to write a book in the next few weeks working a couple of hours a week, you are setting yourself up for failure. Not only will you not achieve this goal but also it will cause you to possibly give up because your plan was unrealistic.
Start your book writing plan with a goal that you know you will be able to achieve if you just challenge yourself to achieve. Writing a book in 6 weeks working at least 20 hours a week is something you can do and you will not have to say good-bye to your family and become a hermit to achieve it.
Don't wait any longer; begin your book writing journey with a road map. Start seeing yourself writing and completing a book by your end date. Before you know it, you'll have a finished book in your hand all because you started with a road map to guide you to the finish line.
How to Write a Book in Just 3-30 Days Even If You Can't Type
Do you have a book in you?
Well, I feel that everybody has a book in them. It's just a matter of when you're going to write it.
Do you have experience or expertise in some particular area? What about all your work/career experience, personal relationships, spiritual searching and studies, all the knowledge, all your life experience, the things that have helped you in life?
Perhaps you're a computer programmer, you're a single parent, you've been in sales, you know how to open a restaurant or a hairdressing salon. You know what NOT to do in relationships etc which mean you know what to do J! Right? Well, I feel that everybody has a book in them everyone has a story to tell or an experience to help people.
Perhaps you have a how-to book in you or it could be an audio program or video/DVD. It's such an AWESOME way to help yourself have PR for your life's work and/or business. Also having written a book will bring you 110% more credibility in the marketplace. So let's begin ...............
How do we write a book ????
This process I am about to share with you is so simple and so much fun. My friend Wilma McIntyre and I wrote "Conversations on Money, Sex and Spirituality in just 3 days using my method. I have been using this method now for over 12 years. I made it up because when I wrote my first book I could not type. This process you can also use when you are going to create a motivational audio program or even a video. (Unless you can adlib to perfection. If you cannot adlib without um thrown in KEEP readingJ) As this method will help you become very clear and totally professional.
Even IF you do not think you have a book in you, writing out the following exercises will help you gain so much clarity on what you do want to do.
I have had MANY people complete this section at my live events, really not thinking they had a book in them and some ended up writing books very quickly with more enthusiasm and passion then they ever knew they had.
If you are reading this now because you DO wish to write a book, I have some GREAT and yet simple examples to help you get started OR to quickly improve the writing you are presently doing.
First of all, make a decision on what it is you choose to write about. For example, if I was in network marketing and I'd been in the business for a while and had success, I know that having a book on how to have a successful network marketing business would be tremendous for adding publicity and credibility about who I am. This can be handed out and also sold through your own Website, or other websites including Amazon.com, and through many other areas. If you do choose to self-publish your own book, which I believe is a wonderful, freeing way to begin a writing career, we'll be covering that topic in another one of my articles on in the "How to Self-Publish." For now let's get the book written.
Further down, (print out the article) write down areas of experience in your life. List six areas of experience you have in life. For example:
· I have studied many spiritual books and been to many seminars and feel that I have a great metaphysical self-help book in me.
· I have experienced a great deal of success in sales, and would like to write a book on sales.
· I have a great deal of experience on how to bring up children as a single parent.
These are just a few examples to get you started, because starting is what it is all about. Go ahead and fill in six areas that you have experience in from career related experience to your personal and home life.
AREAS OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:
Now that you have listed the areas of experience that you have, write the top three areas that you feel the most desire to write about.
TOP THREE LISTING FOR your Book, Audio Program, Product IDEA:
Next, pick your number one area.
NUMBER ONE AREA I WOULD LIKE TO WRITE ABOUT:
Okay, now you have the area you would like to write about. Whether it is fiction, non-fiction, a how- to - book, or a workbook, an audio program or even a video/DVD, next you are going to write down some ideas for your title. It makes it very, very easy so please do this with an open mind. Write down five ideas now, just off the top of your head. Don't get too much into your left brain. Let the ideas flow through your right brain, and just write down anything you think of.
· How to Bring up Children as a Single Parent
· How to Increase Your Sales
· How to Eat a Healthy Diet in the Fast-Food Lane of Life.
Okay great!! So now you have some ideas! These are just working book title ideas; they are not in stone, they are not it yet. (Or one may beJ) This is just to get your juices/passion up and your creativity flowing. Later, you will come up with a great subtitle. These days, you can have quite an esoteric book title, but have your subtitle let the reader know what's in it for them, what the benefits are.
For example, you will notice that all my MusiVation™ products have a very dynamic subtitle. In my audio program, Be Your Perfect Weight, the subtitle is Dynamic Psychological Breakthrough in Weight Control. As another example, the title of my 6-tape audio program is Affirmation Power, and the subtitle¾done as a top of the title subtitle¾is Be A Magnet to Success through [then the title] Affirmation Power. My best selling book I wrote with Rock Riddle How To Be A Magnet To Hollywood Success, is subtitled Your Complete Step-by-Step system to making it in Show Business. My book I co wrote with Wilma Conversations on Money, Sex, and Spirituality is subtitled How to Attract Multi-Dimensional Abundance in Your Life.
As you can see from these examples, if you show the people what's in it for them through a well defined simple descriptive subtitle, then they know they are going to read a magnetic, powerful book before they've even started reading it.
Some of my titles are what's in it for them, as well. For example one I wrote with Bob Proctor, Be A Magnet to Money is the title, so that's basically telling them what's in it for them. And then our subtitle is Dynamic Psychological Breakthrough in How to Attract Money. So having a double whammy in two very strong areas is very powerful.
Number one, your book title is telling them what's in it for them, and Number two, your subtitle is telling them what's in it for them.
However, that is simply your title. Now for the exciting part! You are now going to write out your table of contents.
I suggest you write ten areas, or ten chapters. This is a little more challenging if you're writing fiction, however, I feel that just writing down ten ideas for your chapters or your book topics to start with helps tremendously in getting the juices flowing and keeps everything in Divine Order. You will see this clearly later on, after you write your ten topics.
Go ahead now and write ten topics on the next page. For example, if you were to write a book about sales, you could start your topics with:
· Is Money Everything?
· Love Your Customers
· Have a Positive Attitude
· How to Keep Keeping On
· Look Ahead, Not Behind
These are just a few ideas of book/product topic contents. Write down NOW ten- twelve areas. Sometimes people find such a great topic idea doing this that IT ends up being their new title, straight from their table of contents. Now go ahead and create your table of contents!
The next suggestion I'm going to share with you on how to write a book IS so SIMPLE. It came to me when I was working on my first book. I just find it so EASY to write a book or an audio program this way. What I do, is so very easy and fun (because remember, writing a book is FUN J)
Write ten questions for each topic. With these ten questions, ask a friend to interview you and treat it as if they are, someone who is a TV or radio show host (i.e., Oprah, Michele J) who is really interested in that particular topic in your table of contents, especially if it's a how-to book or a non-fiction book. Simply write out the questions; these will be questions that you will answer for all areas that you already know about. Then, I suggest you start reading a lot of books about that particular topic and getting a lot of information into your mind.
You already have a lot of information in your sub-conscious mind that is just waiting to be released when it's needed. With these questions, get a very good friend to interview you. Pretend it's an interview show. Get a tape recorder, get them to ask you the questions, and then you just flow with it. Just answer the questions; don't be nervous—no one's out there listening to this! It's just you! Ask your friend to please be very focused and not agree or disagree, or say, "Oh, yeah, that happened to me, too." They are going to be a professional interviewer and simply be there, asking the questions. When you're finished with one answer, they will ask you the next question. Do this for each topic; it's so much fun! Next, type up what's on the tape for each topic (or have someone type it for you). Finally, take out all of the questions; then just leave your answers. Then you have a whole chapter or topic for your table of contents done. Do this for all ten areas. Do not edit as you go, just take out the questions.
Once all ten topics have been done, go back and start typing. Add areas that you may not have had handy when answering the questions, for example, you may want to quote a particular person in your book. You may want to speak of the story of a successful person in your book. You can add that in later. What is very important to remember, whether you use this interview technique or simply go ahead and just write, is that you go ahead and just write! Every time you give yourself time to write, it doesn't matter what you write, as long as you write. Don't edit as you go. The editing can be done later. Too many people will never finish a book because they feel each area or every sentence has to be perfect as they go. Again, I repeat, DO NOT EDIT until you have finished and you have all the information written. Now you have your story/product written! Then edit later. Don't even edit each chapter as you go. Just get every chapter written; finish that book. The editing can be done later, either by you or by a professional.
I also feel it's wonderful, if it's a non-fiction book, to write stories about how other people conquered those particular topics. Perhaps you can even interview some well-known celebrities. A lot of well-known, successful writers and entrepreneurs want extra publicity. And, it is free publicity for you. So, go ahead and contact these people. You'll be surprised who knows whom. Email out to a whole group of friends, "Hey, does anybody know Richard Branson?" "Hey, does anybody know blah, blah, blah?" "Hey, does anyone know Melanie Griffith?" You'll be surprised how many people will know someone who knows them. You know, they say, and I agree with this, you know who they are—they are us! They, which are us, say you are only four phone calls away from any person you would like to meet. And I do agree with this. Sometimes it may be five or six, but very rarely. Just take some action. That is part of networking, which is another chapter.
