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Why Are There So Many Citation Formats?!

It seems every time you go to a new class, they’ll want you to use a different format for your citations on your essays. While some fields pretty much use one format regularly—psychology, for example, nearly always uses APA format, while literature prefers MLA—that distinction isn’t always clear, especially at the undergrad level.

So, what’s the difference between these formats? What’s the point of having an APA format and a MLA format and Chicago format and so on?

The Origin of Citation Formats

All formats have the same basic goal—to make it easy for readers to track down and identify the sources you’re using. They strive to create a standardized system so that readers can easily, at a glance, identify all the various sources without having to figure out precisely what you’re trying to say. Standardizing these citations is a useful concept.

Unfortunately, there are competing standards. It’s not unlike the Macs v. PC computer debate—both are computers, but they work differently and are made by different companies, meaning things that work on one system doesn’t necessarily work on the other.

MLA style was developed by the Modern Language Association, a group of scholars dealing with language and literature. APA style was developed by the American Psychological Association, which is the world’s largest group of psychologists. Chicago style was published by the University of Chicago. All of these groups had specific issues they wanted to make sure their citation standards covered, and so all three work slightly differently.

Difference Between Citation Formats

So, what are these differences? There are literally hundreds of slight differences, but here are a few main ones to remember:

In MLA and Chicago formats, the author is the most important piece of information, while in APA, it’s the date. This is because the MLA format was designed by writers, and highlights the origination of ideas. APA format was designed by scientists, and highlights the latest and most up-to-date research.

In citations, MLA format uses the author’s full name and capitalizes all major words in the title of the book or article. APA format uses the author’s first initial (so B. Knowles instead of Bryan Knowles), and uses something called “sentence case”—only capitalize the first word of the title and/or subtitle (For example: “My book: The important subtitle” would be correct in APA formatting)

When you’re citing something in text, MLA format wants the author’s last name and page number before the final punctuation, so (Knowles 10) would be correct. APA format wants the author’s last name, year and page number, so you’d use (Knowles, 2014, p. 10). Note that APA format has commas, while MLA format does not.

Remembering those few differences will, in all honesty, help you with 90 percent of your citation worries. For more details, you should look at the original guides for the formats: the APA Publication Manual, the MLA Handbook or the Chicago Manual of Style.

If you really need to check your citations are correct, stop by Wordsmith Essays’ order page. We’ll check all your formatting and editing and make sure that you’re sticking to the letter of the style guides. Check us out today!

#APA #Chicago #citation #formats #MLA

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Transitional Expressions and How to Use Them

Transitional expressions can really improve your essay. They help serve as sort of guidelines or explanations, helping the reader follow your train of thought as you go from idea to idea. They make your essay flow better and make it more interesting to read.

Examples of Transitional Expressions

You can use transitional expressions for a number of effects:

Addition! (Also, besides, furthermore, etc.)

Repetition! (In other words…)

Similarity! (Likewise, similarly…)

Contrast! (However, on the other hand, nevertheless…)

Sequencing! (First, next, finally…)

Time! (After, earlier, simultaneously…)

Examples! (For example, for instance…)

Emphasis! (Indeed, truly, in fact…)

Location! (Above, opposite, in front…)

Cause and Effect! (Accordingly, hence, therefore…)

Conclusions! (Finally, thus, to summarize…)

They are really very practical words, and they make it much easier to follow your logic as you’re trying to argue a point. Just take a look at these two examples, taken from the University of New England

The concept of fairness is central to understanding plagiarism. Fairness means being fair both to yourself and others. Everybody both gives and receives their proper due, and nobody has anything to complain about. An incident involving unfairness could be taking someone else’s work and passing it off as your own. The person whose work has been taken receives no recognition or acknowledgment for their research and thinking. Writers who plagiarize are not being fair to themselves either because they are not developing their own independent academic skills. Students who do their own work with due acknowledgement of the work of others should develop their own academic skills and self-confidence far more than those who merely misuse the work of others.

Now, we’ll add transitional words.

The concept of fairness is central to understanding plagiarism. Fairness means being fair both to yourself and others. Moreover, everybody both gives and receives their proper due, and nobody has anything to complain about. For example, an incident involving unfairness could be taking someone else’s work and passing it off as your own. As a result, the person whose work has been taken receives no recognition or acknowledgment for their research and thinking. Furthermore, writers who plagiarize are not being fair to themselves either because they are not developing their own independent academic skills. Therefore, students who do their own work with due acknowledgement of the work of others should develop their own academic skills and self- confidence far more than those who merely misuse the work of others.

