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More and more in today’s writing one sees what is known as bureaucratese, the use of obscure and pedantic vocabulary. It can be found in government, corporation, and academic reports where it appears to be to impress rather than to inform. Pick up any government report, corporation memo, or academic thesis and one will find this kind of writing.

It would appear that this kind of writing is meant more to confuse, to befuddle, and to avoid clear, concise, and precise writing. Often known as ‘gobbledygook’, it rarely does little to clarify, to illuminate, and to elucidate the writer’s thoughts.
Perhaps it is not meant to.

If a writer wants to tap into the greatest readership, one must stick to the simplest word, the uncomplicated sentence, the plain paragraph, and shortest composition to get the idea, the point, or the action across. Writing for the Internet has made this design more prevalent than ever before because it is for the masses, the common reader so it must be exact, specific, and clear; readers today do not have time to decipher bureaucratese.

As always, good writing is simple and clear; if a simple word can replace an obscure word it should be used; if a simple sentence can substitute for a compound-complex sentence, then it should; if a simple paragraph can supplant a convoluted one, then it must. Wordiness and long-winded sentences and paragraphs should be avoided.

The old adage “Keep it simple, stupid” should apply to all writing.

Charles O. Goulet has a BA in history and a BEd in English literature so he writes historical novels, most based on Canadian history.
He may be contacted at:

E-mail: go1c@telusplanet.net

Website: http://www.telusplanet.net/public/go1c

Blog: http://go1c.blogspot.com

Short Story Writing Tips:

Your title is your selling tool. It’s the first thing readers will scan and contemplate whether to read your story.

What your title’s job is, it has to lure the readers into your story - it has to be so compelling that they won’t even have a chance to ask themselves, ‘Will this story interest me?’

Their eyes will glide over the title and into the story before they realize it. The action will be instant.

What’s a compelling title? It’s one that instantly grabs our attention because it’s…

• Intriguing
• Interesting
• Catchy
• Provocative
• Amusing

Your title may not be all these things but it will have to be at least one. There should be something about it that grabs your readers.

So how do you write compelling titles?

Start by learning from the masters.

Learn from those whose articles and stories are published in newspapers, magazines and, in particular, pay close attention how the writers of Readers Digest go about it. They have been luring readers into their written material for years. They know their stuff.

Here are a few examples of titles taken from Readers Digest….

• Did I really need to know that?
• Who is Jack Kevorkian, Really?
• Against the flames
• Who Killed Margaret Wilson?

Do you have any newspapers or magazines handy, or even better, a Readers Digest magazine? If you do, note down a few titles, then analyze why those particular titles grabbed you.

If you don’t have any magazines handy, take a look at: www.amazon.com (in the books section.) See what titles are listed there. Or look at your bookshelf.

Compare them to your title.

Is your title compelling?

If you find that it could be better, here’s an effective way that will ensure you find the best title for your story…

Read through your story and on a piece of paper jot down sentences and/or words that appealed to you as you read. Jot down as many as you come across - Don’t worry about editing them for now. Just note down all that grabbed you.

Then look at your characters. Is there something special about them, a word you could use in a title that will grab readers’ attention?

Now with the list you have gathered, think about what you are saying in your story. Start crossing out the words and sentences that aren’t directly relevant to it.

Select a few words and look through a thesaurus for a nicer sounding synonym.

Choose the most appropriate group of words for the title.

Remember… your title has to be one or a combination of the below…

• Intriguing
• Interesting
• Catchy
• Provocative
• Amusing

Besides his passion for writing, Nick Vernon runs an online gift site where you will find gift information, articles and readers’ funny stories. Visit http://www.we-recommend.com

1. Write to one person.

When you’re writing your article picture one person that you are writing to. This will make your writing more personable and help you to keep your readers interested in your article.

2. Use lots of white space within your article.

Using lots of white space will help you to make your article look more professional and keep more of the skim readers interested in your article.

If you have paragraphs that are too long, try to break them up into two or three paragraphs so that your article will be easier to read.

3. Double check your articles for errors.

Make sure that you haven’t misspelled any words, skipped words, or used a homonym such as “their” when you meant “there.”

Remember, that spell checking only catches spelling mistakes so you’ll need to go over your articles even after using your spell checker to find words used incorrectly and also to find words that were used twice in a row or omitted.

4. Pay attention to feedback you get for your articles.

Getting or seeking constructive feedback about your articles can help you to write better, get back on track with your writing if you’re in a slump, and also develop new things to write about.

Even negative feedback or criticisms can help you if it shows you things you can work on. Just don’t take everything to heart.

5. Improve your writing skills by trying different things.

When you first start writing your own articles, especially if you’re new to writing, you might feel that you can only write list articles like this one.

Nonetheless try your hand at other types of articles that you would like to write such as how to articles or straw man articles.