It is also a very good idea to write little example stories of the success of others or conduct a short interview with the actual people. You can mention on your book cover that these people are included. And then, at the end of the book, you can mention the person's book and their Website and their contact information. People love this; it's free publicity. I have been interviewed for many, other books. People always put my contact numbers; I love it! I would do it for anybody. If anyone wants to interview me, I do it. Anybody will do the same thing. It's a very rare person who won't do it. This way you also you get to be networking and meeting great people while you're doing interviews. Priceless!!!! Call some people you've always loved to meet. It's so good to always remember to be in the consciousness of the people who are already doing what you want to do.
If it's a fictional book you're writing, storyboard it. I suggest you create a mind map. Put a big circle in the middle and get all the characters written from that circle. For example, if it were Gone with the Wind, then "Gone with the Wind" would be in the circle in the middle. Then a little balloon off from that would be Main Character—Heroine. If you know you want a heroine, think of a name for your heroine. Offshoot that—what century is it written in? Is it Sci-Fi, or is it back in the history books of the 1400's?
Storyboard all your characters. What type of characters they are, their characteristics, what type of personalities and looks? Allow the story to take on its own vision and flow. When you storyboard, mind map a fictional book, and put it up on the wall, it really gives you access to great ideas, because you're mystically saying to the Universe, "This is what I want to write about—give me ideas." And it will come to you!
Well, I feel that everybody has a book in them. It's just a matter of when you're going to write it.
Do you have experience or expertise in some particular area? What about all your work/career experience, personal relationships, spiritual searching and studies, all the knowledge, all your life experience, the things that have helped you in life?
Perhaps you're a computer programmer, you're a single parent, you've been in sales, you know how to open a restaurant or a hairdressing salon. You know what NOT to do in relationships etc which mean you know what to do J! Right? Well, I feel that everybody has a book in them everyone has a story to tell or an experience to help people.
Perhaps you have a how-to book in you or it could be an audio program or video/DVD. It's such an AWESOME way to help yourself have PR for your life's work and/or business. Also having written a book will bring you 110% more credibility in the marketplace. So let's begin ...............
How do we write a book ????
This process I am about to share with you is so simple and so much fun. My friend Wilma McIntyre and I wrote "Conversations on Money, Sex and Spirituality in just 3 days using my method. I have been using this method now for over 12 years. I made it up because when I wrote my first book I could not type. This process you can also use when you are going to create a motivational audio program or even a video. (Unless you can adlib to perfection. If you cannot adlib without um thrown in KEEP readingJ) As this method will help you become very clear and totally professional.
Even IF you do not think you have a book in you, writing out the following exercises will help you gain so much clarity on what you do want to do.
I have had MANY people complete this section at my live events, really not thinking they had a book in them and some ended up writing books very quickly with more enthusiasm and passion then they ever knew they had.
If you are reading this now because you DO wish to write a book, I have some GREAT and yet simple examples to help you get started OR to quickly improve the writing you are presently doing.
First of all, make a decision on what it is you choose to write about. For example, if I was in network marketing and I'd been in the business for a while and had success, I know that having a book on how to have a successful network marketing business would be tremendous for adding publicity and credibility about who I am. This can be handed out and also sold through your own Website, or other websites including Amazon.com, and through many other areas. If you do choose to self-publish your own book, which I believe is a wonderful, freeing way to begin a writing career, we'll be covering that topic in another one of my articles on in the "How to Self-Publish." For now let's get the book written.
Further down, (print out the article) write down areas of experience in your life. List six areas of experience you have in life. For example:
· I have studied many spiritual books and been to many seminars and feel that I have a great metaphysical self-help book in me.
· I have experienced a great deal of success in sales, and would like to write a book on sales.
· I have a great deal of experience on how to bring up children as a single parent.
These are just a few examples to get you started, because starting is what it is all about. Go ahead and fill in six areas that you have experience in from career related experience to your personal and home life.
AREAS OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:
Now that you have listed the areas of experience that you have, write the top three areas that you feel the most desire to write about.
TOP THREE LISTING FOR your Book, Audio Program, Product IDEA:
Next, pick your number one area.
NUMBER ONE AREA I WOULD LIKE TO WRITE ABOUT:
Okay, now you have the area you would like to write about. Whether it is fiction, non-fiction, a how- to - book, or a workbook, an audio program or even a video/DVD, next you are going to write down some ideas for your title. It makes it very, very easy so please do this with an open mind. Write down five ideas now, just off the top of your head. Don't get too much into your left brain. Let the ideas flow through your right brain, and just write down anything you think of.
· How to Bring up Children as a Single Parent
· How to Increase Your Sales
· How to Eat a Healthy Diet in the Fast-Food Lane of Life.
Okay great!! So now you have some ideas! These are just working book title ideas; they are not in stone, they are not it yet. (Or one may beJ) This is just to get your juices/passion up and your creativity flowing. Later, you will come up with a great subtitle. These days, you can have quite an esoteric book title, but have your subtitle let the reader know what's in it for them, what the benefits are.
For example, you will notice that all my MusiVation™ products have a very dynamic subtitle. In my audio program, Be Your Perfect Weight, the subtitle is Dynamic Psychological Breakthrough in Weight Control. As another example, the title of my 6-tape audio program is Affirmation Power, and the subtitle¾done as a top of the title subtitle¾is Be A Magnet to Success through [then the title] Affirmation Power. My best selling book I wrote with Rock Riddle How To Be A Magnet To Hollywood Success, is subtitled Your Complete Step-by-Step system to making it in Show Business. My book I co wrote with Wilma Conversations on Money, Sex, and Spirituality is subtitled How to Attract Multi-Dimensional Abundance in Your Life.
As you can see from these examples, if you show the people what's in it for them through a well defined simple descriptive subtitle, then they know they are going to read a magnetic, powerful book before they've even started reading it.
Some of my titles are what's in it for them, as well. For example one I wrote with Bob Proctor, Be A Magnet to Money is the title, so that's basically telling them what's in it for them. And then our subtitle is Dynamic Psychological Breakthrough in How to Attract Money. So having a double whammy in two very strong areas is very powerful.
Number one, your book title is telling them what's in it for them, and Number two, your subtitle is telling them what's in it for them.
However, that is simply your title. Now for the exciting part! You are now going to write out your table of contents.
I suggest you write ten areas, or ten chapters. This is a little more challenging if you're writing fiction, however, I feel that just writing down ten ideas for your chapters or your book topics to start with helps tremendously in getting the juices flowing and keeps everything in Divine Order. You will see this clearly later on, after you write your ten topics.
Go ahead now and write ten topics on the next page. For example, if you were to write a book about sales, you could start your topics with:
· Is Money Everything?
· Love Your Customers
· Have a Positive Attitude
· How to Keep Keeping On
· Look Ahead, Not Behind
These are just a few ideas of book/product topic contents. Write down NOW ten- twelve areas. Sometimes people find such a great topic idea doing this that IT ends up being their new title, straight from their table of contents. Now go ahead and create your table of contents!
The next suggestion I'm going to share with you on how to write a book IS so SIMPLE. It came to me when I was working on my first book. I just find it so EASY to write a book or an audio program this way. What I do, is so very easy and fun (because remember, writing a book is FUN J)
Write ten questions for each topic. With these ten questions, ask a friend to interview you and treat it as if they are, someone who is a TV or radio show host (i.e., Oprah, Michele J) who is really interested in that particular topic in your table of contents, especially if it's a how-to book or a non-fiction book. Simply write out the questions; these will be questions that you will answer for all areas that you already know about. Then, I suggest you start reading a lot of books about that particular topic and getting a lot of information into your mind.
You already have a lot of information in your sub-conscious mind that is just waiting to be released when it's needed. With these questions, get a very good friend to interview you. Pretend it's an interview show. Get a tape recorder, get them to ask you the questions, and then you just flow with it. Just answer the questions; don't be nervous—no one's out there listening to this! It's just you! Ask your friend to please be very focused and not agree or disagree, or say, "Oh, yeah, that happened to me, too." They are going to be a professional interviewer and simply be there, asking the questions. When you're finished with one answer, they will ask you the next question. Do this for each topic; it's so much fun! Next, type up what's on the tape for each topic (or have someone type it for you). Finally, take out all of the questions; then just leave your answers. Then you have a whole chapter or topic for your table of contents done. Do this for all ten areas. Do not edit as you go, just take out the questions.
