The Hard Facts about EditingWritten by Jennifer Minar
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Ask a Friend to Read. It's helpful to have friends look at your work. They'll see it with a new perspective, which in turn will help them find things you may have missed. But remember, non-writer friends may not always know what to look for. Friends may also be shy about correcting you. You need dead-honest criticism, so if you feel you won't get it from a particular person, don't ask him to read. Join a Critique Group. Peer critiques can be a terrific way to get feedback on your work, and to offer feedback on work of others. As an added benefit, you will learn that there's a lot to gain from correcting others' mistakes. There are many online critique groups. (One place to look is Yahoo Groups http://groups.yahoo.com/). Find one that works for you, then submit and critique as needed. Read Books. There are many good books that can teach you to become a better self-editor. Check out a couple of them. Also, make sure to keep a style guide handy. One good one is Strunk and White's, The Elements of Style. Hire an Editor. A good editor will be able to reveal hidden mistakes and will ensure that your best possible work is being submitted. There are many editors who will gladly take your money, so be careful when choosing someone with whom to work. Ask friends for recommendations. If you'd like my recommendation, WritersBreak.com works with a fantastic and super-affordable editor who owns BookShelf Editing Services. I cannot recommend her highly enough for editing articles, novels, or web material. She can be found at www.writersbreak.com/bookshelf-editing.htm. Remember, few things undermine credibility as quickly as work that contains errors. But, on a positive note, also remember that there are many actions you can take to avoid them.
Jennifer Minar is a freelance writer in the health & fitness and writing markets. She is the founder & managing editor of Writer's Break (http://www.writersbreak.com), a web site and ezine for fiction and creative non-fiction writers. She is also the founder of Industry News @-a-Glance, an ezine for the retail pharmacy industry. Jennifer can be contacted at jminar@writersbreak.com.
| | How Can a White Paper Support Sales and Marketing?Written by Christine Taylor
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3)Get specific on product benefits. This section combines with technology section and includes ways that product meets challenge. You can also use this section to contrast your approach with other technologies, especially if your product is innovative. We all know sad fate of disruptive technologies, but readers do want to know what your product does differently, how it does it, and why it does it better. 4)Push a positive return on investment. ROI has always been a big deal, and with reason. If you have great hard cost numbers, terrific – don’t hesitate to use them. Longer white papers have room for graphs and charts, but even shorter ones can refer to positive ROI. Newer ROI analysis methods factor in “soft costs” – employee time, improved infrastructure, etc. – so don’t hesitate to talk about those too. 5)Add some case studies. Actual case studies with actual customers are ideal, but if you can’t mention customer names (common in financial world), it’s fine to speak more generally. “A Fortune 100 finance company recently deployed…” 6)Conclude with how great your product is and contact information. Here’s where you can use marketing mottoes, just keep it to 1-2 paragraphs. And include your contact information!Well-written white papers have lots of good uses. Here’s a run-down: •Sell a product – its ultimate purpose, of course •Differentiate product from competitors •Place company in leadership role •Promote bylined author as a subject matter expert. (Which they should be, even if a professional writer actually wrote thing.) •Help journalists research their stories (note: journalists are not helped by sales brochures) There’s a lot that goes into creating a useful white paper. For your next project, consider hiring an experienced writer to create a marketing white paper that just keeps on selling. Talk about good ROI! Christine Taylor Keyword Writing P.O. Box 3499 Wrightwood, CA 92397
Call Christine Taylor today at 760-249-6071 or e-mail her at chris@keywordcopy.com, and start that white paper selling!
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