Year: 2013

The power of touch typing in writingThe power of touch typing in writing

We would all like writing to get easier, right?

When your writing medium is the keyboard (typing), though, it gets difficult. Imagine you are hunting and pecking your way across the keyboard with two fingers but then you spot a typo. You correct it. Then you laboriously continue to hunt and peck again. Once again you make mistakes. Then you correct mistakes. While you are correcting the mistakes, your focus is lost and you have to think again for a while, before continuing and in some cases losing your state of concentration.

It’s annoying without a doubt.

It’s because of this reason many writers continue to use the pen and paper for writing. It’s easier, faster for them, and is more creatively-oriented (you can’t press backspace, editing with red pen feels more familiar and effective in some cases etc.)

But be that as it may, there is no denying that writing using pen and paper is inconvenient in this day and age. So what can we do to make typing less annoying, and maybe, even fun?

I’m sure you guessed what I was going to say: the answer is simple. Learn touch typing.
(more…)

Tips and tricks to write effectively for web readers – Web Writing 101Tips and tricks to write effectively for web readers – Web Writing 101

You know that web writing is a lot different from print writing.

It’s because web readers are different from print readers.

Why is that, though? What makes web readers different?

Is it because they skim content before reading it (and many times they never read the full content)? Is it because they read headlines first to determine whether the content is any good? Is it because their attention spans are shorter than ever? Or is it a combination of all three?

If you said the last option, congratulations: you’re right.

The fact is: if you want your web writing to be effective web writing, you need to ensure that it follows all the correct requirements which web readers love. But what are they, anyway? Let’s see!
(more…)

Warning: Do You Know that Your Paragraphs are Not Good Enough?Warning: Do You Know that Your Paragraphs are Not Good Enough?

Have you ever wondered why your writing was not good enough?

We’ve all done it.

You write and you write. You stress over your choice of words and your sentence structure. You’ve got the headlines and the subheads perfected. Your content is fantastic, something that deserves to get viral, deserves to be read by people. It’s helpful, informative and funny as well. It’s brilliant according to you, and yet no one bothers to read it (even if you market it like crazy).

So where’s the problem here? If there were one more sentence before the 2nd and 3rd sentences in the last paragraph, a sentence like this… “You write superb paragraphs.” Then it would explain the problem. Why, though?

It’s like this: a bricklayer can do his work brilliantly, but if his fundamental blocks – the bricks – are of poor quality, then how is his work and the result going to be perfect?

If the fundamental building blocks are of low quality, then how can the overall result be a masterpiece?

And what are the fundamental building blocks in writing? … Paragraphs.

So how do we get these paragraphs right so that we can speed on our way to other important things that matter? In short, how can we master the art of writing awesome paragraphs?

That’s what we’re here for. So let’s begin, class is in session!
(more…)