Once all ten topics have been done, go back and start typing. Add areas that you may not have had handy when answering the questions, for example, you may want to quote a particular person in your book. You may want to speak of the story of a successful person in your book. You can add that in later. What is very important to remember, whether you use this interview technique or simply go ahead and just write, is that you go ahead and just write! Every time you give yourself time to write, it doesn't matter what you write, as long as you write. Don't edit as you go. The editing can be done later. Too many people will never finish a book because they feel each area or every sentence has to be perfect as they go. Again, I repeat, DO NOT EDIT until you have finished and you have all the information written. Now you have your story/product written! Then edit later. Don't even edit each chapter as you go. Just get every chapter written; finish that book. The editing can be done later, either by you or by a professional.
I also feel it's wonderful, if it's a non-fiction book, to write stories about how other people conquered those particular topics. Perhaps you can even interview some well-known celebrities. A lot of well-known, successful writers and entrepreneurs want extra publicity. And, it is free publicity for you. So, go ahead and contact these people. You'll be surprised who knows whom. Email out to a whole group of friends, "Hey, does anybody know Richard Branson?" "Hey, does anybody know blah, blah, blah?" "Hey, does anyone know Melanie Griffith?" You'll be surprised how many people will know someone who knows them. You know, they say, and I agree with this, you know who they are—they are us! They, which are us, say you are only four phone calls away from any person you would like to meet. And I do agree with this. Sometimes it may be five or six, but very rarely. Just take some action. That is part of networking, which is another chapter.
It is also a very good idea to write little example stories of the success of others or conduct a short interview with the actual people. You can mention on your book cover that these people are included. And then, at the end of the book, you can mention the person's book and their Website and their contact information. People love this; it's free publicity. I have been interviewed for many, other books. People always put my contact numbers; I love it! I would do it for anybody. If anyone wants to interview me, I do it. Anybody will do the same thing. It's a very rare person who won't do it. This way you also you get to be networking and meeting great people while you're doing interviews. Priceless!!!! Call some people you've always loved to meet. It's so good to always remember to be in the consciousness of the people who are already doing what you want to do.
If it's a fictional book you're writing, storyboard it. I suggest you create a mind map. Put a big circle in the middle and get all the characters written from that circle. For example, if it were Gone with the Wind, then "Gone with the Wind" would be in the circle in the middle. Then a little balloon off from that would be Main Character—Heroine. If you know you want a heroine, think of a name for your heroine. Offshoot that—what century is it written in? Is it Sci-Fi, or is it back in the history books of the 1400's?
Storyboard all your characters. What type of characters they are, their characteristics, what type of personalities and looks? Allow the story to take on its own vision and flow. When you storyboard, mind map a fictional book, and put it up on the wall, it really gives you access to great ideas, because you're mystically saying to the Universe, "This is what I want to write about—give me ideas." And it will come to you!
Mind Games: How To Eliminate The 5 Negative Thoughts That Shut Down Your Writing
Have you ever reached for a brownie when you were trying to lose weight? Or stayed in bed when you intended to go to the gym? Or put off paying bills because it was "too much of a hassle"?
There are lots of different ways in which we sabotage ourselves. This is true of life in general and also true of the writing life.
Writing depends not just on discipline but also on the complicated interplay between what we know and what we feel.
I've worked as an editor for just about 30 years (honest, I was really young when I started) and I've noticed there are five key negative feelings or thoughts that tend to shut down our writing—in much the same way that a circuit breaker shuts down electricity. BOOM and the lights go out.
Often, simply being aware of these thoughts is enough to take away their power. At other times, it's important to challenge them head-on. So let's see which ones are disrupting your writing (and therefore taking a bite of your income) and figure out what you can do about them.
1) I'm a lousy writer; I don't have the talent to do this.
This is probably the most common negative thought of all. My theory is it's usually born in high school when writing teachers single out one or two people in the class for praise and use their red pens too liberally with the rest. (To this day, when I'm editing, I make a point of never using red to make suggestions or corrections!) And too much of a focus on grammar and spelling in childhood often mean trouble for the adult writer.
But here's the interesting truth: We're all born lousy marketing writers. The people who become "good" are the ones who are prepared to do the following simple things: – Read good writing and work to emulate it; – Write a lot—because writing is like exercise: the more you do, the better you get; – Spend double the time on self-editing that they spend on writing.
If you discover that you're constantly bad-mouthing yourself as you write, replace the inner negative chatter with the following statement: "Writing is about practice. The more I do, the better I'll get. When I finish this article (letter, report, etc.) I'll have more experience and I'll have improved."
2) I don't have the time to write
This is one of my favourite negative thoughts because it's so common and sooo easy to blow out of the water. The writing world is littered with people who quit their day-jobs so they could work on their books. But here's the secret: The published novelists and non-fiction writers are almost always the people who continue with their regular work and write in their spare time.
Just as the cactus thrives in a hot, dry environment, writing thrives in the absence of time. Yes, you read that correctly. Writing not only can be done quickly; it is better done quickly. That's partly because, if you're fast enough, you can usually out-run and out-write the negative chatter in your head.
People often make the mistake of trying to set aside huge chunks of time for writing (especially for reports). Me? I love writing in 10-minute bursts. Not only does this allow me to get ideas out of my head and onto paper when they are fresh, but it also gives me a big payback down the road. That's because when I go back to the document I often discover my article is much further ahead than I'd realized. No blank page. It's a great feeling.
I do like having a decent chunk of time to self-edit—a different task from writing—but I'm talking maybe 30 to 60 minutes. Not all day.
When you're planning your writing time, think in small increments, not big chunks. Remember: If you write 300-350 words a day, you'll have written a decent-length book by the end of a year.
3) I'd better do a really good job on this (article, report, letter) because my reputation/sales results hinge on it.
Of course you want your writing to be good. And of course certain pieces of work you do can be important to your business or career. But to understand why this negative line will do you in, it might help to think about professional sports. Take tennis for example.
Do you think Martina Navratilova won a record nine Wimbledon singles championships and 58 Grand Slam titles by telling herself, "I really need to win this game; if I don't, I'm in trouble." Of course not! I don't know about Martina, but I do know many professional athletes work with psychologists precisely so they can learn to turn off this unhelpful chatter. After all, this sort of self-talk is more likely to cause them to choke than to win.
Similarly, when you're writing, you need to shut down the tiny yet persistent voice that tells you how much you have riding on this job. Instead, do what the athletes do. Focus on the ball—in your case that means: focus on what you're writing.
And if that doesn't work, tell the voice that you don't have time to listen to it while you're writing, but you'll attend to it when you're editing the piece (when it can't do so much damage.)
4) I need to write about this topic.
Truth is, unless you're a journalist or someone else who writes professionally, there are precious few topics that anyone is going to force you to cover. Sure you might need to write a pitch for a bank loan or sales letter to promote your product, but if you're writing an article for your e-zine or website, don't be bound by duty. Instead, focus on topics you feel passionate about.
Readers can smell disinterest the way lions can smell a steak. I've seen too many consultants who start an article by saying to themselves: "This is a hot topic in my industry right now." Or, "I want the search engines to pick me up on this one." Or, "People expect me to be an expert on this." Yawn.
Instead, choose a topic that excites you and has you fairly bursting to write. Then think hard about how to make it relate to your business, your keywords or your target market. Your enthusiasm will not only captivate your readers, it will also inspire you to write quickly and fluently.
5) Writing is too hard.
Let's get something straight. Lifting bricks is hard; waiting tables is hard; telling someone they have cancer is hard. Writing is not hard. Writing is just writing.
There is a romantic notion—perpetuated by Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Chandler and others—that writers must be tortured. In fact, writing is just a job. Sure, sometimes it's more difficult than other times —just like it's hard to return voicemail messages when you're headachy and grumpy or hard to go for a run when you're bone-tired.
But overall, writing is actually pretty cushy. You get to sit in a warm dry place. You can have a steaming cup of tea or coffee beside you. You don't have to do any heavy lifting (with Spell check, you don't even have to lift the dictionary!) And best of all, you get the privilege of sharing your thoughts—the ones inside your head—with other people.
So, dismiss the notion that writing is an onerous act. Writing is something we all can do. Sure, some of us are better at it that others than others. But that's mostly because of practice. And if you write more, you too will improve.
Get at it.
Author: Daphne Gray-Grant
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/non-fiction-articles/mind-games-how-to-eliminate-the-5-negative-thoughts-that-shut-down-your-writing-70703.html
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/non-fiction-articles/mind-games-how-to-eliminate-the-5-negative-thoughts-that-shut-down-your-writing-70703.html
How Can I Propose: Research Proposal Writing
To avoid disappointment, it’s better to confess in the very beginning – the article is not about marriage. So those of you who don’t know how to propose to your girl can close this window.
Report writing…, writing research papers…, how to write an annotated bibliography…. You are looking desperately at the monitor. You don’t need these things. The only thing you want to find out is what does “writing research proposals” mean?
Writing research proposals is easy once you learn what they are. A proposal is a plan, recommendation, or suggestion that one person makes to another. Research proposal writing is a special kind of report where one seeks not only to inform, but specifically to persuade. The research proposal writing offers to study or to solve a problem.
