Just as annoying are writers who like to write a succession of sentence fragments. Like this. One after the other. Like machine-gun fire. It drives readers nuts.

Sentence fragments, used sparingly, can be very effective. They do a good job of reflecting the fragmented nature of most people's thoughts. Overused, they arouse homicidal instincts in the reader. Be warned!

Bottom line: vary your sentence length. Avoid long, wordy sentences and use sentence fragments wisely. Most of the time, write grammatically correct sentences that are appropriate for the style and tone of your chosen genre.

Vary The "Voice" Of Your Characters

Here's a good writing exercise for you.

1. Jot down the names of four people you know with very different personalities.

2. Imagine each has had a bad experience with a sales assistant or a tradesman.

3. Now write a page in which each recounts their ex
   Know This Before You Start Your Home Business
   As 2005 dawns on earth I am quite thoughtful. Many persons started their business in 2004. Some succeeded and some left disappointed.This New Year would bring many new home entrepreneurs to the net. How many of them would continue with what they started? How many would leave disappointed and disgruntled? How many of them would become a source of inspiration for others in waiting? How many would detest many others just because they failed.I hear crackers bursting as people welcome New Year with full celebrations.For those who have left, I feel sorry. They have left a road to wealth, richness and freedom from daily grind.For those who are about to begin, I extend my welcome. 2005 is predicted to be the best year till date for home business. Equally for those who are making millions right now or just starting.Whatever kind of business you are in, wherever you are from, home busines
   First drafts are for getting down the ideas. Anna Jacobs calls the first draft the 'dirty draft'. Jenny Crusie calls it the 'don't-look-down draft'. The most important thing is to get it written.

   Then comes editing and polishing. Some writers love this stage: they can roll up their sleeves and start whipping that book into shape. Others are not so keen. They'd rather have a tooth extracted than sit down and write another word. Unfortunately, a 'dirty draft' is the equivalent of a tooth with a cavity - it needs fixing or it will cause a lot of pain!

   There are any number of things you should be looking for when you're editing. If we tried to cover them all here, this would be a book and not a tipsheet. So we'll limit ourselves to four, all of which come under the heading of "Variety".

   Vary Your Sentence Beginnings

   This is particularly important when you are using the first person. More than one writer has written a desperate note on work sent in for me to critique, saying something like "I seem to be saying I, I, I all the time... but how can I avoid it when I'm writing in the first person?"

   Yes, it can be a challenge. But once you learn the strategies for getting around this problem, you'll find yourself automatically making the necessary changes as you write.

   An Example

   I staggered into the bathroom, cursing the person who invented daylight saving. I needed sleep. Lots more sleep. I was aware, of course, that an hour wouldn't make much difference; not when I'd been up half the night. But what was the use of having an hour chopped off the morning? I wondered whether anybody actually did anything with that hour when it turned up again in the afternoon.

   We have four sentences starting with "I" in the above example, and one "I'd". This might not look like a lot in this short sample - but if the frequency of the personal pronoun 'I' continued at this level, the reader would probably find it a bit tiresome.

   It's easy to change. Look for (a) opportunities to simply drop the word "I" and (b) ways to restructure the sentence so it's not necessary. We'll rewrite the above:

   I staggered into the bathroom, cursing the person who invented daylight saving. Oh, for more sleep. Lots more sleep. Okay, one hour wouldn't make much difference: not when I'd been up half the night. But what was the use of having an hour chopped off the morning? Did anybody actually do anything with that hour when it turned up again in the afternoon?

   Easy. With a few simple changes, we've cut out three instances of the word "I". Much more acceptable! And by tapping directly into the viewpoint character's thoughts instead of saying "I wondered" and "I was aware", we're moving deeper into viewpoint, and therefore achieving more reader involvement.

   Check carefully for your use of the personal pronoun in all your work. It's all too easy to start sentence after sentence with "She", "He", "I" or "They".

   Vary Sentence Structure

   Check your sentences to make sure they're not all following the same structure. You saw in the above example how easy it is to change things around so sentences don't all begin with the same word. It's just as simple to make sure they don't all have the same rhythm.

   Example

   "I don't want you to think I'm not sympathetic," he said, leaning on the kitchen counter.

   "Of course not," she replied, crashing the pan down in the sink.

