Category The Art of Articles

Writing in a New Genre

September 13, 2010 Learn the Craft, Success Stories, The Art of Articles, Writing Tips  3 comments

Hi all,

I know, I know, I have been far too quiet lately.  In fact, looking at the blog, it looks as though everyone went really quiet over the last few months. I guess busy lives have caught up with everyone. 

Anyway, I have started writing in a couple of different genres to my usual work recently, such as poetry and a fiction novel, as well as my usual prose and articles. I even worked on different styles of writing within my usual “business’ style writing. I found the process absolutely fascinating and I started thinking about ways I could encourage new writers to explore different genres. Most writers actually start out with fiction or poetry, but there are many other genres that can earn writers a decent income. Besides writing for an income, trying a different genre can help youRead More

Proofreading Tips

May 11, 2010 How To Submit to Publishers, Learn the Craft, The Art of Articles, Writing Tips  4 comments

Have you ever written something, sent it out to a publisher and then been horrified when you actually see it in print because of a glaring error? Sometimes, editors miss mistakes too. Whenever you write anything you intend to print, you should proofread it thoroughly yourself, before you send to a publisher.

 The trouble with proofreading your own work is that you see what you expect to see, so you read what you think you wrote, and not necessarily what you did write. If you first and last letters of a word are in the correct order, you may not see typing errors in the middle of the word.

Firstly, use a good spell and grammar check. This will never pick up all of the errors, especially the words that sound the same but have different spellings for different meanings, such as there,Read More

Keep it simple

December 31, 2009 Learn the Craft, The Art of Articles, Writing Tips  No comments

As an academic writer first and foremost, I have encountered several pieces of advice for how best to make my writing accessible to the layperson. Some tips are obvious, such as not using jargon. However, the best piece of advice was presented to me by a Professor on my undergraduate course, a recommendation I use not only in my non-academic writing, but also in my scientific communications: Keep it simple!

Writers all too often wish to show off their intelligence by using complex language and  assuming a certain amount of knowledge from their readers. They think that by ‘impressing’ their reader in such a way, they will appear as superior intellects. However, all this does is alienate their audience.

The trick with non-fiction writing is not to make YOU appear intelligent, but toRead More