A successful report always takes its audience into consideration. Take some time to get acquainted with your potential listeners. Find out more not only about their needs and expectations, but about their values and goals as well. In most proposals, the focus on benefits is the most important element; these benefits are two-fold: 1) the benefit to the target audience for your article, and 2) the benefits to you in terms of meeting course goals.
The style of research proposal writing can be:
- formal
- informal
Writing formal research proposals means following a strict composition. It includes the Front Matter, the Body, and the End Matter. Pretty much all you do in writing formal research proposal is state the problem, and show the ways it can be solved.
Writing informal research proposals doesn’t require an inflexible structure. People usually choose writing informal proposals when they need to organize their thoughts. However, some structure in writing a research proposal can be helpful to you.
In the first paragraph you should introduce your topic and describe what you think at this point the main focus of the paper might be. Start with thesis writing. It has to look like a workable theory that you can alter during research proposal writing. The sooner you start writing a thesis, the better it results on your self-evaluation. When writing a research proposal, it is important to be able to analyze and criticize yourself. Thesis writing has to be focused and specific enough to be "proven" within the boundaries of your research proposal writing. It also has to be sufficient.
Next step in writing informal proposal is moving from the Introduction part to the Discussion paragraph. The problem you stated in the beginning now has to be solved somehow. This is why in this part of your research proposal writing you have to show your solutions and the resources you will need to accomplish your mission. Also, in this part of research proposal writing you will need to introduce the final product or result that you expect to get from your project.
Since you are writing informal research proposal, give detailed information about the resources your project requires. How many people do you need? How much will it cost you?
You are writing a research proposal in stages, and now it’s time for a conclusion. Giving it an overall look, what obstacles do you see? Is there a part you have to concentrate on to avoid extra difficulties? Summarize your entire proposal.
Writing a research proposal should not cause you any difficulties as long as you are able to evaluate your skills and abilities. You begin by writing a thesis, and work your way through the proposal trying not to leave out anything important. After all, writing a research proposal is easier than writing a dissertation.
Report writing…, writing research papers…, how to write an annotated bibliography…. You are looking desperately at the monitor. You don’t need these things. The only thing you want to find out is what does “writing research proposals” mean?
Writing research proposals is easy once you learn what they are. A proposal is a plan, recommendation, or suggestion that one person makes to another. Research proposal writing is a special kind of report where one seeks not only to inform, but specifically to persuade. The research proposal writing offers to study or to solve a problem.
A successful report always takes its audience into consideration. Take some time to get acquainted with your potential listeners. Find out more not only about their needs and expectations, but about their values and goals as well. In most proposals, the focus on benefits is the most important element; these benefits are two-fold: 1) the benefit to the target audience for your article, and 2) the benefits to you in terms of meeting course goals.
The style of research proposal writing can be:
- formal
- informal
Writing formal research proposals means following a strict composition. It includes the Front Matter, the Body, and the End Matter. Pretty much all you do in writing formal research proposal is state the problem, and show the ways it can be solved.
Writing informal research proposals doesn’t require an inflexible structure. People usually choose writing informal proposals when they need to organize their thoughts. However, some structure in writing a research proposal can be helpful to you.
In the first paragraph you should introduce your topic and describe what you think at this point the main focus of the paper might be. Start with thesis writing. It has to look like a workable theory that you can alter during research proposal writing. The sooner you start writing a thesis, the better it results on your self-evaluation. When writing a research proposal, it is important to be able to analyze and criticize yourself. Thesis writing has to be focused and specific enough to be "proven" within the boundaries of your research proposal writing. It also has to be sufficient.
Next step in writing informal proposal is moving from the Introduction part to the Discussion paragraph. The problem you stated in the beginning now has to be solved somehow. This is why in this part of your research proposal writing you have to show your solutions and the resources you will need to accomplish your mission. Also, in this part of research proposal writing you will need to introduce the final product or result that you expect to get from your project.
Since you are writing informal research proposal, give detailed information about the resources your project requires. How many people do you need? How much will it cost you?
You are writing a research proposal in stages, and now it’s time for a conclusion. Giving it an overall look, what obstacles do you see? Is there a part you have to concentrate on to avoid extra difficulties? Summarize your entire proposal.
Writing a research proposal should not cause you any difficulties as long as you are able to evaluate your skills and abilities. You begin by writing a thesis, and work your way through the proposal trying not to leave out anything important. After all, writing a research proposal is easier than writing a dissertation.
Successful Essay Writing: a Step-by-step Guide to Essay Papers
There are some things you can't learn quickly. Spelling, grammar, word choice and sentence construction take years of practice before you feel comfortable expressing your ideas. However, there are a few simple things you can do to improve your writing today. In this tutorial we'll give you the tips to write a successful essay, even if English is not your native language.
The main focus of this tutorial will be organization. If the word "organization" makes you uncomfortable, you're not alone. Everybody hates the idea of structuring our sentences into some cookie-cutter format. When I was a kid I refused to cooperate with my teachers as they tried to teach us any kind of method for writing. I was creative, had a flare with words, and got straight A's anyway. Why should I have to do the 5-part process which included brainstorming, pre-writing, a first rough draft, a second rough draft and finally a finished paper?
Now that I'm older and wiser (and spend a great deal of my time writing and editing academic essays) I've learned that organization is a necessary tool to make writing easy, quick and great. Unless you're trying to write the next post-modern novel, any kind of writing can benefit from proper organization.
Step One - Organizing Your Essay
Never, ever start writing an essay without knowing what you want to say. An outline is a simple way to organize your ideas into manageable content. It will not only let you write your essay much faster, but also much better.
Many people will want to skip past this step to learn "more important things". You probably know all about outlines and don't think they can help you - you want to learn to write better. Take my word for it, making outlines a writing habit will make a huge difference in your writing.
Why? Because it will also help follow these rules:
An essay should have only one subject
Each paragraph should have one topic which supports the subject
Each topic should give at least three specific examples as evidence
Each sentence should be organized and linked with transitions
Most people start by writing the essay, and then go back and try to organize it later. I tried this process when I wrote my first book, and 5 years later it's still not as organized or clear as I want it to be. The problem is, after you have a bunch of great sentences, it is really difficult to move them around or have the ideas link together logically. You'll spend a lot of time moving things around, which can actually make the paper more complicated and difficult to read.
Even if your writing is excellent, bad organization can kill a paper. And its such an easy thing to do! So, at the risk of repeating myself: always make a detailed outline before you start writing.
Step Two - The Content:
Now that you're ready to start with an outline, you've got to figure out what to put inside. In other words, what kind of content should be in your paper. Here is a basic plan for a typical five-paragraph essay:
INTRODUCTION: The introduction is your chance to make a good first impression on your reader - you have to capture their interest. Also - you need to say exactly what you're essay will be about.
Background information. Get the reader's attention using one or more of the following:
Anecdotes
Quotations
Questions
Facts and Statistics
Thesis Statement. Your thesis statement should have two aims - to provide the topic and the approach of your essay. The topic is what you will talk about, the subject, and the approach is what is interesting about the topic, or the focus.
For example, the thesis statement "I will talk about the rain forest" is too broad. What about the rain forest? If you think the US consumption of beef is a major factor in rain forest depletion, then say so in your thesis statement. It should be clear: "The US consumption of beef is a major factor in rain forest depletion." If this is your thesis, you can catch the reader's attention immediately with some fancy data, like "89% of the world's oxygen supply comes from South American rain forests - forests which are being cut down at an alarming rate."
BODY: The body is where you can provide evidence to support your thesis. A typical essay will have about 3 paragraphs in the body. Each paragraph will begin with a Topic Sentence which states the main supporting point of the paragraph. The rest of the paragraph will be filled with supporting details, examples and facts.
CONCLUSION:The conclusion makes final comments by doing one or more of the following:
Restating Main Points
Asking a Question
Suggesting a Solution
Making a Recommendation
Making a Prediction
Step Three - The Writing:
Once you have your outline, you can start filling in blocks of text with sentences. As long as your paper has one clear focus and you write topic sentences for each paragraph, your essay will be pretty clear.
Try to write in a smooth, conversational voice as if you were talking to someone on the phone. Use transitional words to introduce ideas (also, another reason, besides, finally, first of all, furthermore, in addition, moreover, most importantly, one reason, the third reason) and to give examples (especially, for example, for instance, specifically, such as).
Generally, you want to avoid complicated or flowery language for an academic paper. Focus on clear, smooth writing. Let the facts and data speak for themselves. However brave students and writers can use stylistic techniques to write a stronger paper. It is risky when you're just learning, but great writers - even academic writers, make their writing stand out with by adding style.
HOW TO WRITE BEAUTIFULLY: Style is the hardest thing to learn, and to teach. Read magazines like National Geographic to get a feel for stylistic writing. They use run-on sentences, began sentences with 'And', and drop little-used-gems like "Moniker". They can get away with it because they are aiming for an intelligent consumer base who enjoys beautiful and intelligent writing.
