Are you ready to Tweet? Make sure you write it right.

May 5, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Twitter.com has quickly become the best way to share information in real-time regarding current news, upcoming events and even personal day-to-day errands. The parameters of using this powerful networking tool can be a bit daunting to newbies, but once you get the hang of it – it’s easy and fun.

Anatomy of a Tweet

A tweet is the name given to the post that you will make on your account. The only ones who can see your tweets are those who are following you. As followers are not automatic, you will need to start following others to increase interest in you have to say. Once you create the interest, you will have followers.

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A tweet can be a maximum of 140 characters—so you will need to brush up on your emoticons and common acronyms used by Twitter communicators such as :-( and HTH (Hope that helps).

Tips to Tweet By

Since the whole point of Twitter is to be followed; the best case scenario is for your tweets to be retweeted. This is when others resend your tweet with a note to their followers. A Retweet looks like this: “RT – note – original tweet.” If you are savvy in your tweets, you’ll keep this in mind and remember that there is still a 140 character limit. So if you want to be retweeted, you may want to keep your original tweet to 120 characters.

There are many other tricks and tips that will help you become a highly regarded user with many followers and clever tweets. Do some research and have fun.

Filed Under: Research Tagged With: , ,

The Five W’s and One H of News Writing

March 24, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Part of the responsibility of a news writer is to make sure that the articles that you produce answer the five W’s. Whether the article is a hard news or soft news article the five W’s and one H will help readers understand the topic that you are talking about. Here is a look at what the five W’s and one H of journalistic writing are.

Who. All news articles need to focus on the who. Who is the article about? Who are the main characters? It is important that the writer let readers know all important information on all important characters in the article.

What. News articles need to answer what. What is happening? What is the topic? What happened? What activities were present? When these are answered it helps keep the article on topic.

Where. Readers want to know about the time and place of where the news story took place. This can include a building, street, state, country as long as it’s the location of the event the news story will be complete.

Why. News articles need to focus on the why. Why did an event take place? Why did something happen? Even if you do not have the answer you can try to present why things happened or people’s theories on why the events happened.

When. News articles also need to let readers know when something happened. Did it happen two days ago or three years ago? The day, date, time and year are all important in news stories.

While journalists are expected to answer the five W’s they are also required to answer one H. How. Writers need to present the how of the events. How something happened or how it came about.

Filed Under: Academic writing, Research Tagged With: , ,

Research Tip: How to Ask Good Questions During a Research Interview

March 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Interviews can be an important part of the news writing process. They are a great resource to gather information, get direct quotes and even give a personal touch to some of the articles that you are writing. How much information you can use from your interview will depend upon how good or bad the interview questions are. If you do not ask the right questions you will not get enough information to use quotes from the interview.

Here are some tips on how to conduct a great interview for those that are looking to use the interview in a news story.

Do Your Research. It is important to do your research. Research both the topic that you are planning on writing about and the person that you are interviewing. This will allow you to create informative questions that you can use in your news articles.

Create Thoughtful Questions. Questions that require some thought behind them will come out more sincere than those that are one word answers. Try to ask questions that require the interviewee to think about their answers and give you a lot of information. Not only will it give you more time to think of new questions but it will also allow you to capture an imagine of the interviewee that you can use in your article.

Break-up Long Questions. Try to consider what the response might be for the questions that you are asking. Try to only ask the interviewee one or two questions at a time. This will allow them to answer all the questions and get you the information that you want. If you need to ask lots of questions break them up and follow the interviewee’s answers with the other questions.

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Guidelines for Writing a Hard News Article

March 9, 2011 by Leave a Comment

One of the first types of news writing that a journalist or freelance news writer learns is how to create a hard news article. Hard news articles are the bulk of the news stories that people read. When there is a story on local crime, the war, the economy or anything that requires a lot of facts chances are that the journalist will write the article using the hard news approach.

Hard news articles are different from those known as soft news because they do not play on people’s emotions and usually offer just the basic information on the topic of the article. While there will always be a slight bias when writing hard news does not rely upon opinions but sticks instead to the facts.

There are some general guidelines that writers can follow when trying to write up a hard news article. Here is a look at some of the guidelines that writers should follow.

Use the Inverted Pyramid. It is important to use the inverted pyramid setup when writing a hard news piece. The inverted pyramid allows writers to present the most important pieces of information first and slowly taper off into less important pieces of information.

Use A Nut Graph. A nut graph is an important piece that many hard news writers use. The nut graph will allow readers to have background information on the topic that they are reading about. This is important so that readers can understand what is going on in the story and why the story is important.