Both paragraphs give exactly the same information, but the second one is easier to understand. “Moreover” and “furthermore” let us know that those sentences are adding more information to the central idea. “For example” is providing a concrete example to back the argument. “As a result” is highlighting a cause and effect relationship. “Therefore” is drawing a conclusion. These words just serve as little guides so the reader can easily follow along.

Punctuating Transitional Expressions

How should you include these in your own essays? It’s fairly simple.

If you’re using them in the middle of a sentence, use commas to set them off from the rest of the sentence:

Most grizzly bears, however, are more afraid of you.

If you use the word at the beginning of an independent clause, on the other hand, end your previous sentence with a period or a semicolon, and then place a comma after the transition.

I really wanted to go to your party. Therefore, I finished my essay last night.

Pepper your essay with these transitions! They’ll help your reader understand your train of thought.

Once you’ve finished your essay, why not stop by Wordsmith Essays’ order page? Our team of international editors will help make sure your essay is polished to a fine shine. Check us out today!

#commas #transitional expressions

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Fixing a Fragment with No Subject

The most common type of fragment is a sentence that is missing its subject. You want to make sure you clean up your fragments to make sure your essay gets as high of a grade as possible.

A fragment without a subject looks like this:

“Just wanted to go to the store before the rush.”

That’s a perfectly fine sentence in casual conversation, but in formal writing, you need to indicate who wanted to go to the store. There are some situations where an implied “you” can be left out, but generally speaking, you need to include the subject.

There are two methods of fixing this sort of fragment:

First, you could simply add a subject. That makes your fragment an independent clause, and thus, fit for your essay.

Our example sentence could become “I wanted to go to the store before the rush.” Just by adding “I”, we’ve given our sentence a subject and can move on, with our grammar intact.

The second method ties your fragment into another sentence, by using a word ending in “-ing” to make your fragment something called a “participle phrase”—not a complete sentence, but something you can add to another sentence. For example, if our essay in question read something like:

“I tapped my foot as I waited for my sister to come down the stairs. Just wanted to go to the store before the rush.”

We can merge the fragment into the previous sentence like so:

“I tapped my foot as I waited for my sister to come down the stairs, just wanting to go to the store before the rush.”

Now, instead of one sentence and one fragment, you have one longer sentence. If you have a lot of fragments, this is a good method to use—it helps prevent your essay from sounding short and choppy with many small sentences.

Why not try Wordsmith Essays’ editing services? We can help chop out your fragments and merge your clauses. Stop by our order page and see what we can do for you.

#fragment

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Formatting tips for a Business Letter

So, you have to write a business letter. This is something that you may end up facing, and if your experience in writing is limited to essays and articles, you may have a brief moment of panic. Whether you’re writing a letter to an admissions expert to get into grad school, or writing a cover letter for a resume, business letters have their own formatting tricks and tips that are easy enough to fulfill—once you know what they are.

Here is a quick rundown of the technical requirements of a business letter for your reference:

Business Letter Addresses

First off include your return address. This should actually be the first thing included in the letter, on the left margin. This is because, in a busy business environment, envelopes and other information can easily get lost. Putting your address directly on the letter helps ensure that your recipient will be able to reply to your letter in a timely matter.

Below that, you include something called the “inside address”—this is the name, title and address for the person you are writing to. Again, if the letter is opened and the envelope is lost, this ensures the letter reaches its intended audience, especially if you’re sending it to a large business with multiple locations.

Business Letter Salutations and Closing Phrases

Your salutation should be formal and include the person’s title, if you know it—so, “Dear Dr. X”. If you don’t know the name of the person in question, use “Dear Sir or Madam”. Finish the salutation with a colon.

For your closing phrase, capitalize only the first word—it’s Yours truly, not Yours Truly. You then want to leave space before typing your name—about four lines. This is so you can sign your name between the closing phrase and your typed name. If there are any other bits of information—an enclosed attachment or notification of copes—that goes blow your typed name.

Here at Wordsmith Essays, we’re happy to give your letters a final polish to ensure they meet all standards. Our team of editors have experience with a wide variety of forms and formats. Check out our order page today!

#business letter

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Boldly Defending the Adverb

It’s Adverbs Week here on Wordsmith Essays, and I want to talk a little bit about how they’ve gotten a bad rap when it comes to writing, be it in essays and articles or less formal fiction writing.

Some Writers Hate the Adverb

No less a writer than Stephen King has gone on record trashing the adverb:

Adverbs … are words that modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. They’re the ones that usually end in -ly. Adverbs, like the passive voice, seem to have been created with the timid writer in mind. … With adverbs, the writer usually tells us he or she is afraid he/she isn’t expressing himself/herself clearly, that he or she is not getting the point or the picture across.

