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http://www.harriethodgson.com
http://www.healthwriter.blogspot.com
Harriet Hodgson has been a freelance nonfiction writer for 28 years. She is a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists and the Association for Death Eduation and Counseling. Her 24th book, ‘Smiling Through Your Tears: Anticipating Grief,’ written with Lois Krahn, MD, is available from http://www.amazon.com. A five-star review of the book is posted on Amazon. You will find another review on the American Hospice Foundation website under the ‘School Corner’ heading.
February 3, 2008
[From our deconstruction of hundreds of Hollywood blockbusters and sitcoms (see below for the URL of our Home Page) and our isolation and identification of more than 188 stages of the Hero’s Journey that you need to know about…]
The Hero’s Journey is the template upon which the vast majority of successful stories and Hollywood blockbusters are based upon. In fact, ALL of the Hollywood movies we have deconstructed are based on this template.
Understanding this template is a priority for story or screenwriters.
The Hero’s Journey:
a) Attempts to tap into unconscious expectations the audience has regarding what a story is and how it should be told.
b) Gives the writer more structural elements than simply three or four acts, plot points, mid point and so on.
c) Gives you a tangible process for building and releasing dissonance (establishing and achieving catharsis).
d) Gives you a universal structural template upon which you can superimpose your situational story.
and more…
The Antagonist isn’t a Bad Guy
The antagonist isn’t necessarily a bad guy.
Whether he is or isn’t, is actually irrelevant. The point is that the Hero undergoes same process of resolution whether the
antagonist is Darth Vader or Bill Murray in Lost in Translation (2003).
This includes:
A defeated Antagonist. In Spiderman (2004), the Green Goblin is on his knees.
Redemption. The Hero often gives the Antagonist a chance to redeem himself.
The Antagonist’s True Nature. In Return of the Jedi (1983), Vader takes off his mask.
and more…
Learn more?
WRITE THAT SCREENPLAY!
The Complete 188 stage Hero?s Journey and other story structure templates can be found at http://www.clickok.co.uk/
Managing Creativity and Innovation and related techniques and tools can be found at http://www.managing-creativity.com/
You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.
Kal Bishop, MBA
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You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made, the author’s name is retained and the link to our site
URL remains active.
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For 188+ stages of the Hero’s Journey, successful story deconstructions and the Advanced Screenwriting Worksheets goto http://clickok.co.uk/
January 23, 2008
Are you a writer? Maybe you’re not a writer, but part of your job requires you to write… something, anything, web copy, correspondence, emails, newsletters… maybe you are not a writer but use article writing as a marketing and promotional tool… any way it goes, if you write anything as part of your job, the time may come when you find yourself sitting in front of the computer screen, hands poised over the keys, the thoughts all in your mind, but the words just won’t flow from your brain through your fingers to actually come out the other side of the screen.
Now what?
I am a writer. I’m also an editor. For me, it’s a bit easier, because I do both for a living, and unless I’m up against a writing deadline, I can simply put the writing aside and move over to an editing project and take my mind off of the writing. Truth is, writer’s block isn’t much of an issue for me anymore. If the idea is in my head, I can usually write about it, but even I have my moments when the idea just won’t flow.
Since I administer a writer’s forum on the internet, I have had the chance to talk to many writers and have discovered that writer’s block is often the single most irritating problem among writers of any caliber. So I decided to do some research and put together this list for people who write on 10 effective ways to combat writer’s block:
1. Walk away from the keyboard. I know you may think that this is counter productive, but it can often work wonders. You see, the brain never stops processing information. Even when you are not actively thinking about something, your brain continues to work on the problem. Walk away from the keyboard and take a short break, grab yourself a cup of coffee or a soda, take a bathroom break, or do some other activity that doesn’t require you to think about your writing for several minutes. Often times, you’ll find that when you come back and sit down to write again, your brain has solved your writer’s block on its own.
2. When taking a break doesn’t work, and if you have the time, put the writing aside and work on something else you need to finish that is not writing related. This works about the same as the suggestion above, but takes it a bit further by actually redirecting your thoughts to another activity. Later, you can come back to your writing and see if the thoughts flow a bit better.
