ABay Articles Directory » Writing

Dragon NaturallySpeaking: First-Hand Review

GuestPoster — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 18:38:03 +0000

When I was looking for top Christmas gift ideas for the upcoming holidays, I was pleasantly surprised to see Dragon NaturallySpeaking on the list of most-wished-for items.

You see, I have been a fan of Dragon for some time now. As a blogger, I find a good portion of my time each day is eaten up by the “tippity – tap” of my keyboard. And, I am not a very fast “typer”. So being able to incorporate something such as Dragon into my work has made a world of difference.

Even the fastest typists can only produce about 60 words per minute (wpm). Most of us hover closer to the 30 words per minute range. Dragon NaturallySpeaking can, theoretically, handle about 120 words per minute – quadrupling the average person’s typing speeds.

Dragon definitely speeds up my work. It did take me a little bit of time using it to get used to talking my blog posts out loud – especially when other people were around. But, after a few posts, I was excited enough by its success that I quickly overcame my bashfulness.

One of my biggest challenges has been training my head to think as fast as it types. My brain has been formulating my thoughts at only 30 – 40 wpm for months now, so the huge leap in potential typing speed using Dragon was not fully realized until I had been using it several weeks, and my brain had learned how to “type” faster.

Additionally, I wish that I had purchased a better microphone. I am still using the microphone that it came with which seems to cause a higher error rate. It seems that if you get an USB microphone, that there are less errors in the transcription.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking is not for everyone, but if you are looking for a cool Christmas gift idea for that avid writer in your household. This just might be the gift for them!

How To Correct Grammar — The Easy Way!

GuestPoster — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 19:22:04 +0000

For writers and novelists, writing down thoughts, ideas and articles can seem like a walk in the park, but there is certainly a lot more to it than communicating with their audience. If you ask a group of writers, editing their work is probably one of their least favorite things to do before getting their writing published. If you have been writing for quite some time now, it can even become a lot more challenging. You were inspired and motivated in writing that post, so why should you bother trying to edit or check for grammar in the first place?

While checking for grammar is one of the least favorable things that writers need to do, it is probably one of the most critical and the most significant to your career as a budding writer. There is nothing more embarrassing than a seriously misspelled word or a grammatical error that can tarnish your credibility as an expert in that specific field. Thankfully, technology has made it a lot easier for us to work on our first drafts and really make it perfect. Editing software (available through Grammarly scam) is just one of the best examples of this. You can just simply post your work and you do not have to worry about spelling mistakes or typographical errors.

Aside from being able to make sure that your work is error free, one other advantage to checking your grammar is the fact that you can learn from these English editing software. Because it is created by a team of English professionals who are truly proficient in the English language, you can certainly pick up a few key points that you can apply in the future. You do not only have your own virtual writing assistant, this question poses that you can enjoy the benefits of having an English teacher as well!

Stop Thinking, Start Writing

GuestPoster — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:13:05 +0000

In this fast paced and dynamic world, it seems that it can be difficult to catch up. Try to imagine yourself on the streets of New York City at 8:30 am. The streets are bustling with cars and people just rushing to go to work. Everything seems to be in a blur. People carrying their laptops, talking on their mobile phones or hurrying to get their morning coffee. To say that people are busy is practically an understatement, which is why there are times that you want to be thankful that your writing allows you to be in the comfort and safety of your own home.

Because of the busy world that we live in, we also have the tendency to cloud our minds with so many things that we have to do and work on, and writing is of no exception. Thankfully, there are web sites like Grammarly that will help keep you in check and make sure that you are able to hone and improve your writing skills — almost like having your own proofreader! When you write, you should remember that your goal is not to be perfect; in fact, no one really is. Even the best and most experienced authors still make mistakes once in a while. Instead of obsessing over the fact that you may publish work that is not your best, you should just focus on sharing your thoughts and ideas onto a blank screen (or paper) and just get to work.

It is also important that you remove all the distractions that can prevent you from thinking clearly. Nothing can be more stressful than having to balance writing with the blaring radio on, your kids wanting some attention and the TV playing in the background. This website advises you to find yourself a cozy quiet spot and start writing!

Get The Best Writing Ideas

GuestPoster — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 08:19:03 +0000

How many times have you heard interesting stories about people without expecting that they had a great story to tell? Sometimes, we run into people, places or experiences where we never expected to hear something fantastic or touching. This becomes especially important if we are working in the field of writing. A lot of novice authors probably think that they can run out of ideas. Not to mention when we add deadlines into the equation! Thankfully, there are a lot of resources for us to consider if we want to get the best ideas for us to write about. Grammarly scam allows you to print and produce some of the best stories that you would ever write. Read on to find out how you can chunk out one writing idea after the other!