What he really, really hates is adverbs used when talking about dialogue. He gives the following examples of weaker sentences, and their stronger, adverb-less counterparts:

‘Put it down!’ she shouted. ‘Give it back,’ he pleaded, ‘it’s mine.’ ‘Don’t be such a fool, Jekyll,’ Utterson said.

In these sentences, shouted, pleaded, and said are verbs of dialogue attribution. Now look at these dubious revisions:

‘Put it down! she shouted menacingly. ‘Give it back,’ he pleaded abjectly, ‘it’s mine.’ ‘Don’t be such a fool, Jekyll,’ Utterson said contemptuously.

The three latter sentences are all weaker than the three former ones, and most readers will see why immediately.

King does have a point. When used incorrectly, adverbs can be used as a crutch. Poor writers will use them when they’re not sure that their writing is strong enough to get the intended meaning across without explicitly telling the reader what’s going on. Ironically, by adding an adverb in these situations, they’re actually weakening, not strengthening, their writing.

But that’s not to say adverbs are bad. King’s ranting against a common usage of adverbs, but simply going through and crossing out every word that ends in “-ly” is going to make you a weaker writer, not a stronger one.

Give Adverbs a Chance!

Adverbs help with precision. Sometimes, you just can’t quite get the verb you want for a situation, and no amount of peering through dictionaries and thesauruses will help you get exactly the meaning you want across. The verb “to sigh”, for example, can bring with it many different emotional states. Sometimes, the surrounding text will let the reader know if it’s an exasperated sigh or a happy sigh or a forlorn sigh. English doesn’t have enough specific verbs to make that clear, and one easy and powerful way to do it, especially in a stand-alone sentence, is with a well-positioned adverb.

Without adverbs, we don’t have memorable quotes like “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn,” or “Speak softly and carry a big stick,” or even Shakespeare’s “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” Absolute power would just corrupt, not “corrupt absolutely,” and you wouldn’t be able to “only blow the bloody doors off.”

Adverbs can add punch and emphasis, and can be very powerful when used sparingly and effectively. So boldly go and use your adverbs well.

If you’re concerned your essay or writing has too many adverbs, or that they’re not popping like they should, why not head over to Wordsmith Essays’ order page today? Our team of editors are available around the clock to help polish your writing to a fine shine.

#adverb

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Note-Taking and Annotations Can Help Your Writing

One common mistake I see new writers making, when they are tabbed with writing an essay, is poor note-taking. I was guilty of this myself as a young writer. If I was tabbed to write an essay on, say, Romeo and Juliet, I would read the entire thing and then sit down and start writing. How bad could that be?

While that’s the best way to read something for enjoyment, it can leave you with a number of problems when it comes to actually writing a response to something. When you’re reading something with the specific goal of responding to it later, reading with a pen in hand—or, at least, access to a computer.

Note-Taking Helps You Remember What To Cite

The first problem is simply remembering what you want to cite. I can’t even begin to count the number of times I’ve wanted to reference a particular quote or scene, and couldn’t for the life of me remember where I had seen it. Cue thirty minutes of frantically flipping back through the text, trying to remember what came where as I hunt for the one line I was looking for.

Simply writing down the page number of the quote—or better yet, putting a post-it note atop the page in question—can save you loads of time when it comes to actually crafting your eventual essay.

Note-Taking Helps You Keep Your Sources Straight

It’s even more critical to do this when you’re using multiple sources for an essay or article. In my other career as a sportswriter, I sometimes have 30 or 40 sources I’m compiling for one article, referencing statistics, historical trends and quotes. Trying to remember precisely what webpage they came from or which article or database cited that quote can be a nightmare.

The solution? Index cards, or their digital equivalent. That way, rather than having to sort back through page after page of articles trying to find the specific one I want to link, I have all that information ordered and at my fingertips in one place. I just use an open Word document on my computer, with key passages copy-pasted in, as well as the link to the original website. If you prefer, you can write them down on separate index cards for better portability. You can also write the bibliographical information on each index card, allowing you to easily construct your bibliography at the end of the project.

Don’t Just Note-Take; Annotate!

You can use this technique for more than just recording quotes, too—you can use it to annotate the text, to better keep track of your ideas. If you see a passage that you want to comment on, or raise as a question in your eventual article, make a note! You can write it right in the margins of your own book, or copy-paste it into a document if you’re working with an online source.

A pro tip for digital annotations—use a different font for the source material and your notes if you’re taking digital notes. It helps keep straight what came from the original source and what your own ideas are, and helps you avoid the dreaded specter of plagiarism.