Also try writing on different subjects that you haven’t written about before.

6. Keep a file of articles you’ve written that you left unfinished or didn’t feel were ready to be published.

Also keep parts (i.e., tips, paragraphs, etc.), that you’ve edited out of your finished articles in this file.

You might be able to rewrite your unfinished articles later on, get new ideas to write about, or get a new tip or two for your list articles from this file.

7. If you run an affiliate program, let your affiliates publish your articles with their affiliate URLs in your resource box.

You’ll be able to effectively increase your sales by giving your affiliates an easy way to successfully promote your business to their visitors or subscribers.

8. Create an ebook compilation of your articles.

You could use your ebook as a bonus for subscribing to your ezine or you could let your affiliates brand your ebook with their affiliate URLs.

If you don’t run an affiliate program, you could let people brand your ebook with a link to their site or business to get more people to offer your ebook to their visitors or subscribers.

9. Participate in article swaps.

Your swaps will help you to get your articles run in ezines that have subscribers interested in your business.

Your article swaps can also help you to gain more reciprocal links and add more useful content to your site if you swap articles where you publish another writer’s article on your site in exchange for the same.

10. Create a list that people can subscribe to that announces when you’ve written a new article or articles.

Your list will keep people up to date on new articles they can publish in their ezines or post on their web sites.

If you let your affiliates use your articles to earn commissions, you can also use your list to attract more new affiliates and to keep your existing affiliates up to date on new articles they can use to promote your business.

Article by writer Ken Hill. For more articles by Ken Hill and to submit your own articles to Ken’s article directory visit: http://www.netpromarketer.com.

Do you suffer from writer’s block? Is there a pending project you are putting off because you lack the inspiration to even get it started? You certainly are not alone. At various times you will go through extended periods of energetic writing as well as lengthy dry spells. Here are some tips you may want to consider to help you keep those slow times to a minimum.

Idea Mining If you do not have a specific topic in mind, start brainstorming to come up with a variety of topics. I get plenty of my ideas when I take a thirty minute brisk walk through my neighborhood. Watching rabbits eating clover, observing colorful roses, and listening to the sweet conversation of cardinals puts me at ease. When I am relaxed, I can think much more clearly. It sure beats sitting in front of my computer fretting about my work! Find something that brings out the inspiration in you.

Get Interested Writing on a topic that interests you is much easier to do than when you must write about a topic that you either: a) do not find interesting, or b) you are not particularly knowledgeable about. You can raise your interest by researching the topic. Read other online articles, go to the library and read a chapter or two in a related book, or contact someone familiar with the subject at hand [an enthusiatic expert is best]. After a certain amount of research your curiosity should be piqued which will help fuel your interest in the topic.

Make an Outline Write a topic sentence and then “bullet” three or four key points that you want to make. Expand each point into one paragraph each; collectively these points will comprise the body of your article. A brief conclusion [summation] tying all the points together at the end of the article will bring things “to a wrap.”

Sit on it No, I am not being obscene. Rather, once you have written your article put it aside for a day or two and then come back to it. A fresh perspective has a way in helping you craft a better article. More than likely you will catch grammatical errors, locate incomplete or unclear thoughts, or find errors in punctuation by stepping back for a period of time.

You can overcome writer’s block by following the above steps. If you find yourself hindered by the “paralysis of analysis” when it comes to selecting a winning topic, then you must step away, regroup, and come back only when sufficiently inspired. Writing with clear purpose and enthusiasm will happen once you put your writer’s block beyond you.

(c)2005; Matthew C. Keegan, LLC

Matt Keegan is The Article Writer, writing for web content, ezines, magazines, newsletters, and more. To preview some of his work, please visit his website: http://thearticlewriter.com

I thought it couldn’t be done. Write a piece with another author? Someone who has a distinctly different voice than mine? No way! We’d clash. We’d argue. Neither of us would be satisfied, and the end result would be disastrous, a muddied representation of watered down prose.

I based this prejudice on the experiences I’ve had at a standards drafting conference. Standards need to be written clearly and concisely. Right?

Wrong!

These tomes are lengthy, comprehensive, and full of language that doesn’t soothe the soul of any beast, let alone a regular Joe or Jill. Peppered with acronyms and obtuse phraseology, they are tough to read at best. I’ve sat through a number of meetings for my “day job” where committees of fifty men and women tried to edit via projected spreadsheets and documents. It can be torture!

Frequently, six or seven well-intentioned members will grandstand. Sometimes for HOURS. And all for the want of “le mot juste.” Usually, however, it’s never for the “right” word, it’s more for “me too-ism.” I become tempted to lay my head down on the desk and let it all wash over me in a flurry of agony. But I don’t. I pay attention and try to contribute, like a good doobie. Finally, when the eight hours have passed, I return to my hotel room and delight in writing another chapter in the LeGarde Mystery Series, thrilled to be alone to compose to my heart’s content, without other wannabe writers messing around with my prose.

