Daily writing tips

Fight the Good Fight Against Creeping Errors - DailyWritingTips

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Fight the Good Fight Against Creeping Errors Posted: 02 Sep 2013 09:56 PM PDT Editing, the skill set practiced by the other half of my writer/editor dual personality, is a pleasurable pursuit for me. It enables me to practice problem solving, help people express themselves, and improve my own writing. But as I peruse some of the prose I examine professionally — more than a million words each year — I repeatedly come across banal but annoying errors that baffle me. There are corollaries of these mistakes in every profession, and in the personal compartments of one’s life. They’re the editorial equivalent of finding that the toilet seat has been left up. (I’m sure you can think of cognates in your experience.) These are among those indefensible editorial errors that seem to perpetuate themselves like a virus, inconsequential in isolation but aggravating in the aggregate. One irritating error I find often is the intrusive framing of a name in commas when it is an appositive of a preceding description of the person named, as in “The exhibition showcases the work of photographer, Mathew Brady, who produced many iconic images from the Civil War era.” This mistake is rarely replicated in well-edited publications. Unfortunately, many people are corrupted by its ubiquitous appearance in not-so-well-edited publications, and it is thus passed on to infect others. (This error is no doubt influenced by a superficially similar — and correct — construction: “The exhibition showcases the work of the photographer, Mathew Brady, who produced many iconic images from the Civil War era.” This is correct form only if the photographer has already been referred to as such in a previous sentence without being named. Also, some publications precede an epithet describing a prominent person with the — as in “The exhibition showcases the work of the photographer Mathew Brady, who produced many iconic images from the Civil War era” — though the insertion is an unnecessary affection — but notice that the name is not set off by a pair of commas.) Many other examples of such evergreen errors exist, including words misspelled (definately in place of definitely), imperfectly rendered because they’re imperfectly heard (supposably substituting for supposedly), unnecessarily augmented (irregardless, whenregardless is sufficient), or faultily combined (alot instead of “a lot”). The persistent prevalence of these mutations is baffling, considering that the correct forms are found in any self-respecting publication. But the answer must lie in the explosion of email and texting, the proliferation of blogs and websites with less-than-rigorous editing, and the erosion of editorial quality in traditional print publications. The only defense against deterioration of grammar, syntax, usage, spelling, and punctuation standards is careful writing and careful editing with the assistance of good role models, knowledgeable editors, and reliable reference sources. Like the DailyWritingTips Facebook page if you haven't already done so!

The Role of a writing coach

The Role of a Writing Coach - DailyWritingTips

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The Role of a Writing Coach Posted: 30 Aug 2013 09:48 PM PDT Do you have a desire to write, but perhaps you find yourself frustrated by an inability to develop or organize your writing, or perhaps you’re getting bogged down in the process? Maybe a writing coach can help you. This post discusses what a writing coach can do for you. What is a writing coach? He or she does not necessarily edit your work, though the writing coach may also be an editor (and/or a writer) by trade. He or she is not a ghostwriter. A writing coach is a guide, and in most other endeavors, the best point in a journey to hire a guide is at or near the beginning, although you’re likely to benefit from a writing coach’s assistance starting at any stage of the writing process. The relationship between a writing coach and a writer generally begins with a face-to-face or phone interview in which the writing coach asks the writer about the project, what the writer hopes to accomplish with it, and what’s holding the writer back. A writing coach then helps the writer organize his or her project, determine a schedule, and select a completion date as a goal. The writing coach discusses the stages of a writing project, including an initial outline, preliminary research, a revised outline, more extensive research (and, if necessary, interviews), another revised outline, and various drafts, followed by the editorial process (developmental or substantive editing, copyediting, and proofreading). A writing coach helps the writer develop a clear and compelling premise or plot, determine a tone, style, and voice based on the intended audience, and produce a coherent, captivating narrative, whether fiction or nonfiction. A writing coach can help a professional share expertise, a business owner sell a product, an academic report on research, or a student complete an application or course essay. He or she will benefit poets, short story writers, and novelists, as well as authors of nonfiction works, including articles, reports, and book manuscripts. A writing coach helps elicit the writer’s experience and expertise, guides the writer to develop a creative, productive spatial and temporal environment, and trains the writer to craft effective prose. He or she helps the writer find the heart of the content, what works and what needs work, how to carry out research and conduct interviews, and how to frame and organize the material (and what to include and what to leave out). A writing coach helps the writer focus, provides an objective perspective, and guides and encourages. A writing coach is like a personal trainer for a writer. A writing coach is a mentor. Writing coaches are likely to charge writers more per hour for their services, but their role is ultimately less costly than that of a developmental editor or copy editor, or even a proofreader. A writer may consult with a writing coach for only a few hours in all, but even if this stage in the writing process takes longer, it is probably well worth the expense — you’re virtually guaranteed to benefit from the relationship, and to get that much closer to completion of the project and eventual publication. Like the DailyWritingTips Facebook page if you haven't already done so!

Daily writing TIPS source

How to Present Your Content - DailyWritingTips

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How to Present Your Content

Posted: 01 Sep 2013 09:52 PM PDT

During a drive yesterday, I noticed again two ways that, in casual contexts, people are careless about their communication. For the first time, however, I realized that unfortunately, there’s a close analogy between the way many amateur writers present information and the way some well-meaning professionals (or other serious writers) do it.
First, I noticed handwritten signs posted along roadsides: advertisements for yard sales and the like. You’ve likely noticed too how poorly many of these signs are executed: The sign maker begins to scrawl some information and runs out of space, compressing a phone number or other key information so that it is barely legible.
Or perhaps the penmanship is poor, and the details are illegible. Or perhaps the print is too small or too wordy (or both) to be read by someone driving by at thirty or forty or fifty miles an hour — or, worse, the message is styled in cursive writing. Occasionally, a sign exhibits a combination of some or all of these problems.
Second, I passed between two small groups of people wielding signs at the crossroads of a small town. There were about a dozen protestors altogether, and though I had slowed to twenty miles per hour to negotiate the narrow road, I couldn’t focus on more than a couple of words on two or three signs before I had passed them.
My passenger, who was at more leisure to read the messages, learned little more than I had: The people were on strike, but where they were employed and what they were striking for remained a mystery even though each of us had a few seconds to scan the signs, because, again, the print was sloppily written or too small or both, and the message was too wordy for motorists to take in during the brief opportunity.
Unfortunately, handwritten signs aren’t the only form of communication in which communication fails because of poor planning and execution. We’ve all seen professionally prepared billboards with print too small to read, newspaper and magazine advertisements dense with tightly packed wording, and websites and blogs with poor design.
The takeaway is the same, whether you’re selling knickknacks at a garage sale or widgets on a website: Don’t make your readers work hard to acquire your message. Produce the content carefully:

1. Think about how readers will engage with the content — at work, at home, on public transportation, in a passing vehicle? — and design it accordingly.
2. Plan your approach, trying several layouts and deciding which one works best for the purpose.
3. Prioritize the information: What do you want readers to see first, second, third, and so on?
4. Write the message, adapting the tone and the appearance to the readers’ circumstances and, if space is limited, trimming the content to the essentials.
5. Ask for critiques, and return to the product later with a fresh set of eyes, then revise according to others’ suggestions and your own realizations