I hope this has helped you learn how annotations can help improve your articles or essays. For further help, why not stop by our order page? Wordsmith Essays has a crack team of international editors who are available around the clock to help polish your essay to a fine shine. Stop by our page today and see what we can do for you.

#annotating #note-taking

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Conflict: An Intersection of Purpose

All stories need conflict. I don’t think that this concept is really surprising to anyone, in fact it’s a bit of a cliche at this point, but it still needs to be said because a lot of writers have very weird ideas about what conflict means in terms of storytelling. Generally speaking, conflict is caused in stories by an intersection of purpose. For example, let’s take one of the classic types of conflict: man vs. nature. Specifically, this conflict will be between a man named Jack and a bear named Bear.

An Example Conflict: Bear vs. Jack

Some conflict is direct–person versus person.

In the story, Jack’s purpose is to deliver the missile defense codes to the president. Bear’s purpose is to defend its territory from potential predators. In order to complete his mission, Jack has to cross through the forest where Bear lives and Bear, thinking that Jack is a predator, attacks him.

Now, if this idea of “purpose” seems familiar, it’s probably because it’s just another way of saying “character motivation”. Jack’s desire to deliver the missile defense codes is his character motivation at the moment and conflict arises when his character motivation intersects with that of another character—the bear’s in this case.

What happens next? Maybe Jack fights off the bear in an epic battle. Or he might run away as the bear gives chase. Or there might be some sort of emotional resolution, where the bear and Jack are forced to confront their own personal flaws and overcome them in order to resolve the conflict between them. The point is that once the motivations intersect, they must be resolved through some sort of action on the part of the characters. This is the basic framework of a story—motivation is established, conflict arises through the intersection of conflicting motivations, and the conflict is resolved through the actions of the characters. And while it might sound simple, the foundational element, the single thing that the entire story is built around, is the character motivation.

This is why it is so important to have clear motivations, because the clearer characters’ motivations are, the clearer the conflict and resulting actions will be to the reader. This is necessary for writing a story that the audience can engage with and if the audience is not engaged, you’re not going to have an audience for very long.

That’s all for our discussion on character motivations. Next time, we’ll pivot away from the general theory and look at some of the more technical elements of writing with a look at how to effectively use punctuation. Until then, stay safe and keep writing!

Once your writing is finished, why not come to Wordsmith Essays and let our team of professional editors help you polish it up? From statement of purpose editing to short story editing, we can handle all of your writing needs. Stop by our order page today to see what we can do for you.

#conflict #fiction #motivation #writing

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Character Motivation: The Engine that Drives a Story

Character motivation is the engine that drives a story. At the most basic level, an audience wants to understand the “why” behind why a character acts the way that they do. It is the basic way that a reader will engage with the story, but despite how important character motivation is, an embarrassing number of writers don’t give it the attention that it deserves. This results in all sorts of problems, the most important being boring, bland characters that spend most of their time reacting to the plot. Fortunately, it’s very simple to make sure that your characters don’t fall into this trap.

Some characters have more obvious motivations than others.

All you really need to do is make sure that all of your characters have a motivation, goal, or purpose that is both concrete and can be summarized in a single sentence. For example:

Jack wants to cure his father’s mysterious, magical illness.

Compare this to a more vague and complicated motivation:

Susan wants to help people.

We can understand how Jack would react to a given situation. If he’s offered a job, he’ll only accept if it seems to further his search for a cure in some way. If he meets a doctor, he’ll probably ask if they’ve encountered an illness like his father’s. Susan is a little harder to pin down. There are a lot of different ways to “help people” and just about any situation could be argued to be helping someone. The result is that while Jack acts consistently, Susan is all over the place. She needs something more specific, like:

Susan wants to help people by becoming a doctor at the Royal Academy.

Put your Motivations on a Postcard

Something that can help is to make a notecard for all of your characters. Write their name, a distinguishing characteristic, and their motivation. An added benefit to this approach is that it will help you organize your thoughts in regards to how your characters relate to one another. For example, now that we know Jack and Susan’s motivation, we can forsee how these characters will interact and under what circumstances.

Ultimately, the key to character motivation is simplicity. People are complex, but characters should be straightforward. A motivation can be hidden from the audience, deliberately ambiguous, or ever-changing throughout the course of your story, but it should always be something you can point to and state with clearly from moment to moment.

Of course, once you have clear character motivations, how can you use them to create drama? We’ll discuss that next time in the second part of our look at character motivations. Until then, stay safe and keep writing!