Research all Information. It is important in a hard news article that all resources and information be factually correct. Make sure that you research all information and statistics that you plan to use in your article.

Refrain from Using Quotes to Create a Lead. A hard news article must have a compelling lead to grab the reader’s attention. However, it is a good idea to avoid using quotes as this can often appear to be a soft news piece.

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Effective Visual Aids for your Research Paper

January 15, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Teachers are not always boring people and often do appreciate a little extra visual oomph to a research paper. Here are some college-friendly, effective visual aids.

Headings

Give the reader’s mind a break by chunking and organizing some of the information for them with headings and subheadings. Keep your headings short and to the point.

Font

Avoid using strange fonts and colors. Use a font and size that is easy to read. Some of the more decorative fonts strain the eye. Generally, a 12 point basic font like Arial and Times New Roman are best. Use black ink because color would take away from your colorful vocabulary and articulate nature. In addition, you rarely see books or magazine articles printed in color fonts.

Photographs and Pictures

All people love pictures, but teachers are not always excited about seeing them within the body of a research paper, so get the teacher’s permission first before doing so. Also consider providing this kind of visual aid in an appendix, and refer to it throughout the paper when relevant.

Graphs, Tables, and Charts

Sometimes, the easiest way to display a lot of data is with graphs, tables, and charts. Generally, these can be placed within the body of the paper, but if a teacher is extra persnickety about that, provide an appendix. Not only is this especially useful for statistics, but you can easily summarize empirical evidence, theories, definitions, lists, etc. with graphs and tables.

Multi-media

If you are computer inclined, you can create a multi-media supplement to your research paper such as a video, slide show, flash media, or a web based model, and either provide a web address in your paper or a CD/DVD. It should be relevant, but not required. For instance, a paper about television advertisements might provide a story board of a certain advertisement in the appendix in addition to the actual video on a DVD.

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Rhetorical Uses in Writing Persuasion

January 8, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Rhetoric is the art of language where effective persuasion rests in catering to the three appeals of the audience:  Logos, Pathos, and Ethos. Popular with Aristotle and Plato, its primary goal is not to discover truth (like Socrates’ Dialectical Method), but to persuade people.

Logos

Logos is the logic and reason of the information. This is prevalent in the academic environment such as school papers, journal articles, and so forth. This would include inductive and deductive reasoning, research and citations, definitions, statistics, expert opinion, analogies, and relevance of facts.

Pathos

Pathos is the emotion of the information. Advertisers use this method primarily because logic is intended for argument whereas no one really argues emotion. Imagine a mother scolding her child for breaking into the cookie jar. If the child responds with logic, “but mom, you said I wasn’t allowed a cookie yesterday, but you didn’t say anything about today,” generally the mom is going to argue back.  However if the child responds with emotion, “sorry mom, I wanted a cookie to try to cheer me up,” mom most likely is going to feel a little sorry for and be a little easier on said child whether she gives in to the cookie wish or not. Ways to achieve pathos include emotional stories or examples, vivid descriptions, figurative language such as similes and metaphors, and tone. Pathos pushes people to not only read and comprehend, but to take action.

Ethos

Ethos is the credibility of the writer. Examples of ethos include doctors recommending a health product or a politician trying to destroy the credibility of an opponent. Students find it particularly difficult to achieve credibility when writing persuasive papers because their reputation isn’t always predefined at that moment, but you can still achieve ethos in other ways like using credible sources within research, properly using grammar and vocabulary, writing to the level of the intended audience, and removing bias.

Filed Under: Research, Writing Tagged With: , , ,

Using References Appropriately

December 12, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Using references have been a subject upon which many have been troubled. Many have felt the fright of not knowing exactly how to use a source in their writing, most commonly over the course of one’s academic career.

It isn’t actually quite that difficult. Yet it may feel much worse than it really is. Here are some techniques to become more comfortable with using references.

One way to help is to consult for help. For instance, if you are in high school or college, your teacher or professor could point you to some literature on using sources effectively, as well as basic writing strategies. Others, such as researchers, may do well to consult those in their field, or popular works in their discipline.

Another important realization is that using references is often closely linked to the discipline. As a generalization, a subject such as sociology may make wider use of sources, given the density of theories and figures. Mathematics students, on the other hand, may not need such wide use of sources, unless in a certain context.

Context gives rise to the second important consideration in using references. It is likely more often linked to what type of paper you are writing, in knowing what kind, how many, and to what extent, in the area of sources needed.

A research paper is an obvious example of this, where many high-quality sources are needed. A simple article critique may not need such sources. Generalizations again can be misleading, such as in the case of argumentative papers, which can be based on one’s own understanding and reactions to a topic, or perhaps not.

