Tips For Writer’s Block
Procrastination
1. Try going old school with pen and paper. Sometimes typing on the computer feels intimidating. Old-fashioned pen and paper sometimes helps get the ideas flowing. It switches up our mode of writing from a formalised computer, to a more casual notepad. And with pen and paper, you can draw pictures and create brainstorm webs.
2. Dangle a carrot. Treat yourself once you’ve accomplished your writing goal for the day. Getting that piece of writing done might be just the excuse – or incentive – you needed to purchase a well-earned treat or trip out.
3. Set a time limit. Promise yourself 30 minutes of uninterrupted writing time and set an alarm on your phone. And if you’re on a role after your alarm goes off you may not even want to stop.
4. Take baby steps. Just write the first paragraph – that’s all. Sometimes the hardest part is getting started.
5. Go public. Get up from your bed, desk, or usual writing area and change up your scenery. Getting out of your house and into, say, a coffee shop means that you’re in public and people are expecting you to act civilized. So you’re forced to sit down and write.
6. Use other sections of your writing as inspiration. You may feel intimidated when you compare yourself to others, so instead, compare yourself to yourself. Look at the best sections of your content to be reminded of what an awesome writer you are.
7. Create a physical reminder of your past success. Create a vision board to post on the wall of the room where you write. Or, create a poster with your favourite writing quotes. Draft up a list of all your by-lines, good ideas, or publications you want to write for and use any of those posts for inspiration. Or create a list of places where you’ve been published and stick that on your wall.
8. Create an editorial calendar to hold yourself accountable. Your calendar can then guilt trip you into getting things done on time. If you have a full list of posts to write for the month, you better get started on them now.
9. Become your own therapist. Answer these questions: Why don’t I want to write? What am I afraid of? How do I feel about my writing?
10. Sometimes we writers procrastinate because we are afraid of something: not being good enough, failure etc. Once we shine some light on the reason why we are avoiding writing, we can remind ourselves of our successes and power through.
11. Think about what you will get out of it. Instead of being afraid of failure, or whatever fear is keeping you from writing, think about your goals. Think about how each step brings you closer to your writing goals. Successful people think successful thoughts.
Common Idioms And Their Meanings
English is a complex language with many subtleties and variations. Anyone learning English may find certain phrases that do not mean what they appear to mean confusing at first. Such phrases which are not literal, however are common expressions are known as common idioms. This article will assist you with learning and comprehending the ten most common idioms used in everyday use alongside their intended meanings.
Ten common idioms utilized in everyday expressions:
1. Piece of cake – The ‘piece of cake’ is alluding to something that is simple or possible. You utilize this when you discover that something is simple or easy to carry out.
2. Break a leg – This is one of the common idioms which may sound strange at first, however again it does not mean what it suggests. Break a leg implies good fortunes or wishing luck. It is utilized as a well wish in respect of circumstances that need it.
3. Hit the books – Have you heard local speakers in your class utilize this phrase? If yes, here is what it means. It intends and refers to studying. An example of its use is as follows;
Use: I’m going to rest for the time being. I will most likely hit the books at night.
4. Let the cat out of the bag – Why might anybody put a feline into the sack in any case? Well, stress not; the feline is alright! ‘Let the cat out of the bag’ really intends to uncover a mystery that should be kept a mystery. It is one of the common idioms.
5. Hit the nail on the head – This is utilized to say that the individual is absolutely right.
6. Don’t judge a book by its cover– Sounds confounded; however it gets more straightforward as and when you comprehend it. It basically means do not be judgmental, particularly based on external perceptions.
7. Bite more than you can chew – This is a popular expression that is utilized when a person takes up more obligation than he/she can complete.
8. Hear it from the horse’s mouth – This is one of the major common idioms that means to hear the news straight from the source’s mouth.
9. Speak of the devil– When the individual you have recently been discussing arrives.
10. Feeling under the weather– This phrase is utilized when you feel a bit low because of health issues.
The above list are some of the most common idioms used, there are many more. However you will know now the purposes of idioms and have a better understanding of their intentions.
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How To Carry Out Manuscript Proofreading
Proofreading your manuscript
Proofreading is not basic or simple. Nor should it be done rapidly; manuscript proofreading ought to be continuous all through the whole book writing process. Beginning with altering the introductory draft and until supporting the page proofs-precisely, verifications proofreading is an indispensable step in delivering a quality book.