#characters #fiction #motivation

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How to Fix Awkward Writing

The major difficulty in giving advice about writing is that there is a gulf of difference between theory and practice. It is extraordinarily easy to tell someone that their story needs a stronger climax or that their work sounds awkward and stilted, but explaining how to fix these things in a real, practical way is extremely difficult. That’s why today, we’re going to take some time to go over some practical demonstrations with a couple examples of common problems and easy ways to fix them.

Let’s begin with something that almost everyone has trouble with. Can you spot the problem with the following passage?

There was a loud roar as the ground began to shake and the trees began to sway and Jack knew that the creature had torn free from his shackles and broken from the cage. He was coming for him now and nothing would or could stop it this time.

If you’re having trouble spotting the problem, try reading it out loud. Notice how awkward it is? Anyone reading this will probably end up breathless and stumbling over words, because the writer has made a few simple mistakes.

Run-Ons Make for Awkward Sentences

First, they’ve opened with a major run-on sentence. That first sentence is actually five sentences crammed together.

There was a loud roar.

The ground began to shake.

The trees began to sway.

Jack knew that the creature had torn free from his shackles.

Jack knew that the creature had broken from the cage.

It’s understandable why the writer might have tried this, they’re trying to get across the panic and fear of Jack, but the result is something that’s just difficult to read. Instead, a better approach is to break it up a little more while still maintaining the breathless quality.

There was a loud roar as the ground shook and the trees swayed. Hearing the sounds, Jack knew that the creature had torn free from his shackles and broke out of its cage.

The second sentence also has a problem with how confusing the action becomes. The first thing to fix is the typo, where the creature is referred to as “he” instead of “it”:

It was coming for him now and nothing would or could stop it this time.

Deliver a Punch for More Exciting Writing

Finally, the entire passage lacks a strong punch. The last few words are half-hearted and devoid of any emotion. Try tearing them apart and using the final bit as punctuation, a grim bit of finality that will really sell Jack’s fear of what’s happening.

It was coming for him now and nothing would stop it this time. Nothing could stop it this time.

Now, it’s just a matter of putting it all together and cleaning it up a bit so that we get something like:

There was a loud roar as the ground shook and the trees swayed. Jack heard the sounds and knew that the creature had torn free from his shackles, breaking from its cage. It was coming for him now and nothing would stop it this time. Nothing could stop it this time.

Sounds like Jack might be in a bit of trouble. Hopefully. we can help him out next time, when we’ll be discussing character motivations and how to use them to get your characters into and out of trouble. Until then, stay safe and keep writing!

#fiction #revision #run-ons

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Unconventional Tools for Writers

It would be natural to assume that writers don’t need much in the way of tools or equipment. After all, the only things you really need in order to write is something to write with and something to write on. And compared to other occupations, where people might be required to work with several pieces of specialized equipment, it is a very simple and inexpensive set-up. However, most writers use a variety of other tools to aid in their process and today I’d like to take some time to discuss a few items I believe are invaluable for a writer.

The Internet: A Life-Saver (or a Time-Waster)

The first of these tools, and arguably the most important one, is the Internet. It might be a font of useless information, time-wasters, and distractions, but it’s also one of the most important tools in a writer’s arsenal. The Internet makes research as simple as a Google search and also consolidates a variety of tools—such as dictionaries and thesauruses—into one location. The only problem is that it is also an easy way to procrastinate and avoid the actual work of writing. Luckily, there are a variety of tools online that can be used to restrict Internet access, such as Cold Turkey and StayFocused, making it much easier to only use the Internet as a productive tool to enrich your process.

A Notepad: Mobile Tools of the Trade

Another fantastic tool is much simpler and old-fashioned: the notepad.I can’t even begin to count the number of times that I’ve had fantastic ideas while I was writing, only to forget them because I didn’t write them down. Having a notepad by your side makes writing down notes and ideas a breeze, leaving them waiting for you to come back and realize that all of your great ideas were stupid or completely unworkable.

Headphones: Tools for Keeping the Outside World Out

Finally, we have headphones. A lot of people need silence to write, but there are plenty of people in the world that need some sort of noise or music to keep the words flowing. In either case, headphones can be used to control external sounds and keep a writer focused on the task at hand.

Of course, these are only a few of the fantastic tools a writer can use. The important thing is to find the tools and equipment that make your process easier and adapt them to your own use. So, experiment with various things, try new ways of writing, and investigate how useful various tools and pieces of equipment can be. If you do that, you’ll find your own utility belt of tools and reduce the amount of work you have to do.

That’s it for our discussion on the tools of the trade. Next week, we’ll get our hands dirty with some practical exercises. Until then, stay safe and keep writing!

#headphones #internet #notepad #tools #writing

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How to Criticize Famous Authors

If you’ve ever discussed literature in an academic setting, you’re probably aware of the fact that people are very reluctant to seriously criticize famous works and authors. A great deal of time is often spent accentuating the positive aspects of popular writers, but we don’t spend much time on the negatives.