   "I do understand what you're saying," he went on, adopting that conciliatory tone she hated so much. "But I have needs too."

   "Yes, I know that, Tim," she said through gritted teeth, blasting hot water into the dirty pan.

   This is all getting a bit dull. There's a lot going on, but we're almost in a state of torpor because of the predictable rhythm. Throughout this passage, we have:

   [direct speech] + [speech tag] + action or clarification.

   Let's try a variation:

   "I don't want you to think I'm not sympathetic." Tim leaned on the kitchen counter, idly clicking a pen.

   Alana crashed the pan down into the sink. "Of course not."

   "I do understand what you're saying. But I have needs too."

   His voice had that conciliatory tone that made her want to slap him. "Yes, I know that, Tim." She wrenched on the tap and sent hot water blasting into the dirty pan.

   We have (a) changed the placement of the dialogue; (b) eliminated several unnecessary speech tags and (c) relocated her reaction to his tone of voice to the paragraph containing her words, not his words. Small changes - but a big effect.

   Vary Sentence Length

   This sounds easy - but judging by the thousands of scenes I've critiqued, it's not as simple as it looks. The worst offenders are writers who like to construct long, flowing sentences with lots of commas, dashes, semi-colons and colons. These might have been de rigeur in Jane Austen's day, but most modern readers would doze off. Worse, they'd get lost. You risk the meaning being obscured by long, unnecessarily complex sentences. It's quite likely those long sentences would also be grammatically incorrect.

   Example

   Allow me to reconstruct the previous paragraph into one sentence to show you what I mean:

   This sounds easy - but judging by the thousands of scenes I've critiqued, it's not as simple as it looks: the worst offenders being writers who like to construct long, flowing sentences with lots of commas, dashes, semi-colons, and colons... these might have been de rigeur in Jane Austen's day, but most modern readers would doze off - worse, they'd get lost: you risk the meaning being obscured by long, unnecessarily complex sentences (which are also likely to be grammatically incorrect).

   Phew. I feel the need to take a long gulp of air after just typing that one.

   Just as annoying are writers who like to write a succession of sentence fragments. Like this. One after the other. Like machine-gun fire. It drives readers nuts.

   Sentence fragments, used sparingly, can be very effective. They do a good job of reflecting the fragmented nature of most people's thoughts. Overused, they arouse homicidal instincts in the reader. Be warned!

   Bottom line: vary your sentence length. Avoid long, wordy sentences and use sentence fragments wisely. Most of the time, write grammatically correct sentences that are appropriate for the style and tone of your chosen genre.

   Vary The "Voice" Of Your Characters

   Here's a good writing exercise for you.

   1. Jot down the names of four people you know with very different personalities.

   2. Imagine each has had a bad experience with a sales assistant or a tradesman.

   3. Now write a page in which each recounts their ex
      Dealing With A Collection Agency
      Step I - Selecting A Collection AgencySelecting a credit collection agency is perhaps the most important and difficult task. Some factors you must consider while selecting a collection agency are:- Experience and professionals - Geographical presence - Expertise - Fees and charging model - Customer references - Collection Agency Services has covered this topic in depth through various free collections reports and articles on this site.Step II - Hiring the Collection Agency and Setting Up ProcessesOnce you select the collection agency, the first two steps you have to take are:Enter into a contract with the agency;Set up processes on how you are going to communicate with the agency.A contract is the legal document and your legal experts will, of course, prepare it correctly. Just make sure that you include important clauses such as confi
      cursing the person who invented daylight saving. I needed sleep. Lots more sleep. I was aware, of course, that an hour wouldn't make much difference; not when I'd been up half the night. But what was the use of having an hour chopped off the morning? I wondered whether anybody actually did anything with that hour when it turned up again in the afternoon. We have four sentences starting with "I" in the above example, and one "I'd". This might not look like a lot in this short sample - but if the frequency of the personal pronoun 'I' continued at this level, the reader would probably find it a bit tiresome.

      It's easy to change. Look for (a) opportunities to simply drop the word "I" and (b) ways to restructure the sentence so it's not necessary. We'll rewrite the above:

      I staggered into the bathroom, cursing the person who invented daylight saving. Oh, for more sleep. Lots more sleep. Okay, one hour wouldn't make much difference: not when I'd been up half the night. But what was the use of having an hour chopped off the morning? Did anybody actually do anything with that hour when it turned up again in the afternoon?