3. Read something. If you need to write about something in particular, read something that pertains to what you want to write about. Reading what other have said might inspire some spark in you and get the creative juices flowing again.
4. Write something. Okay, so you’re asking, "I have writer’s block and you’re telling to write something?" Sure. I mean, you don’t have to write the piece that you are stuck, but write something. Jot down some personal notes, write anything that comes to your mind. If you do poetry, write a poem. If you blog, go write in your blog. If you subscribe to newsgroups, go post something. Answer some emails you’ve been putting off. What may be getting you stuck isn’t the writing itself, but perhaps you are stuck on that one piece. If you can get yourself into the writing mode by writing something else, anything else, you might find that the writing will flow again when you go back to the piece on which you were stuck.
5. Make an outline. I’m not big on outlining stories or articles, myself, but sometimes when I get stuck and don’t know where to go or how to start, making a brief outline of what I want to say, and then moving things on the outline around into some sort of order can help the writing flow by giving it a direction.
6. Now, number 6 and number 7 are going to seem to contradict each other, but if you read them, you’ll see why I have included them both. Write when you are well rested! Get a good night’s sleep, wake up refreshed, and come to the writing again rested and prepared to write. Sometimes, we can be so tired, or have so many things going through our minds that writing is the last thing we want to do. Now, this doesn’t work for everyone, especially people who get stuck inside their heads, so if this doesn’t work for you, try number 7.
7. Write when you are tired. Write at the end of the day, when you are so exhausted that your mind isn’t interfering with the flow. Don’t worry about what you have written, or if there are typos or editing errors. You can come back and fix the errors later, when you are more refreshed. The point of breaking writer’s block isn’t to get you to write perfectly - it’s to get you to write at all! Let it just flow from you naturally, and then come back in the morning or the next day when you are rested and then you can make it perfect.
8. Talk to someone about your writing. Call a friend or family member, chat with someone from one of your writer’s groups. Tell them you are writing something but have become stuck and you need some inspiration, and then, let them inspire you!
9. Do some research. This falls into the same line as reading about your topic, but takes it a step further. Call some friends, ask them questions about your topic. Post some questions in your blog, get some feedback. When you are confident you know a lot about your topic, writing becomes so much easier. Fill your mind with so much information about your selected topic that you are just bursting from too much information and you just HAVE to write about it.
10. Lastly, write about having writer’s block. Seriously! Write about why you feel stuck. What is it that seems to be keeping you from writing? Free associate and write about it. When you get down to the reasons why you have writer’s block, you can address them and correct them.
Writing is like any other hobby or profession. You may love your job, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have mornings you wake up and say, "Ugh, I don’t want to go to work today!" There will be days, no matter how much you love to write, that you just don’t feel like writing. That’s okay, write anyway!
Good luck, and keep writing!
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Michelle L Devon is a freelance writer and editor, providing literary services through her company, Accentuate Services. For more information or to receive a free scope of work on Ms. Devon’s professional editing services, you can visit her website at http://www.accentuateservices.com You can also view her official author’s site at http://www.MichelleLDevon.com
January 21, 2008
Everywhere I look, everyone is an expert. And I know that some people are experts but I am also certain that if put to the test, it would become apparent that many so-called experts aren?t what they claim to be.
Just being arrogant and knowing a bit about a topic doesn?t make a person an expert no matter how hard he or she tries. He or she might have an opinion on something or feel it should be done a certain way but that does not mean that person an expert. Anyone can have an opinion. Those with strong opinions that like to inflict it on others like to come across as if they know what they are talking about but they don?t always. I have found that many times the ones that are most vocal, pushy and insulting are the ones that know the least.
Those who proceed in a quiet manner, acquiring knowledge and dispensing it where needed and always doing so in a courteous and professional manner, are usually the experts. They don?t need to be blatant about their qualifications because the world knows soon enough and comes to them. Yes, they are listed somewhere for those who are unaware but these people don?t take every opportunity to remind those who don?t know. They don?t impart their knowledge unless asked. Those are the real experts. The ones that know what they are talking about. The ones that don?t corner you somewhere or rudely tell you that they know more than you do and that you are doing everything wrong.
