Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Finding Inspiration for Blog Posts

You wake up in the middle of the night. In you dream you know you had the grain of an idea. There was something in there that was going to make for the greatest blog post ever but you just can't quite put your finger on it again. It slips away into the night and it looks like you blog won't be updated for a while yet.

After the initial rush when you start your blog and you put all your great ideas out there then it can be quite difficult knowing where to go next. Unless your blog is one where you are reviewing products or supplying news or similar then at some point you are going to be struggling to see where to go next.

Well the first answer to that is to make sure that your blog is something that you have a passion for as it is possible to write about anything that makes your heart burn with joy and inspire your readers.

With passion you can turn an little idea into a big article that people will love. All you have to do is let it flow out of your heart.

The second thing is to start with the title. Just think of a question you or someone who reads your blog would like answered. Usually I just put down a title to get the ball rolling and close my eyes with my keys on the keyboard and then kaboom... the article just arrives on the page. The key here is to get the forward motion.

The third thing in order to get inspired or to think of new article ideas is to read and contemplate things outside of your circle of expertise and then try to translate those ideas into something that applies to your line of writing. Push your boundaries by thinking "what if I applied this concept to my line of expertise?"

Look outside and bring it in. Relax and let inspiration come to you. Let it flow. You already have the idea... just let it come out.


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Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Top 10 Books You Were Forced to Read in High School

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the publication of Harper Lee's perennial middle-school novel To Kill a Mockingbird, TIME rounds up the classics that have monopolized school reading lists for years

#1 To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee's 1960 paean to the South is one of the most beloved American novels ever written. Some of that is due to the 1962 classic film adapted from it, which stars Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch, a small-town lawyer who also happens to be the most upstanding and sympathetic father ever. But much of the respect accorded the novel (the author's only book) has to do with its memorable main characters, brother and sister duo Jem and Scout. With its competing subplots about a black man on trial for allegedly raping a white woman and the children's attempts to learn about their reclusive neighbor Boo Radley, the novel is perfectly structured to provide half a dozen lessons about history and acceptance and injustice and compassion. No wonder it's the staple of all middle-school staples. Happy 50th, Mockingbird!
Article written by GILBERT CRUZ

#2 Of Mice and Men

The Great Depression and the hardship it caused spawned many classics of American literature that have since become fodder for high school English classes across the nation. Topping the list is John Steinbeck's novella Of Mice and Men. The plot traces the journey of George and Lennie, two migrant workers in California farm country. We meet them after they've been forced to leave their previous ranch in a chain of events chalked up to Lennie's odd behavior. Upon arriving at their new farm, owned and run by a character known simply as "The Boss," George and Lennie once again find themselves in crosshairs. The strong and complicated bond between the pair forces George to take weak Lennie's life into his own hands. Along the way, their pursuit of the American Dream (and the attendant prospect of land ownership) falls by the wayside, the victim of a harsh economic downturn, a freak accident and mob hysteria.
Article written by DAN FASTENBERG

#3 A Separate Peace

One of the great coming-of-age tales, A Separate Peace is also one of the darker novels assigned to teenagers. The plot revolves around two roommates at Devon, a New England boarding school, during the summer and winter of 1942. The narrator, Gene, an introverted, studious Southerner, recalls his relationship with his best friend Phineas, known as "Finny," a charismatic, gregarious athlete. Over the course of the summer, Gene becomes envious of Finny's graceful, easy demeanor and takes part in an accident that ends Finny's athletic career. During the winter, as the country descends into World War II, the boys of Devon wage their own battles against each other to determine whether Gene intentionally harmed Finny. The novel chronicles the boys' maturation as the war encroaches further and further into their lives. While Knowles' tale of the journey from innocence to experience has been described as depressing, his capture of youthful emotion, surprising maturity and reactions to life's great tragedies make it a must-read during those awkward teenage years.
Article written by NATE RAWLINGS

#4 The Catcher in the Rye

Published in 1951, Catcher has long been a literary touchstone for alienated high school students. Main character Holden Caulfield is the ultimate whiner — everyone's a phony, everyone's a crumbum, and the only person who is really worth a damn is his little sister. Because Catcher is a fairly glum tale about a screwup of a kid who may be going crazy following the death of his brother, it's really easy to forget that it's kind of the ultimate high school fantasy — Holden roams around New York City for a couple of days, gets into bars, dances with older women and gets beaten up while trying to procure a lady of ill repute. While it may seem like the boy is just drifting, that sounds like living! For those very reasons, though, many of today's teens are having trouble relating to the book, according to a June 2009 New York Times article. "I can't really feel bad for this rich kid with a weekend free in New York City," said one teacher, paraphrasing some of her students. But despite the generational gap, this book won't be leaving classrooms anytime soon.
Article written by GILBERT CRUZ

#5 Animal Farm

This classic tale of an animal revolution gone rogue is George Orwell's allegorical take on Stalinism. Under two pigs named Snowball and Napoleon, a group of farm animals overthrow their drunken human caretaker and establish a new community based on seven commandments, including the tenet that all animals are equal. Soon after, Snowball and Napoleon engage in a power struggle to control the farm, with Napoleon emerging on top. He quickly turns Snowball into a scapegoat for a failed windmill project and kills any animals who appear to have an allegiance to his opponent. As time passes, the swine adopt human traits, soon wearing clothes and walking on two legs. Before long, the lowly farm animals can no longer distinguish between the pigs and the people.
Article written by FEIFEI SUN

