In my study of freelance writing field and my experience selling, I discovered eight basic steps that showed I was serious as a writer. Apply these steps to your work and editors will see you as a professional writer they can depend on.

-Bring a business mind to your work. Writing is a business.

Why is choice of font important? ------------------------------------ There are many differences between fonts: some obvious, some subtle. As well as setting mood of what we write, these differences can have significant effects on legibility.

In this article, we'll classify fonts in several different ways and compare effects that these have on legibility. Let's start by comparing serif and sans-serif fonts.

Serif versus sans-serif fonts ----------------------------- Start up a word processor and type a letter "h". Change it to a large size (say 72 points) and use Times New Roman as your font. Notice three small cross strokes at ends of strokes. These are called serif. Fonts that provide these are said to be serif fonts. Fonts that do not are sans-serif fonts. ("Sans" is French word for without.)

Now change font to Arial, Helvetica or Verdana. These are all sans-serif fonts. Notice that three small cross strokes have disappeared.

Serif fonts, all things being equal, are easier to read.

This is because serif makes individual letters more distinctive and thus easier for our brains to recognise quickly. Without serif, brain has to spend longer identifying a letter because its shape is less distinct.

An important proviso must be made, however. On low resolution of a computer screen, very small serif text (say 10 points or less) might actually be harder to read than corresponding sans serif because more complex shapes of serif characters cannot be accurately drawn in sizes this small.