The problem with this is that it leaves students ill-prepared to tear down their idols. This might not seem like that much of an issue, but one of the ways a solid becomes a great writer is by attempting to overcome the weaknesses of their literary influences. For example, while Shakespeare is deeply indebted to his contemporary Christopher Marlowe’s villains—monstrous, larger than life characters like Barabas and Faust—his greatness isn’t in reproducing the characters in his own work, but improving on their flat characterization and lack of humanity with more complex characters like Shylock and Prospero.

This sort of evolution would be impossible to achieve without the ability to recognize the flaws in works that you genuinely love and admire, so one of the key abilities of any writer must be the ability to tear apart your idols, find what works, and leave the rest behind. And while this might seem hard at first, there are a few things writers can do to help themselves look at the stories they love with a more critical eye.

Criticize a Work as If You Were Revising

First, always treat a story you’re criticizing as a living work that you’re revising. Read passages aloud and mark where they feel awkward or stilted; think of what pieces you would cut if you were in the author’s position; and above all else, be honest about places where you find yourself bored. Treat it as savagely as you would your own work and you’ll be finding things to criticize in no time.

The other thing to remember is that to find an author’s weaknesses, you should always start with their strengths. Does the author use beautiful descriptive language? Do they have an ear for natural dialogue? Does the story show a real command for narrative structure? Once you understand the strengths of a work, you can easily restate them as a weakness. An author with beautiful descriptive language can be “too concerned with the external world and not concerned enough with the inner world of their characters”, excellent, naturalistic dialogue can become “a bunch of talking heads”, and a mastery of narrative structure can be nothing more than “predictable and formulaic stories”.

Criticize What Doesn’t Make Sense

Finally, think about the things that don’t make sense or that you don’t understand. The natural tendency is to dismiss or ignore these parts, we’d much rather think about the parts we love, but these can be some of the greatest sources of narrative criticism. Focus on these aspects of the story with a laser-like intensity and ask yourself why they bother you or why you don’t understand them. This should naturally lead to questions that can strike to the very heart of the story.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to accentuate the positive in literature. Deconstruction can be a tiresome task if it’s done without purpose. However, if you pull apart a story to strip away the unsightly bits and find the beautiful pieces of machinery that make it work, you’ll become a bit closer to stepping past your influences and developing your own voice and style.

That’s all for our discussion on managing influences. Next time, we’ll take a look at some of the tools of the trade and how they can help and hurt your own writing process. Until then, stay safe and keep writing!

#classic works #criticism #criticize #the canon

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Identifying Your Influences: The Most Important Thing for a Writer?

For anyone that wants to be serious about their writing, the most important thing they can do is identify their primary influences. Well, actually that might be overstating things a little bit. In fact, the most important thing a writer can do is develop a regular writing schedule. And now that I think of it, learning to revise your work is probably the second most important thing, but “the seventh or eighth most important thing you can do is identify your primary influences” isn’t exactly an eye-catching opener, so please excuse the hyperbole.

But regardless of its exact placement on the list of important steps towards becoming a serious writer who writes serious things, identifying your primary influences and learning how to consciously use them to improve your writing is very important. How do you go about identifying these influences? Mostly through general introspection and self-awareness, but since that’s a broad and rather useless answer, let’s look at some specific techniques you can use to identify your influences.

The Bookshelf Test

The first technique is something I like to call “the bookshelf test”. Go to your bookshelf, computer desk, or wherever else you keep the books you’re currently reading. I keep mine on stacks on the floor, but we can’t all be disgusting, unorganized slobs. Which books do you reread time and time again? Which books do you consider “perfect”? Which authors show up in your stacks multiple times? This should give you a rough outline of the writers that heavily shape your own approach to the craft.

Ask Your Peers!

You might also want to try asking your peers, especially if you’re in a member of a writing group. This is a great method because an outside perspective can often identify influences that you might not have ever considered. I once had a friend tell me that a lot of my fantasy work read like “an old Don Bluth film”. And while I was surprised by the comparison, I realized that movies like Land Before Time and Secret of NIMH had been huge influences on me at a very young age.

Finally, simply ask yourself one question: who do I want to write like? We often talk about influence as an outside force, something subconscious and out of our control, but just as often it is something a writer decides for themselves. Of course, once you’ve identified your idol, that perfect writer that you would kill to write like, you need to move on to the next step: identifying their greatest weakness and using it to become an even better writer than they could ever dream of being. That’s why next time, we’ll discuss how to tear down your writing idols. Until then, stay safe and keep writing!