Text style:
In manuscript proofreading, leave the extravagant text styles. There is no need for an original copy to be composed in diverse text styles or text dimensions. Pick one and simple to peruse textual style and size, Times New Roman 12 is standard. Fancier text styles tend to obscure letters together or have scripts where a few letters are almost unrecognizable.
Utilize the magnifying glass:
Maybe not truly, unless you’re manuscript proofreading on paper, but rather than perusing the original copy at 100% perspective, expand it so it fills the screen-150 or 200% is fitting.
Turn on the invisibles:
Invisibles are every one of the spaces you can’t see on the page. Each time you hit the space bar, which is between each word; your PC system will leave a little spot between the words. It will make a little passage symbol while you hit “return” to begin another section. The invisibles can improve things significantly.
Peruse slowly and multiple times:
Nothing in manuscript proofreading is more critical than perusing gradually. Yes, it can be a bit exhausting, yet a lapse free original copy is justified, despite all the trouble.
Read out loud:
We suggest perusing loudly so everyone can hear amid the editing, you will be amazed by how you can enhance the tone and style by perusing your original copy and you will get subtleties which you would not have gotten before by listening to yourself.
Take a gander at each word and each letter. Giving careful consideration to every word and letter in manuscript proofreading is crucially essential. Numerous creators depend a lot on spell-check. Spell-check won’t catch words that are effectively spelled, however in the wrong place. This procedure is tedious so you likely won’t stay with it for long, yet it is great because it shows starting editors to work slowly and focus.
At long last, do get a second supposition. Edit your work. After it is complete, offer it to another person to edit. Try not to anticipate that the other individual will make it impeccable and after that consider the employment done.
6 Steps For Writing A Novel
Writing a novel
Writing a novel for the first time as any author will tell you can be extremely challenging and daunting. The toughest part is often knowing where to start, and also how to keep going all the way to the end. However, thinking about the novel and the writing process from the onset will only add to your anxiety about the process. The key for many is organisation, organising yourself, your time, your ideas and the plot. If you are embarking upon the process of writing a novel for the first time, below you will find 6 useful steps that may help breakdown the process for you during this journey.
Use your natural creativity
Creativity is one the most important elements of being an author. However, there will be times when you may find it difficult to think, or transfer your thoughts to paper. Writers block can vary depending on the person. It is important to know how your brain works, what environmental conditions and state of mind enable you to be at your most free thinking and creative state. Understanding this prior to writing a novel will help greatly.
Organise yourself
Organisation is a quality which is almost universally important in a wide variety of tasks and jobs. When writing a novel this will be important in two aspects. Firstly, writing is a gradual process and should not be rushed at the same time you want to manage your time effectively. So learning how to make the most of your time will be important. You should aim to establish a routine which you can follow and set a certain number of hours that you wish to devote to writing per day.
Preparation
Many people will plan to write a novel, however will abandon writing a novel half way through. This is often because people tend to throw everything at the process early on and run out of energy and enthusiasm. Therefore, it will be important to pace yourself and to breakdown how much you intend to write each day.
Create the characters
There are two elements to this steps. Firstly, you should create a broad list of all the characters involved, everyone from the leading characters to those who only have a passing role. Secondly, you should write profiles for each so you have an idea of the kind of people they will be, this will help you to keep the characters consistent throughout.
Write the plot or a synopsis
Write a brief synopsis a couple of pages long, including a list of scenes and key events. You should focus on details such as: What happens? Which point of view is each scene being expressed from? Key conflict and tension points? Although these will be subject to change it will be useful in giving you a broad outline. You will also be able to see if the story flows well and where you may need to make changes.
Writing the novel
This may or may not be the most difficult part for you. However, as you will have broken down the stages and developed an idea in your mind of the story you wish to tell this should be easier to get through.
Edit and proofread
Once you have written your first draft, an important element will be to edit and proofread your writing. It is unlikely that you will be perfectly happy with it straight away and you may want to make changes. Take time to read and edit your writing, as making changes will be just as important as the writing itself. Once you are happy, proofreading your writing for grammatical errors will help to polish your work so that it stands the best chance of attracting potential publishers.