#6 Lord of the Flies

Prominently featured on the American Library Association's list of the most banned books ever, Lord of the Flies is a complex allegory packed into a tale of struggle and survival. The book begins when a plane carrying a group of British boarding-school students crashes on an isolated island. The boys (in the truest meaning of the word; the oldest is 13) establish a working society, with Ralph as their charismatic yet humble leader. Order breaks down as Ralph battles with Jack, the leader of the school's choir, and the entire group slowly descends into chaos. The end, a brutal literal and figurative shattering of humanity, has served as the book's chief teaching point and mark of contention for half a century. Often seen as a cautionary tale about the breakdown of civilization, the book details "the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart" and the horrific possibilities that lie within us all.
Article written by NATE RAWLINGS

#7 The Great Gatsby

Every school takes a field trip to Long Island, New York, at some point, visiting the Roaring '20s as only F. Scott Fitzgerald could write them. Thanks to its evocative setting, rich themes and masterly prose, The Great Gatsby has secured its standing as a reading-list staple as well as one of the greatest American novels ever written. Here, the moneyed East meets the modest Midwest, and Fitzgerald's memorable characters — Jay Gatsby, Daisy and Tom Buchanan, Jordan Baker — perpetuate a lavish lifestyle that, alas, doesn't offer much of a life. The enigmatic Gatsby has the best parties, but it's Daisy he really wants. He may have no shortage of party guests, but he's sorely lacking in funeral attendees. Narrator Nick Carraway is witness to the glitz that ultimately reflects emptiness, not success.
Article written by ALEXANDRA SILVER

#8 A Farewell to Arms

When Ernest Hemingway combined his "consciously bald" style with his experiences as a World War I ambulance driver, the resulting novel was an immediate success. Published in 1929, A Farewell to Arms not only revisits the conflict that had ended just a decade earlier; it also tells of romance. Sadly — not that dutiful American-lit students would expect to be cheered up by Hemingway — the love story isn't any less tragic than the war. Lieutenant Frederic Henry and English nurse Catherine Barkley have to face the fact that death can make its presence known off the battlefield as well as on.
Article written by ALEXANDRA SILVER

#9 The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne's best-known work opens in Puritan Boston, with young Hester Prynne on trial for adultery. Because she refuses to name the father of her infant daughter Pearl, Hester is ostracized by the community and forced to wear a scarlet piece of cloth in the shape of an "A" on her chest — an enduring symbol throughout the book. This central conflict is the basis for all the themes the novel examines: sin, repentance, moral purity, forgiveness.
Article written by FEIFEI SUN

#10 Macbeth

As high school students, we may have been drawn to Macbeth because it's known as the shortest of the Shakespearean tragedies. But the tersely written play spares no human frailty — and few characters — on the battlefield of 11th century Scotland. Whereas decisiveness, the lack thereof and revenge drive the other Great High School Shakespearean Play, Hamlet, ambition and personal morality are at the center of the plot of Macbeth. The play's title character finds himself pitted against a fellow lord, Banquo, when the two are made privy to a series of prophecies from a trio of witches. The toiling witches forecast a future royal line, and the will to power is soon unleashed. Upon losing his wife in the fray, Macbeth delivers his epic "tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" soliloquy, which captures the sensation of despair as well as any other verse in the English language:

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing ...
Article written by DAN FASTENBERG


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Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Improve your Writing and Create a Better impression!

Well written, good, informative content is the best way to ensure you achieve a successful text. However, this isn't everything. You could have the best piece of content in the world, and some simple mistakes can turn your text into a laughing stock.

Many people rely on their spell checkers to pick up any errors or mistakes you may have picked up when writing. There are many huge problems in doing so. Here are just a few of them:

1. The spell checker will not detect typing errors that turn a word into a completely different word. For example, "window" can become "widow". The spell checker wouldn't notice this, but your sentence could mean something completely different than intended.

2. The spell checker will not detect grammatical errors, your sentence could be completely incorrect and the computer wouldn't know.

3. Words that sound the same but have a different meaning, for example, "there" could be accidentally changed to "their".

4. Words that are spelt differently in other countries, for example, the word "colour" is spelt differently in USA, "color".

These simple errors will turn your text into an unprofessional collection of words. The best way to eliminate these mistakes is by using proofreading services. This can help your text hugely and create a much better impression on the reader. Simple mistakes like these can be very frustrating to read when marking work. It's the same when a potential customer is reading about a company. If the content has a lot of simple mistakes within the text, the visitor is less likely to become a customer. Don't let these errors ruin your text, and stop it fulfilling it's purpose effectively. See if you can improve your sales/grades with something as simple as this.

Thanks a lot for reading and I wish you good luck in your future writing projects.


This article was written by UKProofreading.org, an online company that provides proofreading services, you should visit them if you need proofreading services.



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