#creative writing #influences #writing groups

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The Importance of Alpha and Beta Readers

Peer review is one of the most useful tools for revision, but most writers are reluctant to hand off unfinished work to readers. This is because excessive criticism during the early drafting process can have quite the impact on morale, even for the most thick-skinned author. That’s why most writers employ two different kind of readers: alpha readers and beta readers.

What are Alpha and Beta Readers?

An alpha reader is a reader that reviews early or unfinished drafts. They are usually people very close to the writer, such as a friend, family member, or spouse, and they generally provide very light feedback designed to motivate the writer. A beta reader is a reader that reviews the later, finished drafts. They are usually a small group of people that can be trusted to provide objective critical feedback of a writer’s work.

The two roles are very different, because the primary focus of an alpha reader is to motivate the writer, while the primary focus of a beta reader is to provide feedback. An alpha reader might say something like:

I found the hunting party really interesting and I can tell you put a lot of effort into getting all the details right. I would’ve loved to seen more of the older sister in this chapter, but it was great and I can’t wait until the next one.

While a beta reader will tend to say something like:

The hunting party was pretty interesting and well researched, but for something you spend an entire chapter describing, it doesn’t actually move the plot forward. I would suggest cutting it down and increasing the older sister’s part.

Benefits of Different Types of Readers

The advantage of this sort of system is that it allows you to receive feedback at all stages without losing motivation due to harsh critiques of unfinished work. It also helps avoid being overtly influenced by feedback in the early stages of development. It is an invaluable system for any professional writer and something I would suggest everyone experiment with.

However, some people might have trouble finding a group of beta readers. That’s why next time we’ll be discussing how to start and lead a writing group. Until then, stay safe and keep writing!

One of the best benefits of having someone else read your writing is to get feedback and editing. That’s what our team of professional editors can do for you–we’re here around the clock to help you with all your essay editing needs. Stop by our order page today and see what we can do for you!

#alpha readers #beta readers #editing #feedback #peer review

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Basics of Editing for Content

Editing for content can be a tricky proposition. Writers tend to have a personal style that they have cultivated throughout the years and changing that style requires both a keen eye and a talent for revisions that comes from years of experience. Fortunately for young writers, there are a few simple techniques that are easy to use and can come in quite handy when you need to edit the content of a piece of writing.

Of course, the first thing that you should do is identify the central problem with the content of your writing. Is the vocabulary of your writing at too high a level for your audience? Are you slipping into an informal style too often? Are you using inappropriate language or concepts? Each of these problems requires a different focus. A good way to find the problem is to let someone else read your writing and offer suggestions. A professional editor or peer reviewer will be able to help you identify problems and give you a general sense of how to go about revising the content of your piece.

Once you have identified the problem, you can start revising the content of your piece with one of two useful revision techniques: substitution and deletion.

Editing with Substitution

With substitution, you identify the content that is inappropriate for your audience and replace it. For example:

The serendipitous nature of our reunion did not escape us.

If the word “serendipitous” was considered inappropriate, you would change it to:

The coincidental nature of our reunion did not escape us.

Editing with Deletion

Another useful technique is deletion, where you remove the content and replace it with implication. For example, if the description of a gruesome murder scene is considered inappropriate, you can replace it with something like:

The detective put her hand over her mouth as she saw the awful scene in the apartment. She had never seen anything like it before and had to struggle to keep from throwing up onto the floor.

Other than that, the final thing a writer should keep in mind about editing for content is that it’s often extremely subjective. Different people will have very different ideas concerning what is or is not appropriate and you can never make everyone happy. Keep your audience in mind, but don’t be afraid of them. Write what you want to write and things will work out for the best.

Next time, we’ll discuss some important people that every writer should have in their life: alpha and beta readers. Until then, stay safe and keep writing.

Of course, our team of professional editors will be more than happy to give your essays and papers a final run through, evaluation and professional editing job before you’re ready to submit them. Stop by our order page today and see what we can do for you today!

#content #deletion #editing #substitution

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Myths About Formal Writing

Learning to write in a formal style or voice can be difficult and people often look for rules they can follow to produce formal writing by formula. Some of these rules can be useful and effective, such as “do not use slang or colloquial expressions unless they are in quotes”. Unfortunately, other rules are less useful and can lead to weak or awkward writing. Today, we’re going to cover three of the most common and damaging myths about formal writing.

Myth #1: You should never use contractions in formal writing.

