He needed to raise money to go into wine-making business. To do this he had to have a comprehensive business plan showing potential investors how he planned to make their money back, along with a reasonable profit and in a reasonable period of time. Not much formal education himself he knew he needed someone to write this business plan who knew more than he did. So he did his due dilligence and investigated all possible sources of writing expertise he could come up with.

He found a young lady with a PhD – magic words to uneducated – who was a professional writer, and he hired her to create his business plan. PhD in English Writing means A skilled writer, no? Actually, it does mean No!

She wrote his business plan and he went out to raise money he needed – and couldn’t raise a farthing! Her business plan was so ineptly done that he could not entice any offer of financial support, not even for $10,000, let along $1 million he was seeking. He came to me for help and I re-wrote business plan from ground up. After damage done by first business plan it took him quite a while to find an investor willing to take a chance.

The third secret of a successful business – When you need help outside your area of expertise, be very, very careful. A “degree” in a field does not mean a person is expert in that field. Particularly true of writing.

Another example: You have personal experience in this or your know someone who has. For every job advertised there are literally hundreds of applicants. The first step of process is to submit a resume. One job, 250 resumes. How do you get your resume even to be selected as a “finalist” let alone be one of 250 who gets job!

Well, this is your business. You have gone into a home based business as a Desk Top Publisher, which means, among other things, writing. Not just writing, but writing effectively, writing so that person who’s business plan you wrote will get money he or she needs. Writing so that person who’s resume you wrote is at least a finalist for position, preferably finalist!

How do you become an effective writer? It’s a learning process. Some of us learn more quickly than others, but none of us are born with this ability; we all had to learn our writing craft hard way, through failures and successes.

The point here is: if you understand that formal education and degrees do not necessarily equate to skill at task, you are well on way to becoming a successful and effective writer. This brings us to….

The fourth secret of a successful business – You must know that you are at least equal to best alternative out there….then make sure that your clients do benefit from your expertise.

Good luck.

Let’s look at me as an example. I didn’t get straight A’s, but I did learn. I learned even more as an adult, later on. Yes, I graduated from HS back in 1950’s, 50 years ago, in fact. Then word processing came along and I became a typist for a living – I typed 100 words per minute (that’s a story in itself, but not for here). But with word processing basic styles of writing changed as well. Our standards in 1970’s were NY Times Manual of Style and US Government Printing Office’s Style Manual (adopted from NY Times manual). I got pretty good.

Then electronic publishing and computer came along and style changed again. We no longer ended sentences with two spaces; now we use only one. And we no longer ended paragraphs with two carriage returns; now we use only one.

Much to my surprise there is a new change now out. We’re now in 21st century and new standard seems to have replaced “setting off special text” passages in quotes to setting off special text passages in italics! Quotes are out and italics are in!

Did this make it easier? Hah! Not on your life. You’ve still gotta be able to use quotes correctly. As an example, I quote from Saturday Evening Post “Franklin P. Jones, said ‘The moon is really made of yellow cheese’ in July 1968 edition.”

Then there’s topic of spelling. If you cannot spell correctly do not count on your spell checker to make corrections for you. Corel Word Perfect spell-checker will not pick up a nu8mber in a word – nor will MS Word spell checker pick up that error. So your proofing had better be very good just to catch misspellings and typos. Every word needs to be checked carefully.

Finally, for this segment of writing effectively, when and where to use colloquialisms, slang and contractions in my writing?

In case of contractions, personally I try not to use ain’t at any time because I knew an old engineer once (with a Masters in Music and a PhD in Electronic Engineering) who used ain’t all time for emphasis on what not to say. It seemed every other word out of his mouth was ain’t. I got message – I don’t use ain’t! But rest are fair game – provided they are used appropriately and correctly?

As for slang and colloquialisms, look back at this article and you will see them interspersed here and there. Effectively? Well, if you are with me this far, understanding what I am writing about, I must have been doing something right.

Your test, should you wish to take it, is to go through all articles on my web site here, and check them for grammatical and punctuation errors.

And grading on your test is simple. Keeping in mind grammar, punctuation and spelling/typos: 1. If you don’t find any or not very many errors in grammar or punctuation you need to find a business which does not involve effective writing. 2. If you do find several errors, say an average of 1 or 2 for every article published on my web site, they there is hope for you. You may be able to learn to write effectively? 3. If you find articles which are fraught with error, articles which should never have been released for publication, an average of three or more errors per article published on my web site, and errors in my own articles, then you truly do have basics for a career in writing effectively. 4. There is one author who has not only given permission to use his articles on other people’s web sites but has also given permission to make corrections to his typographical errors. Find it and, if your first result puts in into #3 category above, you are definitely a writing effectively expert!

Now all that remains is to polish it and go to work.

Good luck.