Taking some time to identify ways to utilize sources appropriately can make a big difference in your writing, regardless of whether you are in school or have some other need in this topic. Your research and overall reference skills will be vastly improved with a little bit of work on these areas.

Filed Under: Education, Research

Making Use of University Libraries

December 8, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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The advantages of university libraries extend beyond those that are attending the respective institutions. Outwards from these direct students, other students and members of the general public are able to take advantage of the uses of university libraries.

Students are the prime example of individuals who can make use of university libraries. Most commonly, university libraries are frequented by the students who attend these institutions. However, this isn’t the only case.

Students of nearby institutions should often see whether they can use university libraries in their area. Commonly students of smaller institutions cannot obtain proper research materials for their studies at their own institutions. Thus, there is a need for the resources that a larger institution has to offer.

Another group of students that display this need are online and distance students. Currently is is not uncommon for a student to attend an online or distance institution that is well outside any normal travel considerations. Certainly students in this situation display a need for academic libraries that are nearby and available.

If you or your child is in this situation, see if they can obtain a guest student pass at a local institution’s library. For nearby and distance/online students, many colleges and universities will be receptive to the needs of these students.

University libraries are also relevant to those in the general public, outside of academia. Often due to the library’s increased resources, members of the general public can obtain a special kind of pass to allow them access to the university’s libraries.

It should also be noted, that for the general public, you may already have access to the libraries of universities in your area. Check your library system’s online database to see if local universities are included. Many areas use the resources of local university libraries in conjunction with those of public libraries for all members of the public.

Whether you are a student or member of the general public outside of academia, you can take advantage of what local university libraries have to offer. Consult them or your local library system to understand what is available.

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Online Reference Tools

December 6, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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Online reference tools have overtaken the market for printed dictionaries, thesauruses, and other typical reference tools. Realizing these benefits, here are some ways to take advantage of online reference tools.

Online reference tools begin with a number of advantages that all types of individuals can realize. One of the first points of emphasis is scope. It is remarkable to see the scope of online reference tools, as they span simple reference features as a dictionary, to more complex features as online encyclopedias and reference databases.

Many online reference tools are included in an easy to use fashion. It is not uncommon for a website to have a host of reference tools on the home page of the site, making it easy to use these reference tools quickly.

With the onset of such tools, it is easy to see the power and efficiency of such tools. For instance, in previous years one may have to purchase a rhyming dictionary to look up such words, like those who enjoy writing songs or poetry. Online rhyming dictionaries are commonplace now, offering free and easy ways to look up words. Needless to say, it is much quicker and more powerful to look up such words online than through a book.

To take advantage of such tools, identify what online reference tools suit you. To take the previous example, perhaps you may be inclined to use the creative power that an online rhyming dictionary can bring. Others, such as students and those who enjoy learning about particular subjects, may find a powerful academic database useful.

Reference tools can be identified and used online when appropriate. This is not to undermine the value of those that are found in printed form, which remain very useful, but it is hard to ignore that advantages of those that are online. It is easy to take advantage of such references and tools that can be easily reached online.

Filed Under: Research Tagged With: ,

Eliminate Typos by Reading Your Paper Backwards

September 22, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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Despite the widespread availability of Spell Check and traditional proofreading techniques, students and writers alike suffer from the occasional typo. Whether it is in your doctoral dissertation or email message to your boss, typos are embarrassing. For example, consider the implications of writing “Director of Pubic Relations” instead of “Public Relations.”

Spell Check Doesn’t Work

The main problem with Spell Check and similar software is that it does not catch unintentional typos. In the example above, both pubic and public are words in the English dictionary. Artificial intelligence has not caught up, so the computer thinks there is a “pubic” relations director in the workforce. One cannot rely on spell check to serve as a virtual proofreader. You would be surprised at how many errors spell check does not correct, especially considering how much students and young professionals rely on the technology.

Quick Proofreading Doesn’t Work

Reading your documents and messages before publishing them was thought to reduce typos, however; a recent study indicates the brain automatically fills in the blanks or gaps in your text. As a writer, you know what the text was supposed to read, which causes you to unintentionally fix typos in your head. Alas, an archaic solution exists that saves you from public humiliation or a poor grade.

Read Your Paper Backwards

When you finish writing your document or prose, navigate to the end of the document and read each word aloud in reverse order. By reading them aloud, the sentences will not make sense, thus you are forced to focus on each word, one at a time. Keep the noise to a minimum though to prevent break room chatter amongst your coworkers. Forcing your brain to compute the meaning of every word reduces or eliminates typos and wrong words (i.e. there instead of their).

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