A FEW THOUGHTS ON WRITING INTERNATIONAL ENGLISHWritten by Craig Lock
Here is my "dime's worth" (see learning "American English" , or at least your expressions already) on subject of writing for an international audience on world wide web. The Web offers you an opportunity, unique in history, to speak directly to millions of potential customers. Some commentators advise that if you want to be listened to, speak to them "in their language". I only partially agree (but then, I'm always breaking rules!)...When I write articles for "the international market" of net, I don't target particular countries and try to adapt my writing style. I've found that people around world don't seem to mind fact that I may use "funny" words or spelling - small details, like "s's" instead of "z's", color or colour...as long as grammar is reasonably correct. I just try to write in my "natural style" - one in which I feel comfortable (seeing I was brought up in South Africa with British English) and suggest you writers do same. Incidentally, I put this short note at end of all my articles... "PS: Dear Americans, please excuse my British English spelling. Very Colonial! I just write and use my own style and spelling, one that I'm accustomed to (sounds funny that ending sentence in a "preppie"). I am quite happy for these articles to be used and distributed by other electronic and other magazines. If they help others out there in any way, then I'm happy."
| | Writer makes $805 - with clips 'to go'Written by Cheryl Paquin
An exciting day! I sent out invoices for $805 dollars, for one article and three hours editing. But it did take time and effort to finally get my freelance writing career off ground, with a few tricks learned along way.Before I began applying for work, I built a Web site for my writing business. I updated my resume, I signed up for a fax service, with free business cards as part of deal, and I dreamed a lot about being a 'writer'. And then, when inevitable could be put off no more, I began applying for jobs. There are scores of job sites on Internet, and I trawled them everyday. Some of my favorites include: - http://www.Copyeditor.com - http://www.CraigsList.com - http://www.Sunoasis.com - http://www.JournalismJobs.com - http://www.Career.com - http://www.Monster.com - http://www.WritersWrite.com - http://www.InscriptionsMagazine.com Another great resource is Sunday classified sections of metro newspapers. Just type in 'freelance', 'writer', or 'editor', and see what comes up. Once I see a job I'm interested in, I apply for it right there and then. If I bookmark it, I KNOW I'm not going to go back to it later, I'm just not. So fully aware of my ability to procrastinate, I made it easy to apply for jobs as soon as I found them - with clips to go. Many jobs ask for a resume and clips in text-only format. This means typed directly into an email, or copy and pasted from another program. It doesn't mean sending Word attachments, or text attachments or any sort of attachment. It means TEXT ONLY. Remember, your potential employer is possibly wading through hundreds of resumes. Does he/she want to open another program to read yours? Probably not.
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