In general, you can improve your writing style with these tips:
Use a lot of adjectives and adverbs
Describe each thought as fully as possible
Link ideas together in longer sentences
Try to create mental images by using metaphors and similes
Choose your words carefully - pick words that carry emotion
Instead of saying, "the man rode a horse to school", you can say, "The strong man rode his horse roughly towards the school," or "The elegant man and his horse moved as one, racing across the plains like a gust of wind towards the school."
Step Four - Editing:
Read your paper again. Sentences that have more than one main idea need to be broken up. Sentences that do not support a paragraph's topic sentence, or do not directly support the Thesis Statement, should be removed. Flowery language, big words, and artistic writing should usually be cut out. You want your writing clean, simple and easy to read. (At least for an essay - you are writing to inform or persuade, not to entertain.)
Take another look at your title - make it sharp and engaging.
Now that you've finished your essay, check your Thesis Statement again and make sure it covers exactly what your essay is talking about. Sometimes your essay will evolve, and cover a more interesting, but slightly different topic. That's fine, but change your Thesis Statement to agree with it.
Step Five - Proofreading:
The last step to writing an essay is proofreading. Check your essay for punctuation, capitalization, and indentation. Make sure the format is consistent, the line spacing and page numbers are right, and the references are formatted correctly. Check your "Its" and It's", and your "There" and "Theirs". Little things are the hardest things to catch, especially editing your own paper. If you need any help editing or proofreading your essay, check out www.mypaperperfect.com
The main focus of this tutorial will be organization. If the word "organization" makes you uncomfortable, you're not alone. Everybody hates the idea of structuring our sentences into some cookie-cutter format. When I was a kid I refused to cooperate with my teachers as they tried to teach us any kind of method for writing. I was creative, had a flare with words, and got straight A's anyway. Why should I have to do the 5-part process which included brainstorming, pre-writing, a first rough draft, a second rough draft and finally a finished paper?
Now that I'm older and wiser (and spend a great deal of my time writing and editing academic essays) I've learned that organization is a necessary tool to make writing easy, quick and great. Unless you're trying to write the next post-modern novel, any kind of writing can benefit from proper organization.
Step One - Organizing Your Essay
Never, ever start writing an essay without knowing what you want to say. An outline is a simple way to organize your ideas into manageable content. It will not only let you write your essay much faster, but also much better.
Many people will want to skip past this step to learn "more important things". You probably know all about outlines and don't think they can help you - you want to learn to write better. Take my word for it, making outlines a writing habit will make a huge difference in your writing.
Why? Because it will also help follow these rules:
An essay should have only one subject
Each paragraph should have one topic which supports the subject
Each topic should give at least three specific examples as evidence
Each sentence should be organized and linked with transitions
Most people start by writing the essay, and then go back and try to organize it later. I tried this process when I wrote my first book, and 5 years later it's still not as organized or clear as I want it to be. The problem is, after you have a bunch of great sentences, it is really difficult to move them around or have the ideas link together logically. You'll spend a lot of time moving things around, which can actually make the paper more complicated and difficult to read.
Even if your writing is excellent, bad organization can kill a paper. And its such an easy thing to do! So, at the risk of repeating myself: always make a detailed outline before you start writing.
Step Two - The Content:
Now that you're ready to start with an outline, you've got to figure out what to put inside. In other words, what kind of content should be in your paper. Here is a basic plan for a typical five-paragraph essay:
INTRODUCTION: The introduction is your chance to make a good first impression on your reader - you have to capture their interest. Also - you need to say exactly what you're essay will be about.
Background information. Get the reader's attention using one or more of the following:
Anecdotes
Quotations
Questions
Facts and Statistics
Thesis Statement. Your thesis statement should have two aims - to provide the topic and the approach of your essay. The topic is what you will talk about, the subject, and the approach is what is interesting about the topic, or the focus.
For example, the thesis statement "I will talk about the rain forest" is too broad. What about the rain forest? If you think the US consumption of beef is a major factor in rain forest depletion, then say so in your thesis statement. It should be clear: "The US consumption of beef is a major factor in rain forest depletion." If this is your thesis, you can catch the reader's attention immediately with some fancy data, like "89% of the world's oxygen supply comes from South American rain forests - forests which are being cut down at an alarming rate."
BODY: The body is where you can provide evidence to support your thesis. A typical essay will have about 3 paragraphs in the body. Each paragraph will begin with a Topic Sentence which states the main supporting point of the paragraph. The rest of the paragraph will be filled with supporting details, examples and facts.
CONCLUSION:The conclusion makes final comments by doing one or more of the following:
Restating Main Points
Asking a Question
Suggesting a Solution
Making a Recommendation
Making a Prediction
Step Three - The Writing:
Once you have your outline, you can start filling in blocks of text with sentences. As long as your paper has one clear focus and you write topic sentences for each paragraph, your essay will be pretty clear.
Try to write in a smooth, conversational voice as if you were talking to someone on the phone. Use transitional words to introduce ideas (also, another reason, besides, finally, first of all, furthermore, in addition, moreover, most importantly, one reason, the third reason) and to give examples (especially, for example, for instance, specifically, such as).
Generally, you want to avoid complicated or flowery language for an academic paper. Focus on clear, smooth writing. Let the facts and data speak for themselves. However brave students and writers can use stylistic techniques to write a stronger paper. It is risky when you're just learning, but great writers - even academic writers, make their writing stand out with by adding style.
HOW TO WRITE BEAUTIFULLY: Style is the hardest thing to learn, and to teach. Read magazines like National Geographic to get a feel for stylistic writing. They use run-on sentences, began sentences with 'And', and drop little-used-gems like "Moniker". They can get away with it because they are aiming for an intelligent consumer base who enjoys beautiful and intelligent writing.
In general, you can improve your writing style with these tips:
Use a lot of adjectives and adverbs
Describe each thought as fully as possible
Link ideas together in longer sentences
Try to create mental images by using metaphors and similes
Choose your words carefully - pick words that carry emotion
Instead of saying, "the man rode a horse to school", you can say, "The strong man rode his horse roughly towards the school," or "The elegant man and his horse moved as one, racing across the plains like a gust of wind towards the school."
Step Four - Editing:
Read your paper again. Sentences that have more than one main idea need to be broken up. Sentences that do not support a paragraph's topic sentence, or do not directly support the Thesis Statement, should be removed. Flowery language, big words, and artistic writing should usually be cut out. You want your writing clean, simple and easy to read. (At least for an essay - you are writing to inform or persuade, not to entertain.)
Take another look at your title - make it sharp and engaging.
Now that you've finished your essay, check your Thesis Statement again and make sure it covers exactly what your essay is talking about. Sometimes your essay will evolve, and cover a more interesting, but slightly different topic. That's fine, but change your Thesis Statement to agree with it.
Step Five - Proofreading:
The last step to writing an essay is proofreading. Check your essay for punctuation, capitalization, and indentation. Make sure the format is consistent, the line spacing and page numbers are right, and the references are formatted correctly. Check your "Its" and It's", and your "There" and "Theirs". Little things are the hardest things to catch, especially editing your own paper. If you need any help editing or proofreading your essay, check out www.mypaperperfect.com
Business Writing: What You Write is a Direct Reflection on You and Your Company
One of the true laments from management today is that employees cannot express themselves with the written word. Owners and stockholders have the same complaints about management. Today in the age of the paperless office the importance of the written word is increasing especially as direct live voice contact becomes more and more problematic.
If you want to communicate, you have to write. The written word, whether digital or etched into stone, remains the primary means of relaying data, information, thoughts and ideas.
Many businesses lack the ability to generate a well written business letter or well scripted marketing collateral. Not having this ability puts these businesses at a competitive disadvantage.
Who wants to consider a business proposal that is awkward and full of errors? What impression does a homepage with spelling errors project? Good business writing is not just a nice frill -- it is a necessity.
Every text that is written by your business is a reflection on your business. Misspellings, poor grammar, awkward syntax and weak logic project a negative image. These weaknesses can relay the impression that you are uneducated, unsophisticated, lack personal pride, are lazy, ill or all of the above.
Since the consequences of poor writing are surprisingly severe, it is better to not write anything than to write poorly. No writing leaves the issue up in the air; poor writing tells the world just where you establish your standards.
Pick up three or four pieces of written material from your company. How does your company rate? Do you require employees use spelling and grammar checks before sending out important letters or email? A spell and grammar checker can act as an editor and prevent simple typos and oversights; a first line of defense against poor writing.
Or do you or your people have difficulty clearly expressing themselves? If so, take a step back and look at your capabilities. You can either send everybody to Adult Ed and Junior College to learn how to write or hire someone that already can.
For your people that can write having their own writing style is fine as long as it is correct and in good business taste. You don't have to go to military speak but neither is this the time to wax poetic and verbose.