      Easy. With a few simple changes, we've cut out three instances of the word "I". Much more acceptable! And by tapping directly into the viewpoint character's thoughts instead of saying "I wondered" and "I was aware", we're moving deeper into viewpoint, and therefore achieving more reader involvement.

      Check carefully for your use of the personal pronoun in all your work. It's all too easy to start sentence after sentence with "She", "He", "I" or "They".

      Vary Sentence Structure

      Check your sentences to make sure they're not all following the same structure. You saw in the above example how easy it is to change things around so sentences don't all begin with the same word. It's just as simple to make sure they don't all have the same rhythm.

      Example

      "I don't want you to think I'm not sympathetic," he said, leaning on the kitchen counter.

      "Of course not," she replied, crashing the pan down in the sink.

      "I do understand what you're saying," he went on, adopting that conciliatory tone she hated so much. "But I have needs too."

      "Yes, I know that, Tim," she said through gritted teeth, blasting hot water into the dirty pan.

      This is all getting a bit dull. There's a lot going on, but we're almost in a state of torpor because of the predictable rhythm. Throughout this passage, we have:

      [direct speech] + [speech tag] + action or clarification.

      Let's try a variation:

      "I don't want you to think I'm not sympathetic." Tim leaned on the kitchen counter, idly clicking a pen.

      Alana crashed the pan down into the sink. "Of course not."

      "I do understand what you're saying. But I have needs too."

      His voice had that conciliatory tone that made her want to slap him. "Yes, I know that, Tim." She wrenched on the tap and sent hot water blasting into the dirty pan.

      We have (a) changed the placement of the dialogue; (b) eliminated several unnecessary speech tags and (c) relocated her reaction to his tone of voice to the paragraph containing her words, not his words. Small changes - but a big effect.

      Vary Sentence Length

      This sounds easy - but judging by the thousands of scenes I've critiqued, it's not as simple as it looks. The worst offenders are writers who like to construct long, flowing sentences with lots of commas, dashes, semi-colons and colons. These might have been de rigeur in Jane Austen's day, but most modern readers would doze off. Worse, they'd get lost. You risk the meaning being obscured by long, unnecessarily complex sentences. It's quite likely those long sentences would also be grammatically incorrect.

      Example

      Allow me to reconstruct the previous paragraph into one sentence to show you what I mean:

      This sounds easy - but judging by the thousands of scenes I've critiqued, it's not as simple as it looks: the worst offenders being writers who like to construct long, flowing sentences with lots of commas, dashes, semi-colons, and colons... these might have been de rigeur in Jane Austen's day, but most modern readers would doze off - worse, they'd get lost: you risk the meaning being obscured by long, unnecessarily complex sentences (which are also likely to be grammatically incorrect).

      Phew. I feel the need to take a long gulp of air after just typing that one.

      Just as annoying are writers who like to write a succession of sentence fragments. Like this. One after the other. Like machine-gun fire. It drives readers nuts.

      Sentence fragments, used sparingly, can be very effective. They do a good job of reflecting the fragmented nature of most people's thoughts. Overused, they arouse homicidal instincts in the reader. Be warned!

      Bottom line: vary your sentence length. Avoid long, wordy sentences and use sentence fragments wisely. Most of the time, write grammatically correct sentences that are appropriate for the style and tone of your chosen genre.

      Vary The "Voice" Of Your Characters

      Here's a good writing exercise for you.

      1. Jot down the names of four people you know with very different personalities.

      2. Imagine each has had a bad experience with a sales assistant or a tradesman.

      3. Now write a page in which each recounts their ex
         Internet Tip of the Week: Mistakes Count Against You
         Before the advent of email most of us, other than sending out cards for special occasions, would write very few letters. If we did write a letter, it was carefully prepared, and considerable thought went into it. Today, with computer access available to most people, we have tremendously increased our amount of written communication, and sometimes fall into a trap. There are seven words that will serve as our guide and help us to communicate more effectively.Perhaps the first word to consider is "Brevity" - we receive and respond to more mail each day, than we would in a year, before the advent of the Internet. As we became experienced with email, we found certain shortcuts that we would never use in "pen and ink" communications.Many people simply copy the entire note to which they are responding, and make their comments. Others might lift a pertinent paragraph and respond. This is acceptable prac
         , we're moving deeper into viewpoint, and therefore achieving more reader involvement.