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Proofreading Manchester
Professional Proofreading
Express Proofreading Manchester is a professional proofreading service. Specialising in academic proofreading and editing services for students. We cover all academic disciplines and match your work to an editor with the relevant background and experience in your field. We are able to proofread a wide variety of academic work including but not limited to:
- academic assignments,
- academic dissertations,
- academic journal articles,
- academic conference papers,
- academic research proposals,
- academic PhD theses.
Experienced Academic Editors
At Express Proofreading Manchester all of our academic proofreaders have the highest level of expertise. As a minimum we ensure that all of our academic editors hold Masters/PhD qualifications. From leading British universities and have extensive experience proofreading and editing academic work.
Professional Manchester Proofreading Service
Due to the expertise of our editors we are able to ensure that your work is not only free from spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. We also check syntax, sentence structure and are able to recommend improvements and suggestions that are relevant to your work. We also as part of our standard proofreading service recommend content improvement suggestions. We will also check that your tables and footnotes are correct and consistent with your bibliography.
It is essential that work is clear, coherent and is grammatically accurate. This will not only assist the reader in ensuring that they are able to understand the points that you are making but it will also create a positive, professional, academic tone to your work. This will also aid an examiner who is marking your work, to understand the points that you are making and consequently award you with higher marks.
Over the years we have helped many students improve their work from students to professors. Often when proofreading your own work errors begin to go unnoticed due to your engrossment in the content. We are able to take a fresh look at your work and ensure that your work is free from any such errors. We have many success stories of students achieving higher marks due to our proofreading service.
International Students
If you are an international student you can rest assured that our editors have the necessary experience to proofread your work. We will ensure that it reads grammatically correct and flows well. We understand that writing in a second language can have its challenges. This is exacerbated when writing academic work. Therefore, we are able to take a fresh look at your work and ensure that your grammar, syntax and style of work is in line with what is expected.
Instant Quote and Easy Secure Order Process
At Express Proofreading Manchester we offer a professional proofreading service. To place your order with us, simply click Instant Quote below. Upload your document and our quote generator will calculate an instant quote for you, based upon the word count of your document. Once you are happy with your quote, you can then click Place Order and proceed to our secure checkout page.
A Guide To Online Blog Writing
The importance of blog writing
Blog writing has become extremely important for small businesses over recent years. As it provides small businesses with access to free marketing. By publishing useful, insightful articles or updates relevant to your industry you are able to disseminate these releases throughout the internet. This in turn provides useful information to potential customers, builds brand awareness, generates traffic and potentially improves search engine rankings for your website.
Create a plan
Before you begin the writing process it is helpful to first create a list of titles of different topics and ideas that you could write about in a calendar for the next month or two. This would give you a clear direction of where the content would be going in advance. Also having a clear plan as to what you are going to write about will make the process quicker and will also enable you to think about the topics before you begin writing.
Think about valuable resources to link to
Just as important as the writing is providing useful resources, if you are writing about a topic and need to refer to a third party site you should link to that site so that the user has the benefit of undertaking further research if needed. It will also add authority to your blog by making it seem credible and impartial.
Writing your blog articles
Two of the most important considerations when you begin writing will be to decide on your tone and style. This is important as the tone and style of your writing will set the background and context for your writing, it can be informal, technical or even conversational. Ultimately this will depend on what you would like the feel of your website and brand to be. Consistency in tone will help to provide consistency throughout your written content and make the reader feel familiar with your brand.
Setting aside time to write
A few days before you are going to start writing ensure that you have set aside time for when you will have no distractions and will be solely focussed on writing. You should aim to do a quick first draft, breaking down your content into subheadings and then once written down you should come back to refine the writing if necessary. Finally proofread your writing to ensure that you have no errors and then it is ready to publish and go live!
Our website content creation service
Express Proofreading specialises in original website content creation, our team of editors and writers have years of experience in writing content for new websites and maintaining and developing brands via the use of online blogging to promote brands. For further information as to our content creation services, please visit our content creation page.
Our website content proofreading service
We also offer website content proofreading services. We are able to ensure that your website content is not only free from spelling mistakes and grammatical errors but we also check syntax, sentence structure and are able to recommend improvements and suggestions that are relevant to your industry and target market. For further information on our website content proofreading services, please visit our business proofreading page.