Using slang in a memo to a company CEO may look cool at first but be perceived as 'low rent' when the CEO reads it. Always think first, what impression do you want to give?
If you are hiring for a position that requires writing skills, ask the applicant to write several paragraphs about what attributes they will bring to the company. For assessing writing skills what they write about is not as important as how they write it.
For managers this is more important since written reports are part of a manager's job description. Never hire a manager before you clearly know their writing skills.
To write well it helps to read. Read whatever interests you and read as much as you can every day. If you read a newspaper; look how style and syntax relay the message.
By reading well written material the rules of grammar and syntax become more formalized in your brain. Simply put, the more you read, the better you write.
Clearly writing practice makes for improvement if not perfection. Good writers write everyday and take pride in each piece they write. Good writers make sure the intended meaning is the meaning expressed. It is not only challenging to write well but fun if one develops positive attitudes about writing. Besides, what's not to like about writing well?
Only basic common sense should tell you that anything that is written or in text, such as a webpage or a handout brochure needs to be reviewed thoroughly before posting or printing. If you dare put out 'junk' that is full of holes, you will be shooting down your efforts before you start. So don't even try.
Review all of your written materials to see if they need to be improved or rewritten. Be your own editor first and then have some "outside eyes" look at it. Take all criticism constructively and use that criticism to improve.
Look in the mirror when you come up with excuses for poor writing. Excuses such as lack of formal education do not count in the marketplace. Some with little or no education have excellent writing skills while many university graduates cannot write a simple sentence correctly.
If you write poorly your message will be muted and not accomplish what you intend it to do. Good writing is a challenge and not something one can fudge or postpone.
If you can't do it, hire someone that can. Always remember that for better or worse you and your company are what you write.
Author: Jack Deal
If you want to communicate, you have to write. The written word, whether digital or etched into stone, remains the primary means of relaying data, information, thoughts and ideas.
Many businesses lack the ability to generate a well written business letter or well scripted marketing collateral. Not having this ability puts these businesses at a competitive disadvantage.
Who wants to consider a business proposal that is awkward and full of errors? What impression does a homepage with spelling errors project? Good business writing is not just a nice frill -- it is a necessity.
Every text that is written by your business is a reflection on your business. Misspellings, poor grammar, awkward syntax and weak logic project a negative image. These weaknesses can relay the impression that you are uneducated, unsophisticated, lack personal pride, are lazy, ill or all of the above.
Since the consequences of poor writing are surprisingly severe, it is better to not write anything than to write poorly. No writing leaves the issue up in the air; poor writing tells the world just where you establish your standards.
Pick up three or four pieces of written material from your company. How does your company rate? Do you require employees use spelling and grammar checks before sending out important letters or email? A spell and grammar checker can act as an editor and prevent simple typos and oversights; a first line of defense against poor writing.
Or do you or your people have difficulty clearly expressing themselves? If so, take a step back and look at your capabilities. You can either send everybody to Adult Ed and Junior College to learn how to write or hire someone that already can.
For your people that can write having their own writing style is fine as long as it is correct and in good business taste. You don't have to go to military speak but neither is this the time to wax poetic and verbose.
Using slang in a memo to a company CEO may look cool at first but be perceived as 'low rent' when the CEO reads it. Always think first, what impression do you want to give?
If you are hiring for a position that requires writing skills, ask the applicant to write several paragraphs about what attributes they will bring to the company. For assessing writing skills what they write about is not as important as how they write it.
For managers this is more important since written reports are part of a manager's job description. Never hire a manager before you clearly know their writing skills.
To write well it helps to read. Read whatever interests you and read as much as you can every day. If you read a newspaper; look how style and syntax relay the message.
By reading well written material the rules of grammar and syntax become more formalized in your brain. Simply put, the more you read, the better you write.
Clearly writing practice makes for improvement if not perfection. Good writers write everyday and take pride in each piece they write. Good writers make sure the intended meaning is the meaning expressed. It is not only challenging to write well but fun if one develops positive attitudes about writing. Besides, what's not to like about writing well?
Only basic common sense should tell you that anything that is written or in text, such as a webpage or a handout brochure needs to be reviewed thoroughly before posting or printing. If you dare put out 'junk' that is full of holes, you will be shooting down your efforts before you start. So don't even try.
Review all of your written materials to see if they need to be improved or rewritten. Be your own editor first and then have some "outside eyes" look at it. Take all criticism constructively and use that criticism to improve.
Look in the mirror when you come up with excuses for poor writing. Excuses such as lack of formal education do not count in the marketplace. Some with little or no education have excellent writing skills while many university graduates cannot write a simple sentence correctly.
If you write poorly your message will be muted and not accomplish what you intend it to do. Good writing is a challenge and not something one can fudge or postpone.
If you can't do it, hire someone that can. Always remember that for better or worse you and your company are what you write.
Author: Jack Deal
Confident Public Speaking: How to Project a Confident Attitude When Speaking in Public
Rule number one of confident public speaking is to know what you are talking about. The more you know about your subject, the easier it will be for you to feel confident speaking about it. Even the most experienced public speaker would not feel confident going up in front of an audience to hold a presentation about something he or she knew little or nothing about.
The second bit of advice I will give you is to write good notes. Even if you think you know everything by heart before you go up there, things might change when you find yourself in front of a few dozen people. Cue cards are better than written out sentences; the more words there are on your paper the harder it is to find the right ones with a quick glance. It is also easy to start reading the sentences out loud rather than talking to people. Remember there is a difference between confident public speaking and public reading. Unless you are an author who just had a book released, chances are people didn't come to hear you read.
When you write your cue cards, make sure you write or print large, easily readable words. Use bullet points; they can take you from one train of thought to the next in a coherent way with smooth transitions. Don't freak out if you miss a point, confident public speaking is not about delivering a perfect speech with all the points in a particular order; it's about delivering a message in a clear and inspiring way.
Confident public speaking requires that you are comfortable giving something of yourself. Anecdotes and small personal stories can be a good way to connect with your audience, but they won't work if you found the stories online and just memorized them before your speech. Keep it real.
Don't worry too much about who your audience is and what they may or may not like. As long as you have something to say and keep your topic and language within what's commonly considered decent and normal for discussion in most crowds, you will be fine. There is always the risk of upsetting someone in the audience, but confident public speaking is all about delivering your message unapologetically; your job is to deliver the speech and share the information, and not to make sure you pleased everybody in the crowd.
The third piece of advice on confident public speaking is to remember to think about your posture. A lot of us have a tendency to slump a little, and when we are insecure, this gets even worse. Stand up tall and deliver your speech with your gaze looking out on the audience and not down on you paper. Keeping a confident posture will not only help you look more confident; you will also be sending a signal to your subconscious about how confident you feel.
Confident public speaking can definitely be taught, but it isn't about one or two specific things that you can learn and off you go. A confident public speaker incorporates all of these little tips and mixes them in with his or her own ideas to create an original style. Most of all, what makes someone good at speaking in public is practice, sharing personal comments and having a good knowledge of their subject.
The second bit of advice I will give you is to write good notes. Even if you think you know everything by heart before you go up there, things might change when you find yourself in front of a few dozen people. Cue cards are better than written out sentences; the more words there are on your paper the harder it is to find the right ones with a quick glance. It is also easy to start reading the sentences out loud rather than talking to people. Remember there is a difference between confident public speaking and public reading. Unless you are an author who just had a book released, chances are people didn't come to hear you read.
When you write your cue cards, make sure you write or print large, easily readable words. Use bullet points; they can take you from one train of thought to the next in a coherent way with smooth transitions. Don't freak out if you miss a point, confident public speaking is not about delivering a perfect speech with all the points in a particular order; it's about delivering a message in a clear and inspiring way.
Confident public speaking requires that you are comfortable giving something of yourself. Anecdotes and small personal stories can be a good way to connect with your audience, but they won't work if you found the stories online and just memorized them before your speech. Keep it real.
Don't worry too much about who your audience is and what they may or may not like. As long as you have something to say and keep your topic and language within what's commonly considered decent and normal for discussion in most crowds, you will be fine. There is always the risk of upsetting someone in the audience, but confident public speaking is all about delivering your message unapologetically; your job is to deliver the speech and share the information, and not to make sure you pleased everybody in the crowd.
The third piece of advice on confident public speaking is to remember to think about your posture. A lot of us have a tendency to slump a little, and when we are insecure, this gets even worse. Stand up tall and deliver your speech with your gaze looking out on the audience and not down on you paper. Keeping a confident posture will not only help you look more confident; you will also be sending a signal to your subconscious about how confident you feel.
Confident public speaking can definitely be taught, but it isn't about one or two specific things that you can learn and off you go. A confident public speaker incorporates all of these little tips and mixes them in with his or her own ideas to create an original style. Most of all, what makes someone good at speaking in public is practice, sharing personal comments and having a good knowledge of their subject.