Of course, there are exceptions. Isn?t there always? Some of those rude people really are experts. But I don?t consider them because I refuse to listen to those types.
Me? I?m not an expert on anything. I know a bit about a lot of things. I know what it?s like to live with MS but I can?t tell you what Montel Williams goes through or Teri Garr or anyone else with MS. I grew up in small mining towns in northern British Columbia in the 1970s so I can tell you a bit about that. And a myriad of other things. But I am proud to say I am not an expert.
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Karen Magill
Author of ‘The Bond, A Paranormal Love Story’ and the soon to be released
‘Let Us Play, A Rock ‘n Roll Love Story’
www.karenmagill.com
www.lulu.com/karenmagill.com
www.myspace.com/thebondbykarenmagill
January 10, 2008
A few more sprints and I’m there. The magazine is almost finished but I can’t breathe freely until it is in front of me. Call me an over-reacting prick, but really, these past few days, that magazine has been haunting me even in my sleep. Tsk… talk about paranoia. I think I’m being paranoid that we wouldn’t be able to release it. If that happens, I’m gonna kill someone. No, I’m going to murder a bunch of asswipes who made my life miserable while at it.
Geez, it’s been months, nearing a year since the concept came up. Didn’t think that a start-up is this friggin’ hard. That time when my boss told me I’m going to be the project lead for this magazine, hypocrisy aside, I wasn’t exactly elated; i was afraid of the responsibility. But hey, who would think that I’ll be getting there? The catch is, there are quite a lot of side trips. Like this one time when I was scorned alive by the hurtful words of my boss that I am not doing anything to make this magazine happen. In a way, it became my wake up call and decided to make him eat his words. I became more eager and passionate (err… too strong a word) about this project.
Maybe the problem was really me in the beginning. I did not trust myself enough that I can handle a project as big as this. And I got no motivation at all. All I had were plans in black and white but none of them really did exist. On top of these, people around me are more skeptical than positive that this can really happen. What a bunch of pessimists; how can you expect me to feel differently? Anyway, I’m glad I overcome.
With this kind of job, I have to do away with my indecisive attitude and forget about myself. I have to be ‘thick’ when necessary. I have to be resourceful and quick-witted. Otherwise, I’d be stagnant. And so I wrote thousands (okay, exaggeration) or hundreds of emails to various people whom I felt are potential subject matter expert writers for the magazine. Most of them ignored my mail while a few wrote back and promised to contribute. But hey, promises are often made to be broken… so really, I didn’t hope. I needed a plan B so I relied on referrals. I emailed and made a bunch of phone calls to strangers until I got answers… or more aptly, until I got the articles. I contacted prominent names in the industry and asked for appointments for interview hoping I’d be able to feature them in the magazine. In my mind, we are all people — they fart and belch like me so I shouldn’t feel intimidated. And thank the good heavens, i got replies. (Watch out for IBM and HP in the magazine’s first issue). Slowly, I put pieces together until I’m left with only a few to fill up.
Right now, we’re still experiencing hell — the confusion caused by some unwanted entities that (who) does nothing but inflate their egos at your expense. I thank God he gave me my editorial consultant who is too kind, she’s always there to lift my hopes up, Em, the newbie layout artist who always puts up with all kinds of sh** and my circle of friends in the office who boost my morale when I am nearing sanity lapse.
The psyching out continues and the skeptics are still out there. But one thing’s for sure, they wouldn’t get my spirits down. It’s too high in-fact, I feel drugged. I haven’t had proper sleep these past few days. The magazine still haunts me.
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Thet is a 24-year old average writer who spends half her time capitalizing on the power of the pen and paper combined. She is currently the Associate Editor of a regional trade publication in Asia which focus is on Quality and Business Process Improvement.
January 9, 2008
Imagine thousands of people buying your book all over the world in the coming year. Furthermore, they love it and write you about how it has helped them. They even email all their friends about your insightful book. Sound far fetched? Believe it; it could happen to you! Keep reading only if you want to give your message the selling chance it deserves.