How To Plan And Prepare Website Content
Writing website content
The online world is increasingly fundamental to the success of many businesses, having a strong online presence ensures that you are able to appeal to a wider global audience. This will often take the form of having a company website that is engaging, with regularly updated content. Moreover, unique and original content is also important in attracting new customers and developing your brand online. This will not only attract potential customers but it will also aid your brand development, and increase its online credibility and consequently result in higher rankings for your site.
Therefore it is important to break down the process of preparing content for your website step by step and to identify different types of content and their purpose.
Website content pages
This refers to content that is needed to highlight you who are, what you do and what you provide, as well as additional related material such as how to contact you, your terms and conditions and so on. As minimum to appear professional all websites should have the following pages and content addressing each area:
- Homepage – this will detail in brief your company, what you provide and your key goods and or services.
- About us page – this page will aim to expand on your company and provide detailed information as to your mission statement, your ethos, values, as well as who you are.
- Services or products page – this page will aim to expand on your products and or services and provide information relating to each of those products or services, including prices, delivery and how to place the order.
- Testimonials or FAQ page – these pages although not essential are nonetheless important in reassuring customers and providing answers to common questions that your customers will typically have. Ultimately these will also assist in increasing your sale conversion rates as customers gain confidence in your brand.
- Contact us page – this is an important page as it will reassure customers that they can get hold of you should they have any issues with their orders, and it will also enable customers to contact you with any queries in the event that they are unable to find the answers via your FAQ page.
Our website content creation service
Express Proofreading specialises in original website content creation, our team of editors and writers have years of experience in writing content for new websites and maintaining and developing brands via the use of online blogging to promote brands. For further information as to our content creation services, please visit our content creation page
Our website content proofreading service
We also offer website content proofreading services. We are able to ensure that your website content is not only free from spelling mistakes and grammatical errors but we also check syntax, sentence structure and are able to recommend improvements and suggestions that are relevant to your industry and target market. For further information as to our website content proofreading services, please visit our business proofreading page.
A Guide To Plural Possessive Nouns
Plural Possessive Nouns
A plural possessive noun is used to represent more than one thing or person and denotes ownership. There are numerous types of nouns, nouns can be defined as words that name people, places and things. However, there are different ways to categorise them, some types will fall into several categories. We will now take a look at different types of nouns and how they may be used.
Common noun: This includes everyday things such as ‘Cat’ ‘dog’
Proper noun: These type of nouns refer to a specific person, place or thing and they are always capitalized. Examples include: Eiffel Tower, Tower of London.
Countable noun: These type of nouns as the name suggests refer to things that can be counted, such as books, trees etc.
Uncountable noun: In contrast to countable nouns these are things that are neither singular nor plural. Examples include: water, luggage, coffee etc.
Collective noun: This refers to a collective or group of things or people. As a whole group is referred to as a unit collective nouns are used as a singular noun, if however there is more than one unit then you would use the plural. Examples include: jury, family, society etc.
Concrete noun: These refer to things that may be experienced through your senses. Examples include: song, salt, family etc.
Abstract noun: These refer to things that cannot be seen, felt or tasted and generally refer to things such as emotions, beliefs. Examples include: trust, sympathy, democracy etc.
Rules for Plural Possessive Nouns
The function of a noun within a sentence can be to refer to the subject or an object. They can modify by either being possessive or an appositive. They can also modify by acting like an adverb or an adjective. For example, in “I went home” the noun “home” modifies the verb “went”, so it is acting like an adverb, indicating “where.” A “storm drain” has the noun “storm” modifying the word “drain”, so it acts like an adjective.
To make a noun plural, which means that there is more than one of them, you would normally need to add an “s.” Certain nouns that end with an s, x, ch, or sh need an “es” added. Examples include:
witches, buses, kisses, boxes, bushes, or Joneses
There are special nouns that have irregular or mutated plurals. Some of these are:
- child – children
- woman – women
- person – people
- goose – geese
- mouse – mice
- deer – deer
Finally, certain words retain their Greek or Latin form when making a plural. Examples include:
- nucleus – nuclei
- syllabus – syllabi
- cactus – cacti
- thesis – theses
- fungus – fungi
- criterion – criteria
Most importantly, remember: A plural possessive noun is used to represent more than one and to show ownership.