Author: Jon Mercer
Speak English Clearly and Grammatically, and Boost your Success!
Of course you speak English - who doesn't? But how well do you speak this international language? Are you clear, concise and grammatically correct? Do people talk about you and the things you say? And are they talking for the right reasons?
It used to be that just speaking English (at any level) was enough to open the doors of opportunity, but times are quickly changing. Most recent estimates place speakers of English as a fluent second language or additional foreign language at over one billion.
It is no longer an advantage to speak English, but a requirement! Just speaking English isn't so impressive anymore - unless you speak it really well.
Many talented and competent professionals who are doing their best to speak good English are left behind. Many don't even realize why. How many times have you heard a colleague make the same mistake over and over again and never corrected him?
Perfecting the way you speak is challenging, but by applying these tips and tricks, you will ease communication, speed up your work flow and become a more effective business leader.
Speak Clearly
Since English is being used as a lingua franca by more and more non-native speakers, clarity should always be your first priority (whether English happens to be your native language or not). There are a number of things you can do to improve the clarity of your speech.
Slow down
We all speak too fast. It's a terrible habit! And the faster we speak, the more mumbled our speech becomes.
Slowing down the pace of your speech is vital in situations where visual communication is lacking, for example an international conference call. It is just as important however, while running a meeting or delivering a presentation.
Make sure everyone can follow what you are saying at all times. Otherwise, what's the point of saying it?
Enunciate
Colloquial speech is littered with signs of laziness. We drop word endings, run our words together and create sentences that never seem to end.
Sometimes it is too easy to take this style of speech into the boardroom.
Be sure to enunciate your words. Put a special focus on word endings such as 'ed' and 's' that act as grammatical markers.
If you leave the 'ed' off of a past tense verb (Our profits increase last year instead of 'increased') it sounds as though you are making a very basic mistake in English.
Your education, aptitude and credibility could be questioned.
Practice vowels & consonants
An additional challenge in English is that we have so many words that are identical except for the vowel.
Take this string of words for example: mat, met, mitt, mutt, mate, might and moot. Do they all sound different when you say them? They should!
Read the words in random order and have someone write down what they hear. Did they hear what you said? Create other lists of words like this to identify your problem sounds and practice, practice, practice!
Consonant sounds can be just as tricky. Be sure you differentiate between voiced and unvoiced sounds, for example, 'd' and 't.' The words 'said' and 'set' should sound different. You should be using your voice to make the 'd' sound, whereas the 't' sound only uses air.
You can create word pairs similar to the vowels above to practice these sounds and others like 'v' and 'f,' 'z' and 's,' 'b' and 'p,' and 'g' and 'k.'
Speak grammatically
For most, grammar lessons are thankfully a thing of the distance past. Although lessons usually weren't fun or interesting, there was a reason why we were drilled in English grammar.
Have you ever thought about what your grammar says about you?
Proper grammar signals a higher level of education, professionalism and, in many cases, success.
Breaking grammar rules can signal a lack of attention to detail, laziness and can be a general irritant and distraction for those who do observe grammar rules.
Not to mention the miscommunication that can happen in written correspondence like email. Think how much time is wasted clarifying the meaning of mails where the structure is so mangled that the message is lost.
If you feel like you never really learned grammar properly or think you might be making mistakes, but don't really understand why, seek out answers to your questions.
1. Ask a colleague whose language skills you admire to proof-read some of your written work. Ask them to be honest with you about your mistakes. If you're making the mistakes in your writing, you can assume that you are making the same mistakes (and then some) in your speech.
2. Have a grammar reference on hand at all times - right next to your English dictionary. Local book stores have plenty of references in the language and linguistics sections.
3. Enroll in a refresher course in English. The right teacher can make the subject interesting and enlightening. And speaking better English is definitely worth the investment! Your colleagues and clients will thank you!
It used to be that just speaking English (at any level) was enough to open the doors of opportunity, but times are quickly changing. Most recent estimates place speakers of English as a fluent second language or additional foreign language at over one billion.
It is no longer an advantage to speak English, but a requirement! Just speaking English isn't so impressive anymore - unless you speak it really well.
Many talented and competent professionals who are doing their best to speak good English are left behind. Many don't even realize why. How many times have you heard a colleague make the same mistake over and over again and never corrected him?
Perfecting the way you speak is challenging, but by applying these tips and tricks, you will ease communication, speed up your work flow and become a more effective business leader.
Speak Clearly
Since English is being used as a lingua franca by more and more non-native speakers, clarity should always be your first priority (whether English happens to be your native language or not). There are a number of things you can do to improve the clarity of your speech.
Slow down
We all speak too fast. It's a terrible habit! And the faster we speak, the more mumbled our speech becomes.
Slowing down the pace of your speech is vital in situations where visual communication is lacking, for example an international conference call. It is just as important however, while running a meeting or delivering a presentation.
Make sure everyone can follow what you are saying at all times. Otherwise, what's the point of saying it?
Enunciate
Colloquial speech is littered with signs of laziness. We drop word endings, run our words together and create sentences that never seem to end.
Sometimes it is too easy to take this style of speech into the boardroom.
Be sure to enunciate your words. Put a special focus on word endings such as 'ed' and 's' that act as grammatical markers.
If you leave the 'ed' off of a past tense verb (Our profits increase last year instead of 'increased') it sounds as though you are making a very basic mistake in English.
Your education, aptitude and credibility could be questioned.
Practice vowels & consonants
An additional challenge in English is that we have so many words that are identical except for the vowel.
Take this string of words for example: mat, met, mitt, mutt, mate, might and moot. Do they all sound different when you say them? They should!
Read the words in random order and have someone write down what they hear. Did they hear what you said? Create other lists of words like this to identify your problem sounds and practice, practice, practice!
Consonant sounds can be just as tricky. Be sure you differentiate between voiced and unvoiced sounds, for example, 'd' and 't.' The words 'said' and 'set' should sound different. You should be using your voice to make the 'd' sound, whereas the 't' sound only uses air.
You can create word pairs similar to the vowels above to practice these sounds and others like 'v' and 'f,' 'z' and 's,' 'b' and 'p,' and 'g' and 'k.'
Speak grammatically
For most, grammar lessons are thankfully a thing of the distance past. Although lessons usually weren't fun or interesting, there was a reason why we were drilled in English grammar.
Have you ever thought about what your grammar says about you?
Proper grammar signals a higher level of education, professionalism and, in many cases, success.
Breaking grammar rules can signal a lack of attention to detail, laziness and can be a general irritant and distraction for those who do observe grammar rules.
Not to mention the miscommunication that can happen in written correspondence like email. Think how much time is wasted clarifying the meaning of mails where the structure is so mangled that the message is lost.
If you feel like you never really learned grammar properly or think you might be making mistakes, but don't really understand why, seek out answers to your questions.
1. Ask a colleague whose language skills you admire to proof-read some of your written work. Ask them to be honest with you about your mistakes. If you're making the mistakes in your writing, you can assume that you are making the same mistakes (and then some) in your speech.
2. Have a grammar reference on hand at all times - right next to your English dictionary. Local book stores have plenty of references in the language and linguistics sections.
3. Enroll in a refresher course in English. The right teacher can make the subject interesting and enlightening. And speaking better English is definitely worth the investment! Your colleagues and clients will thank you!
Public Speaking Training- Six Key Elements to Look for In Any Public Speaking Training
Most people seem to think that good public speakers are born not made. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most good public speakers have undergone significant training in public speaking.
Even politicians - those great natural orators - have all undergone public speaking training. In the UK Margaret Thatcher was known to use speech coaches. In the US President Bush has consulted actors to help improve his speech delivery.
Whatever your level of public speaking you can improve with a little help from the professionals.
If you do a quick search on the internet for public speaking training you will get thousands of hits from sites promoting everything from self study e-books to 14 day residential courses. It is difficult to decide which is right for you.
Here are six things that you should look for when selecting the training or help that is right for you.
1. Principles of public speaking
Everyone has their own ideas of the basic principles of public speaking. As a minimum look for some mention of defining your goals, researching and deciding on your content, and understanding your audience and their needs.
2. Body language
Body language is at least as important as the actual words you use in your presentation. Some experts claim that the way in which your words are delivered - your posture, stance, gestures and animation - does more to convey your meaning than any words that you actually say.
Body language is a huge subject. A course on public speaking must cover the basic principles.
3. Use of words
Having said that body language is more important than the actual words it is a fact that without the words there is usually no message. Obviously, researching and creating the content of your speech are vitally important. How to create and craft your content are essential in any training.
4. Preparation
If there is one key to success in public speaking it is "preparation, preparation, preparation". How to prepare is pretty simple. Learning how to do it well and quickly is a key skill. Some topics to look out for include questions such as:
Should you write and use scripts? When should you use notes and how should you prepare them? Can you rely on your memory alone? Should you use audio visual aids?