This is something that I hear commonly, even from experienced writers who should know better, and it strikes me as a bizarre idea. The problem seems to be that people believe that contractions sound more natural and they associate that natural sound with an informal style of writing. However, sounding awkward and clunky is not necessarily a characteristic of formal writing. For example:

The project can not move forward as a result of the negligent behavior of the shipping department. It has become obvious that they have not been processing orders properly and as a result many shipments have been delayed or lost.

Versus:

The project can’t move forward as a result of the negligent behavior of the shipping department. It has become obvious that they haven’t been processing orders properly and as a result many shipments have been delayed or lost.

There are some exceptions. Although “ain’t” is rather unfairly maligned, it is still considered unprofessional and should not be used in formal writing. Also, you may have noticed that in the above passage I still used “it has” instead of “it’s”. This is because “it’s” is a contraction that can mean multiple things and such contractions shouldn’t be used in formal writing in order to aid in readability. However, in general as long as contractions are being used properly and with moderation, there is no problem using them in formal writing.

Myth #2: Never use the first-person in formal writing.

This is one of the all time famous myths about formal writing. Almost everyone has been told by some well-meaning teacher that you shouldn’t use a first-person perspective in formal writing. And while the advice has some merit, there is a tendency for young writers to write more casually and informally in the first person, there are plenty of times when avoiding the first person can lead to problems.

One of the major problems it causes is the overuse of the passive voice. Writers that attempt to describe their own ideas and opinions without a first-person perspective usually end up simply removing the “I” from the passage and ending up with rather unclear statements such as:

It has been noticed that lightning storms are a common feature in Romantic literature.

And that is just terrible writing. Formal writing should utilize the first-person perspective whenever it would be awkward or unclear to not use it. Otherwise, it should attempt to maintain an objective tone, but it should never sacrifice readability in such a manner.

Myth #3: Formal writing can’t be funny.

One of the most frustrating beliefs of young writers is that humor, wit, and jokes are somehow “unprofessional” or “informal”. There is a long and proud tradition of even the stodgiest academics filling their works with snarky asides and silly wordplay. As long as the humor doesn’t distract from the main point, writers should stop mistaking “grim and humorless” for a sign of professional maturity and feel free to keep things light-hearted. Most of their readers will love them for it. After all, everyone likes to laugh.

There are quite a few other myths about formal writing, but the key to all of them is to consider how they are actually aiding you in communicating with your audience. A little critical thought will go a long ways, just remember that the key to everything in formal writing is usually moderation. Next time, we’ll move on to a different subject: plagiarism and how to avoid it. Until then, stay safe and keep writing!

If you’re not sure your essay is formal enough, why not stop by our order page today? Our team of international editors will be more than happy to go over your work and help shape it to be the type of essay you want.

#contractions #first-person #formal writing #humor #informal writing #myths #writing

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The Difference Between Formal and Informal Writing

The difference between formal and informal writing might seem simple, but like most things the devil is in the details. Almost everyone understands that there are times where speaking informally is inappropriate, such as during a job interview or business proposal, and will shift to a more formal style of speech. Some things that might happen during this type of shift is that the speaker will use less slang, shift to a less colloquial style of grammar, and demonstrate a more complex vocabulary. The same sort of shift happens in writing and it is vital that any professional, whether they are a contractor preparing a proposal or a writer sending a letter to their publisher, master the difference between the two types of writing.

The most important thing to understand is the different audiences that formal and informal writing can be used to address. Formal writing is professional, academic, and “polite” writing. It can be used in:

Technical manuals:

The tab is inserted into slot “H” and the assemblage is rotated ninety degrees clockwise

Academic papers:

The problem is that a neo-Lacadian view of the novel displaces the meaning found in the material themes of the narrative.

Official communications:

If it pleases the Baron, the company requests a meeting to discuss the possibility of a stay of execution.

Meanwhile, informal writing is more commonly associated with narrative and casual forms of communication, such as:

Prose dialogue:

“That is a killer watch,” the alligator said. “Can I, like, borrow it, bro?”

Texting:

lol I can’t handle it. Totes adorbs.

And while the line between the two types of writing can be blurry and ill-defined at times, there are a few simple things that characterize the two. Slang and colloquial forms of speech are generally informal and should not be used in formal writing. Formal types of writing should also always have proper punctuation and major grammatical errors should be avoided as much as possible.

Of course, there are quite a few other rules that people may have heard about formal and informal writing. Horrible, awful, mistaken ideas that are passed down by English teachers with a serious lack of critical thought. That’s why next time we’ll be looking at a few of the more common myths about formal writing and why they’re complete nonsense. Until then, stay safe and keep writing.

If you need help differentiating your writing, stop by our order page today. Our team of international editors

#formal writing #informal writing #syntax #vocabulary

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Writers Block, how to clear your mind and write freely!

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