         Check carefully for your use of the personal pronoun in all your work. It's all too easy to start sentence after sentence with "She", "He", "I" or "They".

         Vary Sentence Structure

         Check your sentences to make sure they're not all following the same structure. You saw in the above example how easy it is to change things around so sentences don't all begin with the same word. It's just as simple to make sure they don't all have the same rhythm.

         Example

         "I don't want you to think I'm not sympathetic," he said, leaning on the kitchen counter.

         "Of course not," she replied, crashing the pan down in the sink.

         "I do understand what you're saying," he went on, adopting that conciliatory tone she hated so much. "But I have needs too."

         "Yes, I know that, Tim," she said through gritted teeth, blasting hot water into the dirty pan.

         This is all getting a bit dull. There's a lot going on, but we're almost in a state of torpor because of the predictable rhythm. Throughout this passage, we have:

         [direct speech] + [speech tag] + action or clarification.

         Let's try a variation:

         "I don't want you to think I'm not sympathetic." Tim leaned on the kitchen counter, idly clicking a pen.

         Alana crashed the pan down into the sink. "Of course not."

         "I do understand what you're saying. But I have needs too."

         His voice had that conciliatory tone that made her want to slap him. "Yes, I know that, Tim." She wrenched on the tap and sent hot water blasting into the dirty pan.

         We have (a) changed the placement of the dialogue; (b) eliminated several unnecessary speech tags and (c) relocated her reaction to his tone of voice to the paragraph containing her words, not his words. Small changes - but a big effect.

         Vary Sentence Length

         This sounds easy - but judging by the thousands of scenes I've critiqued, it's not as simple as it looks. The worst offenders are writers who like to construct long, flowing sentences with lots of commas, dashes, semi-colons and colons. These might have been de rigeur in Jane Austen's day, but most modern readers would doze off. Worse, they'd get lost. You risk the meaning being obscured by long, unnecessarily complex sentences. It's quite likely those long sentences would also be grammatically incorrect.

         Example

         Allow me to reconstruct the previous paragraph into one sentence to show you what I mean:

         This sounds easy - but judging by the thousands of scenes I've critiqued, it's not as simple as it looks: the worst offenders being writers who like to construct long, flowing sentences with lots of commas, dashes, semi-colons, and colons... these might have been de rigeur in Jane Austen's day, but most modern readers would doze off - worse, they'd get lost: you risk the meaning being obscured by long, unnecessarily complex sentences (which are also likely to be grammatically incorrect).

         Phew. I feel the need to take a long gulp of air after just typing that one.

         Just as annoying are writers who like to write a succession of sentence fragments. Like this. One after the other. Like machine-gun fire. It drives readers nuts.

         Sentence fragments, used sparingly, can be very effective. They do a good job of reflecting the fragmented nature of most people's thoughts. Overused, they arouse homicidal instincts in the reader. Be warned!

         Bottom line: vary your sentence length. Avoid long, wordy sentences and use sentence fragments wisely. Most of the time, write grammatically correct sentences that are appropriate for the style and tone of your chosen genre.

         Vary The "Voice" Of Your Characters

         Here's a good writing exercise for you.

         1. Jot down the names of four people you know with very different personalities.

         2. Imagine each has had a bad experience with a sales assistant or a tradesman.

         3. Now write a page in which each recounts their ex
            Securing Web Design Orders Through Our Existing Portfolio Of Customers
            Anybody who has advertised on Google Ad words or Overture knows what it costs to generate leads, build a sales pipeline and convert the orders. The cost per click for the keyword ‘web design’ can be as high as ?2 per click. Try to generate enough good leads and your pay per click budget could run into the thousands. Obviously getting the leads is not enough to secure web design orders. A lot of time and money can go into following up on the leads and converting these to web design orders. There is no doubt about it : securing first time customers is hard work and expensive. A viable business option is to generate web design orders through word of mouth. Whilst anybody would probably with this statement, the question remains…how do we sell web design effectively through word of mouth?The obvious answer is by getting yourself known within the web design industry and by your potential customers. There are a n
            clicking a pen.

            Alana crashed the pan down into the sink. "Of course not."

            "I do understand what you're saying. But I have needs too."