To start with, every part of your book should be a compelling part of your message. Every part should be written passionately and designed to be a sales tool. Touch your readers’ emotion with passion for your topic and you’ll sell more books. In fact, when you design your book to include the passion points below, you’ll sell more books than you ever imagined.
Passion Point 6 Design a 30 second ‘Commercial for Your Book.’
Sprinkle this commercial throughout your book, your speeches, elevator conversation, radio spots. Let your passion for your topic shine through in this commercial. After all, you only have a few seconds to make an impression on the media, the agent, the bookseller, the individual buyer. Include your title, a few benefits, and the audience. Write this commercial with sound bites that capture attention. Don’t be afraid to compare your book with a successful one. i.e. the writer’s ‘Women With Passion, Purpose & Power’ is the ‘Purpose Driven Life’ for women.
Passion Point 7 Develop Your Book Introduction.
State the problem your reader has, why you wrote the book, and its purpose. In a few paragraphs include specific benefits and explain your format (how you will present it.) Make sure it’s one page or less. Your sales message will be more subtle here. Nevertheless pinpoint and emphasize the benefits to your reader for you may still be convincing them your book is the book to buy.
Passion Point 8 Make a table of contents.
Each chapter should have a sizzling title. If the chapter titles are not obvious, then annotate them. Add some benefits or a sub-title explaining. In ‘Women’s Passion, Purpose & Power,’ the author put the word ‘women’ in each title. Which creates more synergy? Image, Worth, Name or ‘A Woman’s Image’ ‘A Woman’s Worth’ ‘A Woman’s Name.’
Passion Point 9 Contact influencers in your field.
After an initial contact of asking for feedback, resend them the same chapter and the table of contents of your book. Ask for a testimonial then. These experienced contacts’ testimonials will lend influence to your back cover making it a powerful sales tool.
Passion Point 10 Write a sales letter for your book.
Keep it simple. Write your targeted audience a letter about how your book will help them. Tell them why you wrote your book. Let them know who read it and loved it. Your sales letter will become your mini-salesman who sells your book 24/7 and makes you money even while you sleep.
No matter how good your book is, if you don’t use the above simple tips in setting it up you may never sell as many books as your message deserves. Start today. Enthusiasm and passion are contagious. Give your book the best selling chance possible. Fill it with enthusiasm and passion for your topic to sell more books than you ever dreamed.
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? Earma Brown, 11 year author and business owner
helps small business owners and writers who want to write their best book now! Author of ‘Write Your Best Book Now’, she mentors other writers and business professionals through her monthly ezine ‘iScribe’ Subscribe now at
iscribe@writetowin.org for FREE mini-course ‘Jumpstart Writing Your Best Book’ or visit 7 Simple Steps to Write a Book for more book writing tips.
January 8, 2008
It happens ? you?re hurtling through traffic on a collision course with a speeding deadline, or slouching on the sofa as ?reality? parades across the face of a 32-inch-box, or quietly sipping a cup of tea and? lightening strikes. Something, a sound or smell or sight, grabs you by the collar, jolts you from your sensory slumber and leaves you whispering an astonished, ?Wow.? As writers we live for these moments in life because, when cared for properly, a fleeting insight can be transformed into a full-grown essay, article or story. Consider asking yourself these questions to help fully develop your revelatory moments:
1. What, specifically, struck you? Was it something physical ? the aforementioned sight or sound or smell? Was it a concept unrelated to the physical senses? A memory that raced through the attic of your mind, sweeping away the years? Identifying the source of your inspiration will help bring focus to your piece.
2. Why is it important to you? What emotion is tied to your insight? Were you amazed, awestruck, frightened, angry, puzzled, inspired, enlightened or confused? Once you understand your own emotional response you can start to establish the feel of your piece, from lighthearted or whimsical to judiciously serious.
3. How does this apply to others? This answer determines whether your writing resonates with your readers. So, go slowly. Ask each of the first two questions again, now from the perspective of your intended audience: What will strike my readers? Why will it be important to their lives? This is the last big hurdle ? once you?re comfortable with this part, the tell-a-tale-train picks up speed.