5. Delivery
Most public speaking training concentrates on telling you how to deliver. And this is probably the right emphasis. Just make sure that the principles of public speaking have been well covered so you know just what your delivery has to achieve.
Most physical courses well video your performance for you to review and critique. It's a technique that has stood the test of time. If you put your faith in an e-course you should also look for mentor on whom you can practise your public speaking.
6. Conquering nerves
Show me someone who doesn't feel some degree of nervousness before speaking in public and I will show you someone who doesn't care about their performance. Nerves are natural and even help to improve our performance.
For many people there is little more stressful in life than the prospect of public speaking. I have known highly confident, articulate people be physically sick before speaking in public. Any course on public speaking is incomplete without some help and guidance on controlling or conquering nerves.
There are literally thousands of topics that could be covered in a course on public speaking. Depending on your own particular circumstances and needs the overall emphasis will change.
Ensure that the training you select covers these 6 fundamental pillars first. You will be surprised how much sub standard training it will help you filter out. You can then select the training that most closely matches your needs from those that remain.
Author: Keith Longmire
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/public-speaking-training-six-key-elements-to-look-for-in-any-public-speaking-training-24266.html
How You Can Overcome Your Fear Of Public Speaking
For some people, public speaking is an ordeal. Speaking in front of an internal team is bad enough and this gets even worse when they have to speak to an external audience. There is the great fear that some of these people know more than you.
Knowing more is not the only qualification that is being considered in public speaking. Being a speaker means being a subject matter specialist on the topic you are to discuss with your audience, and the ability to bring it across to the audience.
No matter how well-prepared you are, you will experience the "butterfly" thing in your stomach which can cause you to lose focus if left unmanaged. Unless you are cold dead, you will experience the nerves in you and feel the usual symptoms of delivering even the simplest pep talks.
You Are Not Alone
In two separate studies conducted regarding public speaking, it shows that more than 40% of the respondents have a fear of public speaking and do not consider doing it in their lives.
In another related study of fear, 70% of the respondents ranked public speaking as something they will most consider as a panic situation. Additionally, more than 80% of the surveyed population would consider dying instead of delivering an actual speech in front of a huge crowd.
No matter what the circumstances are, handling a speaking engagement requires skills, intellect and time management intertwined to produce the best results characteristic of experienced individuals.
Tips for a Perfect Speech
There are rules and there are rules on public speaking. While you may have your own fears, there are things that you can do to speak in front of a large audience like a pro and create that good and lasting impression.
Not only will that effective and convincing speech delivery make you popular among the larger audiences, it feels good as well on your part for it is something that you can consider as part of your accomplishments.
Some guidelines are provided below. These have proven effective for some people. Every individual is unique and not every rule will apply to every one. Try out each one. Pick out those that work for you and keep applying them. It will give you a good start in handling the fear of public speaking.
Your personality will be your auxiliary tool in choosing which among the recommendations listed below works best for you and will also provide you with the best oratorical output possible.
1. Fear is Human
To err is human, to forgive is divine, says the old cliche. While this old saying does not pertain specifically to public speaking, it gives an idea of human imperfection to everything else.
Although our technology has advanced a lot, our ability to commit mistakes is likely guaranteed. However, this same reason should not become a part of your excuse for unsuccessful delivery. Give yourself enough time to practice and master your piece!
2. Practice
For every successful oratorical activity, there are three things a speaker has to put in mind: first is practice, second, practice, and third practice again.
No one can underestimate the power of a constant yet effective speaking drill. This helps you memorize your lines and master them paving the way to creating adlibs as you go along the way.
3. Fill in the Bucket of Confidence
Confidence is what matters in any public speaking activity. Do not let the fear of a speaking presentation control you. Use these emotional and physical limitations to your own advantage and overpower performance anxiety to overcome the fear of public speaking.
4. Expect Nothing But Perfection
Nobody is perfect just as your audiences are not perfect. People fear speaking in front of a large crowd because they are afraid to fail. In a number of studies in psychology, the brain has an inherent ability to store any emotions, be it negative or positive, in the subconscious mind.
The subconscious mind as you know, operates on a non-conscious level of brain activity. It functions without you knowing and creates activities that do not come from your normal willing.
If you convince yourself into believing that you can achieve perfection in your target activity, there is a greater possibility of achieving it. Your mind prepares your body for such an activity and operates as if it has done it before and you will not feel as though you are new to it.
Imagine that you are getting a standing ovation after your speech. This helps greatly in overcoming the fear of public speaking as it feeds your subconscious mind. Imagining making the speech is not a good idea as you might see yourself making mistakes and this gets into the subconscious as well and may increase the fear of public speaking. Instead, just focus on a successful outcome and how excited and happy you are personally and how the audience is very appreciative of the content value that you provided.
5. Act as If No One is Watching
We sometimes fail because we set standards that are way too high for us to achieve. This limits us from achieving the level of success that we are capable of reaching and hinders us for further accomplishments in the task.
Your audience would definitely not want to see you trembling and communicate the sense of nervousness in yourself so you better hide it as much as possible. Do not make a big deal out of your own errors but instead move ahead and keep a positive outlook that everything will turn out just fine.
There is only one way to overcome the fear of public speaking. Do it and learn from the experiences.
Knowing more is not the only qualification that is being considered in public speaking. Being a speaker means being a subject matter specialist on the topic you are to discuss with your audience, and the ability to bring it across to the audience.
No matter how well-prepared you are, you will experience the "butterfly" thing in your stomach which can cause you to lose focus if left unmanaged. Unless you are cold dead, you will experience the nerves in you and feel the usual symptoms of delivering even the simplest pep talks.
You Are Not Alone
In two separate studies conducted regarding public speaking, it shows that more than 40% of the respondents have a fear of public speaking and do not consider doing it in their lives.
In another related study of fear, 70% of the respondents ranked public speaking as something they will most consider as a panic situation. Additionally, more than 80% of the surveyed population would consider dying instead of delivering an actual speech in front of a huge crowd.
No matter what the circumstances are, handling a speaking engagement requires skills, intellect and time management intertwined to produce the best results characteristic of experienced individuals.
Tips for a Perfect Speech
There are rules and there are rules on public speaking. While you may have your own fears, there are things that you can do to speak in front of a large audience like a pro and create that good and lasting impression.
Not only will that effective and convincing speech delivery make you popular among the larger audiences, it feels good as well on your part for it is something that you can consider as part of your accomplishments.
Some guidelines are provided below. These have proven effective for some people. Every individual is unique and not every rule will apply to every one. Try out each one. Pick out those that work for you and keep applying them. It will give you a good start in handling the fear of public speaking.
Your personality will be your auxiliary tool in choosing which among the recommendations listed below works best for you and will also provide you with the best oratorical output possible.
1. Fear is Human
To err is human, to forgive is divine, says the old cliche. While this old saying does not pertain specifically to public speaking, it gives an idea of human imperfection to everything else.
Although our technology has advanced a lot, our ability to commit mistakes is likely guaranteed. However, this same reason should not become a part of your excuse for unsuccessful delivery. Give yourself enough time to practice and master your piece!
2. Practice
For every successful oratorical activity, there are three things a speaker has to put in mind: first is practice, second, practice, and third practice again.
No one can underestimate the power of a constant yet effective speaking drill. This helps you memorize your lines and master them paving the way to creating adlibs as you go along the way.
3. Fill in the Bucket of Confidence
Confidence is what matters in any public speaking activity. Do not let the fear of a speaking presentation control you. Use these emotional and physical limitations to your own advantage and overpower performance anxiety to overcome the fear of public speaking.
4. Expect Nothing But Perfection
Nobody is perfect just as your audiences are not perfect. People fear speaking in front of a large crowd because they are afraid to fail. In a number of studies in psychology, the brain has an inherent ability to store any emotions, be it negative or positive, in the subconscious mind.
The subconscious mind as you know, operates on a non-conscious level of brain activity. It functions without you knowing and creates activities that do not come from your normal willing.
If you convince yourself into believing that you can achieve perfection in your target activity, there is a greater possibility of achieving it. Your mind prepares your body for such an activity and operates as if it has done it before and you will not feel as though you are new to it.
Imagine that you are getting a standing ovation after your speech. This helps greatly in overcoming the fear of public speaking as it feeds your subconscious mind. Imagining making the speech is not a good idea as you might see yourself making mistakes and this gets into the subconscious as well and may increase the fear of public speaking. Instead, just focus on a successful outcome and how excited and happy you are personally and how the audience is very appreciative of the content value that you provided.
5. Act as If No One is Watching
We sometimes fail because we set standards that are way too high for us to achieve. This limits us from achieving the level of success that we are capable of reaching and hinders us for further accomplishments in the task.
Your audience would definitely not want to see you trembling and communicate the sense of nervousness in yourself so you better hide it as much as possible. Do not make a big deal out of your own errors but instead move ahead and keep a positive outlook that everything will turn out just fine.
There is only one way to overcome the fear of public speaking. Do it and learn from the experiences.
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