            His voice had that conciliatory tone that made her want to slap him. "Yes, I know that, Tim." She wrenched on the tap and sent hot water blasting into the dirty pan. We have (a) changed the placement of the dialogue; (b) eliminated several unnecessary speech tags and (c) relocated her reaction to his tone of voice to the paragraph containing her words, not his words. Small changes - but a big effect.

            Vary Sentence Length

            This sounds easy - but judging by the thousands of scenes I've critiqued, it's not as simple as it looks. The worst offenders are writers who like to construct long, flowing sentences with lots of commas, dashes, semi-colons and colons. These might have been de rigeur in Jane Austen's day, but most modern readers would doze off. Worse, they'd get lost. You risk the meaning being obscured by long, unnecessarily complex sentences. It's quite likely those long sentences would also be grammatically incorrect.

            Example

            Allow me to reconstruct the previous paragraph into one sentence to show you what I mean:

            This sounds easy - but judging by the thousands of scenes I've critiqued, it's not as simple as it looks: the worst offenders being writers who like to construct long, flowing sentences with lots of commas, dashes, semi-colons, and colons... these might have been de rigeur in Jane Austen's day, but most modern readers would doze off - worse, they'd get lost: you risk the meaning being obscured by long, unnecessarily complex sentences (which are also likely to be grammatically incorrect).

            Phew. I feel the need to take a long gulp of air after just typing that one.

            Just as annoying are writers who like to write a succession of sentence fragments. Like this. One after the other. Like machine-gun fire. It drives readers nuts.

            Sentence fragments, used sparingly, can be very effective. They do a good job of reflecting the fragmented nature of most people's thoughts. Overused, they arouse homicidal instincts in the reader. Be warned!

            Bottom line: vary your sentence length. Avoid long, wordy sentences and use sentence fragments wisely. Most of the time, write grammatically correct sentences that are appropriate for the style and tone of your chosen genre.

            Vary The "Voice" Of Your Characters

            Here's a good writing exercise for you.

            1. Jot down the names of four people you know with very different personalities.

            2. Imagine each has had a bad experience with a sales assistant or a tradesman.

            3. Now write a page in which each recounts their ex
               Public Relations for Vacation Resorts
               Often vacation resorts are put on islands where the people living there are relatively poor and it is kind of an invasion of the modern world onto their world. Nevertheless a vacation resort can bring lots of money to the island and increase the wealth of those that live there. In doing so this means a greater quality of life and a higher standard of living.However, it must also be considered that once a big vacation resort goes into such a location it changes the dynamics of the community and the local microeconomics forever. For those who work at the vacation resorts they are paid a lot more money than they could receive elsewhere and this means there is a separation of classes nearly immediately.Vacation resorts need to do things for the local Islanders such as help them with schools and education and mitigate any concerns of the local tribal leadership or local government. The efforts of a v
               g writers who like to construct long, flowing sentences with lots of commas, dashes, semi-colons, and colons... these might have been de rigeur in Jane Austen's day, but most modern readers would doze off - worse, they'd get lost: you risk the meaning being obscured by long, unnecessarily complex sentences (which are also likely to be grammatically incorrect). Phew. I feel the need to take a long gulp of air after just typing that one.

               Just as annoying are writers who like to write a succession of sentence fragments. Like this. One after the other. Like machine-gun fire. It drives readers nuts.

               Sentence fragments, used sparingly, can be very effective. They do a good job of reflecting the fragmented nature of most people's thoughts. Overused, they arouse homicidal instincts in the reader. Be warned!

               Bottom line: vary your sentence length. Avoid long, wordy sentences and use sentence fragments wisely. Most of the time, write grammatically correct sentences that are appropriate for the style and tone of your chosen genre.

               Vary The "Voice" Of Your Characters

               Here's a good writing exercise for you.

               1. Jot down the names of four people you know with very different personalities.

               2. Imagine each has had a bad experience with a sales assistant or a tradesman.

               3. Now write a page in which each recounts their experience. Try to get the dialogue to reflect that person's personality without torturing words to reflect dropped aitches or dialect etc.

               4. Read your work aloud. Does each person (character) sound like an individual?
               In summary: when you edit your work, make sure that your characters don't use the same sentence patterns, the same slang or the same pet phrases.

               (c) copyright Marg McAlister