4. Is the piece personal, factual or sheer fantasy? This is the nuts and bolts phase of your project. If the piece is personal, or fantasy, here is where you jot down your notes and establish a basic outline. If your piece is nonfiction, here is where you set out the additional steps you will take to establish a sense of substance and authority, including online research and additional self-education.
5. Where?s my pencil? Ah? Yes, you are now at the point where it is necessary to take up paper and pencil, of the physical or keyboard variety, and begin. Begin. Don?t worry about completing the piece at this point, just start. Concentrate on the first sentence and before you know it?
The rush of life often overwhelms. But sometimes, briefly, we catch the lilt of a lullaby dancing with the wind and - life speaks to us. When life next speaks to you in a strong and quiet voice, or smacks you upside the head in an onslaught of insight, share your experience with the rest of us. Take a bit of time to ask yourself the questions above and, with a little nurturing, you?ll turn your ?Wows? into words.
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Tim Anderson is a freelance writer who has a special interest in medical topics. Visit his blog at medicalmigrant.blogspot.com/
Creating an essay outline is by all means the most effective and motivating way of learning the writing assignment, organising your ideas on the essay topic, and positioning your own point of view.
The importance of essay outline in writing process is hard to underestimate. It is the solid foundation of a well-structured and considered essay with enchanting essay topic, logically organised paragraphs, strong thesis statements, and unforgettable conclusions. The essay outline helps you put your thoughts together, and have a clear idea of what the essay should be all about.
I could go on, but the point is: when you write your essay outline first, the process of essay writing becomes a piece of cake! However, to make a truly effective and well-organized essay outline, you need to follow these important preparatory steps:
1. Read the Question of Your Essay and Decode It
The first and most important step you should take before writing an essay is to understand what your professor wants to see in your essay wanted from you, thus to decode the writing assignment. The solution to this riddle can be found in your essay question, which asks you either to discuss, compare, contrast, or summarise certain issues. When you know what is expected from you, you know which way of writing an essay to choose.
Just to play safe, here are the definitions of the essay questions, so that you could refresh your memory:
1. ?compare? in an essay question means to list in an extended way points of similarity between two or more things;
2. ?contrast? asks to dwell on the differences of several things;
3. when ?summarising? you are supposed to write down all you know on the essay topic;
4. a ?discussion? requires putting the cases for or against some proposition and end with stating your own position;
5. ?consider? means to describe a certain subject and say how effective it is.
Once you know what you ought to do, you can get down to creating the essay outline.
2. Verify the Assignment Requirements
But before you do so, you need to verify the requirements for your essay. In the department?s guidelines you shall find the deadlines, the requirements for the essay length and presentation. If some points are not clear to you, do not hesitate to verify them with your teacher. The more you know the better chances your have to write an outstanding essay.
3. Write a Thesis Statement at the Top of Your Paper
You must know that a thesis statement is a single declarative sentence that contains the focus of your essay and tells the readers what it will be all about. But except for helping your readers with understanding your essay, it is of great help to you as well.
A thesis statement helps you think through your ideas and their overall presentation to the readers.
Moreover, it is the wishful salvation each time you get sidetracked from the main idea of your essay, and want to come back to the initial point.
Your should not skip the process of writing a thesis statement at the top of your paper, right after your essay outline. Thus, be sure you compose a strong thesis statement for your essay outline.
4. Brainstorm Ideas for Your Essay
Once a thesis statement is ready, you should start brainstorming your ideas that relate to your thesis statement. Write down all ideas that come to your mind and are related to your topic, even if they are seemingly bizarre or outlandish. You should let your ideas flow as rapidly and spontaneously as possible. When you have collected all your ideas, be sure to revisit them and discard the ones that seem useless.
5. Gather Evidence
It goes without saying that all ideas in your essay must be supported with some evidence that should consist of specific examples or opinions of others. The supporting evidence should prove your thesis statement. Thus, it must be relevant, reliable and presentable.
So, you need to sweat a bit and gather relevant information on your essay topic and select the materials that will come in handy. It is advised not to neglect the basic sources you use every day. Thus, start examining your lecture notes, core texts and handouts. They usually include a sufficient amount of useful information that will supply you with great ideas for the essay outline.