So, when a friend of mine asked for help with her query letter, I thought, “Sure!” But I didn’t expect it would be done “live.” I thought we’d edit and attach recommendations via email, like we normally do. This time, however, she suggested that we actually get together to do this, on one computer, face-to-face. My instincts roared up into a tsunami. No way! I thought. I had massive doubts and began to type up something on my own.

She arrived shortly thereafter, with her own query written in advance. Aha! I thought. She has the same reservations about this dubious process.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with a query letter, it’s basically a one-page pitch that writers send to potential publishers or agents. It needs to have a short paragraph that regales your book in such an eloquent, witty style that the publisher has no choice but to immediately snap you up with a hefty advance! It’s impossible to do, especially if you are writing about your own book. I know. I’ve tried. For days. For weeks. Although my current publisher is competent and has been decent to me, I’m currently trying to hook a big time player who’s in the mass media stream. Finally, a fellow writer helped me with my own query and I wound up with a gorgeous paragraph, neatly crafted, that I didn’t write. Oh well.

My friend arrived. We sat down at my computer and began. After a few false starts, we began to meld our paragraphs, taking the phrases we favored from each other’s drafts. It started to work! What resulted was a “brainstorming-for-two” session. In the past, my experiences with brainstorming have been confined to engineering team activities involving problem solving or research and design. What normally happened in this environment was that “no thoughts were judged.” Ideas were floated up, bandied about, and recorded. One idea built on another. And another. Sometimes, if the team was lucky, some supremely unusual and fantastic combination of ideas resulted in innovation.

And so, my friend and I brainstormed. I typed up silly phrases that danced around the topics. She tossed out words and phrases. We built on the words, wending our way toward those jump-off-the-page, dynamic sentences. Together, we isolated the choicest phrases. It sang! It was lyrical! It was the best darned one paragraph synopsis I’d ever read!

My misgivings were all for naught. My instincts were flawed. It can work! Tag team writing can be successful. At least in this venue.

So, once again, the Lord keeps me humble. Oh yeah… and so do all those rejection letters!

Aaron Paul Lazar lives in Upstate New York with his wife, three daughters, two grandsons, mother-in- law, dogs, and four cats. After writing in the early morning hours, he works as an electrophotographic engineer at NexPress Solutions in Rochester, New York. Additional passions include gardening, preparing large family feasts, photography, cross-country skiing, playing a distinctly amateur level of piano, and spending “time” with the French Impressionists whenever possible.

Although he adored raising his three delightful daughters, Mr. Lazar finds grandfathering his “two little buddies” to be one of the finest experiences of his life.

Double Forte’, the first in the LeGarde series, was published in January 2005. Upstaged, number two, is now available for purchase. Mazurka, number three, is ready to go to press. With eight books under his belt, Mr. Lazar is currently working on the ninth book in the series.

More info can be found at: http://www.legardemysteries.com or contact the author at: gusandcamille@yahoo.com

Most public speaking books will tell you to be a polished speaker you have to tie all your information together so it flows smoothly. You must lead your audience and alert them that slightly different, but related information is coming. This is called transition or segue (pronounced seg-way).

LET ME STATE RIGHT NOW THAT I FULLY BELIEVE SMOOTH TRANSITIONS ARE A NECESSITY IF YOU WANT TO HAVE YOUR AUDIENCE MEMBERS SO BORED THEY FALL RIGHT OUT OF THEIR SEATS AND SMASH THEIR HEADS ON THE FLOOR.

Come with me to the amusement park. Look around a little bit and tell me where the excitement is. Of course, it’s over on the roller coaster where transitions are sharp. They are sharp and exciting even though you can see them coming. The excitement isn’t over at the kiddie choo choo train (notwithstanding, the excitement you might feel watching your little munchkin on there for the very first time) where turns and motion are mild so the little ones don’t get too upset. The excitement is also at the bumper cars where you can get blind-sided because cars are coming at you from all directions. The excitement isn’t at the baby boat ride where a 2cm wave would flip your little bundle of joy out of the boat.

OK. when speaking in public I’ll admit, some thought should be given to transition, especially with older, more traditional audiences, and when you have a very high content presentation. But you don’t have to be a trite, snoozer by saying things like, . . . speaking of bananas. I’m now going to talk about bananas. You could, however, do a segue like that and then make fun of yourself for doing it by saying something like, Don’t you think that transition was really smooth? Transitions are one of the places where you could plan to use some humor. This works well with technical audiences because they won’t feel you are wasting their time. Since, in their minds, you are REQUIRED to do a transition anyway, it’s OK if it’s funny.

Segues aren’t important at all for 85 percent or higher humor content presenters or stand-up comics. You can just speak away and as long as they are laughing, no one much cares about transitions. If you are not in this category, then you can begin paying a little attention to bridging the gaps between your points and topics. Just don’t be trite and don’t think you have to say something to make the transition.

You can make transitions by changing stage position, pausing, using visual aids, giving out a handout, picking up a prop or sharply varying the sound you make come out of the public address system. Do anything that breaks the pattern of what you were doing in the previous segment and introduces what you plan to do.

For verbal transitions, one-liners, anecdotes, and questions work well. Also, people seem to like and need recaps, so I am in favor of saying things like, To recap this section . . .

When speaking in public, whatever you do, think in terms of roller coasters and bumper cars so you keep your audience excited and alert all the time.

Copyright © 1998 - 2005 Advanced Public Speaking Institute

Tom Antion provides entertaining speeches and educational seminars. He is the ultimate entrepreneur, having owned many businesses BEFORE graduating college. Tom is the author of the best selling presentation skills book “Wake ‘em Up Business Presentations” and “Click: The Ultimate Guide to Electronic Marketing.” It is important to Tom that his knowledge be not only absorbed, but enjoyed. This is why he delivers his speeches laced with great humor and hysterical jokes. Tom has addressed more than 87 different industries and is thoroughly committed to his clients’ needs. http://www.antion.com

Advanced Public Speaking Institute
3105 Sergin Ct.
Virginia Beach, VA 23452
(757) 431-1366
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Contact: cmckinney@public-speaking.org
http://www.GreatPublicSpeaking.com

Visit our Blog at http://www.GreatPublicSpeaking.BlogSpot.com

If you have a website, sooner or later you’ll get interested in
search engine optimisation. It’s the art (or is it a science?)
of tweaking your website copy and links, so your site ranks
higher in the search engines.

There are many professional search engine optimisation firms
(commonly known as SEOs) who will charge you substantial amounts
of money to improve your website’s rankings for certain search
terms.

It’s tempting to go down the SEO track, particularly when you
find your precious site languishing far, far down the rankings
on Google.

But one of the world’s top Web marketing experts, Ken Evoy, has
written a new report predicting the imminent demise of the SEO
industry - and recommending an alternative, more reliable method
of achieving a top search engine ranking.

Evoy argues search engines are getting smarter and smarter at
recognising sites that have been “SEO’d”.

The engines are constantly getting more sophisticated, to avoid
some of the unethical SEO practices being used to trick them
into giving a site a good ranking.

So SEO experts are on a continual treadmill to keep up.

Initially, SEO revolved mainly around keywords. Now, it seems to
centre around building inbound links to the site, to get a
higher ‘page rank’ on Google.

But Evoy believes website owners are wasting their time and
money by becoming too focused on either of these SEO techniques.

They would be better off, he argues, simply adding more and more
quality content to their websites, to provide visitors with what
they really want on the Web - information.

To quote Evoy: “Make your content so good that others will want
to link to you.”

He adds, a little honest push-start by a solid, simple inbound
link programme is a good idea but this doesn’t have to become an
all-consuming pre-occupation.

All you need are a few popular sites, in your market sector,
linking to you. There are several ways to achieve this,
including contacting the owners of sites you would like linking
to you, and asking if they want to exchange links.

Evoy’s company, Sitesell.com, has an excellent, free link
exchange service, which I have found very satisfactory for
gaining links to my own sites.

Once you have a few quality links to your site, that’s enough,
according to Evoy. From then on, concentrate on adding more and
more content to your site.

There is an important place for keywords on these new content
pages. It helps to focus each page on one or two keywords
(actually, it’s better to use key phrases, because these are
what Web searchers typically use) sprinkle these keywords and
phrases throughout your page.

You can find the best keywords by using a service called
Wordtracker. This is particularly useful because it saves you
from simply guessing which words and phrases people are
searching on, and gives you the actual search terms being used -
and how much competition there is for these terms.

I won’t go too much into keyword analysis here. Suffice it to
say, if you follow Evoy’s advice, you’ll focus mainly on writing
content-filled pages that are of genuine value to your
prospective customers or clients.

As the search engines see the content on your site continually
changing, they’ll return more often. They’ll spider new content
on your pages faster and faster. This is good news and helps
your search engine rankings.

The only downside of Evoy’s approach is that it does take time
and commitment to keep adding content to your website. It may
seem easier to pay an SEO expert.

But consider this. Even if you do achieve a good ranking in the
search engines through SEO, if a visitor arrives and finds
mediocre content, what’s the use. They’ll simply click away. For
most small businesses, with limited financial resources, the key
to getting your website noticed in the search engines is a slow,
steady approach of adding more and more pages with great,
relevant content for your marketplace.

Then you can forget about SEO and every other trick.

Focus on building content and everything else will take care of
itself.