If you want to deepen into the essay topic, you can pick some other sources with detailed information on your essay topic. For instance, articles in journals, or texts referred to by your teacher can provide you with extremely valuable information. But be selective, and do not fall on the first source that you come across. Make a thorough and painstaking search.
6. Organise Your Essay Ideas
Once you have collected the information, you need to think through the structure of your essay and create the first draft. Your essay must be planned in the way that it has a coherent and logical structure.
So far there are no universal standards for organising ideas in essays. However, all your ideas must be arranged in the logical way. For instance, the logical sequence of your facts could be presented in a simple to complex form, be specific or general, etc. Either way, choose which is most appropriate in your case.
When structuring your ideas, do not be too wordy; write down your points in brief one-line sentences that are arranged in a series of headings and subheadings. Use bullet points to describe what each paragraph will contain.
7. Keep References
In the process of gathering information and brainstorming you must remember to write down everything you have consulted as you go along in order to be able to create a bibliography or list of references. Have a notebook where you can put down the information you will need later. Such trick will help you avoid the needless headache when you will be writing an essay.
This is your seven-point plan that you should carry out before writing an essay. The outline with your properly organised ideas, notes, a thesis statement and references will be indispensable when the direct writing process will take place. This action plan will help you prepare your essay outline and save you from many hurdles of essay writing.
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>About the Author:
Linda Correli is a staff essay writer for http://www.Go2Essay.com/ She specializes in writing History, Literature and English essays and book reports, as well as admission essays, personal statements and letters of recommendation.
When it comes to finalizing an essay, we often forget or simply do not feel like giving it the final glance so that to make sure the essay is sound as a bell. Unfortunately, we think how stupid it was of us not to pay several minutes to the essay only when we get the it back scribbled all over with the teacher?s corrections.
Experience is the best teacher. And next time you will be writing an essay, you?ll definitely check it for grammar and punctuation mistakes. Here is what you?ve got to pay special attention to:
1. Each time you see ?its? or ?it?s? ask yourself: Do I need ?its? as a possessive case of ?it? or a contraction that will stand for ?it is??
2. Check it out with the rest of the words, such as ?you?re? and ?your?, ?they?re? and ?there?, ?there?s? and ?theirs.? As you might have noticed, unlike contracted phrases, the possessive pronouns never use apostrophes. It would be great if you could learn this rule of thumb by heart.
3. You must make sure all pronouns in your essay are used in the correct pronoun case. Simply determine whether the pronoun in every sentence is used as a subject, an object, or a possessive, and select the pronoun form to match.
4. Do not refer to a lady like ?it? and do not call your pet ?she?. Be sure to use such pronouns as ‘it,’ ‘they,’ ‘this,’ ‘that,’ ‘these,’ ‘those,’ and ‘which’ carefully to refer to definite referents, namely nouns. This way you will prevent confusion and misunderstanding on the reader?s part.
5. Make sure everything agrees regarding singular and plural. ‘My cat and my wife is sleeping,’ is wrong. To avoid such silly mistakes, you should know all the cases when plural and singular are used. By the way, make sure your plurals don?t have an apostrophe before s. It?s a rough mistake.
6. See whether you spell ?a lot? in two words. And remember that it is ALWAYS two words!
7. Does ?too? in your essay mean ?also?? If your ?too? was meant to be a number 2, change it for ?two?. If both previous meanings are not your case and you wanted to use a preposition, spell it like ?to.? It is as simple as that.
8. At least once per essay you are bound to get confused in the meaning of the commonly mixed-up words. Some of the easily confused words are ?than? vs. ?then,? ?affect? vs. ?effect,? ?lead? vs. ?led,? ?accept? vs. ?except,? ?advice? vs. ?advise,? ?ensure? vs. ?insure? and so on. Enumerating all easily confused words will take too long so you?d better check them out in a good dictionary.
9. Keep an eye on the verb tenses within a sentence and in closely related sentences. ?She took a ball and plays with it? won?t do.
10. Beware of the dangling modifiers. If you still want to use them, know exactly what each character of your essay is doing and do not make things do something they will never do. Sentences with flying knives and rushing bombs are a real laugh for readers and a headache for teachers.
11. Each time you are reading the sentences in your essay with the word ?that?, try to find out whether you can delete this word and still achieve clarity. If so, go ahead and kill it. Do the same with the sentences in your essay. Remember that your main goal is to write a meaningful essay, not to write about nothing in 500 words!
12. Check your essay for punctuation. To make it easier, here are the punctuation caveats you should keep in mind when writing your essay: a period shows a full separation of ideas; comma and coordinating conjunction show such relationships as: addition, choice, consequence, contrast, or cause; a semicolon reveals that the second sentence completes the idea that was started in the first sentence.
You may add to this list of last-minute preparations anything you are especially bad at. This way you will make the process of essay writing even more effective and the result even more pleasant.
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Linda Correli is a staff writer of Go2Essay.com - custom Essay Writing Help. She specializes in essay writing of argumentative essays, persuasive essays, narrative essays, and descriptive essays.
December 16, 2007
Ordinarily, when you think about hospitalization, a staff of nurses, doctors, surgeons, anesthesiologist and other specialist come to mind. You are admitted to the hospital so that these trained professionals can take care of your ailments, treatments, administer medication and tend to your emergency healthcare needs.
As far fetched as it may seem, there is a hospital that exists for repairing and restoring vintage and modern fountain pens. Innovators of vintage fountain pens engineered these writing mechanisms for pleasure, prestige, function and style. The reason why so many inventors went through the trouble of getting patents and going back and forth to the drawing board was to tweak their pen designs for uniqueness and durability. Of course despite their objective for perfection, there was the question of addressing customer concerns when there was a malfunction or defect, whether through the manufacturing process or from human error. This is why The Fountain Pen Hospital was born and here are the top ten reasons why you would want to admit your writing device to them or to a respectable, specialized fountain pen repair shop:
1. A basic overhaul
2. Sac replacements
3. Vacumatic repairs
4. Diaphragm replacements
5. Repairs on complex pens (Parker Vacumatic, Sheaffer Snorkel or Touchdown)
6. Restoration on vintage pen filling systems (lever, plunger, piston, twist)
7. Cracked nib repairs and retipping on gold nibs
8. Nib adjustments and smoothing
9. Electroplating of components and pens
10. Restoration for gouges, scratches and other surface damage
The Fountain Pen Hospital was founded in 1946 by Phil Wiederlight and Al Wiederlight (the father and grandfather, respectively, of today?s proprietors ? Terry and Steve Wiederlight). Terry and Steve come with a combination of 50 years of experience in all phases of vintage and modern writing instruments. In addition to repair and restoration, The Fountain Pen Hospital offers pen accessories, books and Limited Edition Fountain Pens.
If you take good care of your fountain pen, it will last you a lifetime. These are delicate writing instruments and must be cleaned and stored properly. Bottled ink needs to be stored away from direct sunlight and should be shaken well before filling your pen, to stir up ink particles that probably settled at the bottom of the bottle. If your pen does not start immediately or has been inactive for a few weeks, it?s very possible that the ink has dried and clogged the nib or the feed. Try to wet the nib?s point with water or ink of the same color. When all else fails, simply wash the pen out. Wash your fountain pen every few weeks. It is recommended to never use hot water or alcohol. Distilled water will work best.
If you are having severe abdominal pain, you wouldn?t want to be rushed to a Veterinarian or a Meteorologist would you? Of course not. And if you owned a Mercedes Benz, would you take it to a motorcycle shop for repair work? Unequivocally no! You would adamantly seek someone who is specialized in your area of need to solve the problem. The same goes for your fountain pen. For the preservation of your investment, it behooves you to find someone who is knowledgeable, experienced and can immediately respond to your questions and concerns about the mechanics and diversity of your vintage or modern fountain pen.
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Kym Gordon Moore has over twenty six years of professional writing experience throughout her corporate career and personal writing projects. She is fascinated with fountain pens based on her love of creative handwriting, as well as the craftsmanship of these fine writing instruments. www.kymgmoore.com. Information Citation ? The Fountain Pen Hospital; www.fountainpenhospital.com; 2006
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