Read, read, read

Depending on the kind of topic or subject that you want to write about, one thing is certain about all of these: there will always be some form of material that you can get ideas from. Almost any topic under the sun has some form of material or document on the World Wide Web, and all you have to do is read up on them. Do your research and try to find the names of the experts on that topic. While you are trying to write something that is original, it never hurts to get some inspiration from well received authors and writers.

Listen to people’s stories

Grammarly on Crunchbase will also let you know that listening to other people’s stories can truly make a difference. Every person has a story to tell. Whether it’s about a great experience they had, a cool place they went to or a moving event in their lives, all these can certainly give you some perspective and inspire you to write one story after the other. Enjoy!

How You Can Very Easily Start Up And Manage A News Letter Yourself

GuestPoster — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 03:27:53 +0000

The making of an ezine may appear as a quite challenging and techie process for the non tech-savvy kind of individual. Nonetheless, everyone can actually create an ezine successfully and with no professional help. First, the e-newsletter publisher will have to get acquainted with the various chores and processes that are included in news letter publishing. He also needs to know what the different elements of a news letter are. The e-newsletter topic would be the very first element that you will need to work on. You’ll want to find a decent and specified niche for your newsletter.

The e-zine name is yet another part of the e-zine that you will need work on. Make sure you have a quality title for your e-zine. The title is actually what gives the ezine its unique identity that sets it apart from all the other ezines. If you’d like your own title to work, you ought to make it unique, catchy, succinct and descriptive. By crafting the news letter name according to these attributes, you’ll ensure that it will perform to its best. Good newsletter names can help you attract more potential customers to your ezine. And for that reason, you can convert a greater proportion of them in to loyal members.

Every news letter needs to have a particular format. There are actually three kinds of formatting which are in use by newsletter publishers. These types of formats are textual content, Html code and Pdf file. Many people hesitate a great deal about which format to apply for publishing their own e-newsletter. The decision nevertheless should not be made arbitrarily. To find the format that is the greatest fit for your e-newsletter, you need to think about the functions that you plan to use within the e-newsletter. Each format supports a different group of features compared to its counterparts.

An attractive as well as professional design is a vital element of any efficient e-zine. There are various approaches of obtaining a quality design for the e-newsletter. For instance, you could build the design template by yourself. Some publishers however would rather make use of readymade newsletters examples. There are many web sites offering these templates for free download on the internet. If you would like to have a customized theme for your newsletter, you might want to consider getting a qualified designer to make it for you.

The material of your e-zine also needs to be of high quality. In the end, content is the reason why people join newsletters and it’s equally what makes them hang in there. If you would like the news letter to build a faithful list of followers, you need to invest considerable time and effort creating high quality content articles for it. If you cannot do that, you might want to employ a free lance news letter writer.

As soon as your e-zine is completed and ready for sending, you will want to find a good system to use for mailing as well as managing the news letter. Auto responder solutions are actually what e-newsletter publishers employ for this purpose. Nevertheless, there are several publishers who prefer to use a few PHP scripts to send and manage their own newsletters. To me, an email autoresponder is a lot more convenient and useful for operating a newsletter. Using it, you can for example automate most of the repetitive activities that newsletter publishing entails.

Why Purchasing Articles For Website Content Is Good For Your Business

GuestPoster — Tue, 31 May 2011 23:41:54 +0000

Many Internet Marketers or blog owners know that making money online is one of the best ways to earn income. The problem is that most of these people are not able to quit their day jobs and focus on their domains. One of the easiest ways to keep up your websites and still be able to work your day job is by purchasing articles for website content from ghost writers.

This will eliminate the need for the website owner or blog owner to write the articles necessary to maintain their websites. The articles can be used to help build links or to put directly on the website or blog. There are different online business or programs you can get involved in to help you find the best writers available. The writers can focus on the keywords or topics provided to create good quality articles.

Having good quality articles on your website can determine the profit that your website will earn as well as how much it is worth. With good quality articles on your website, you are sure to have returning visitors. It will also ensure that your website is noticed by the search engine. The better quality, the higher your website will be ranked by the search engine. If you have garbage on your website, chances are you won’t be noticed which means you will receive little or no profit.

Purchasing articles is a great business idea because it allows you to have more free time knowing that the work is getting done. It does not cost much to have a ghost writer write articles for you. Of course, that is depending on the quality of the articles and the length as well. Once you have hired your writers, you can be sure that you can rest a little knowing that the work is going to get done properly.

Three Places for Great Article Ideas

GuestPoster — Fri, 13 May 2011 23:57:14 +0000

I don’t consider myself an internet marketer, though I write a lot on the internet. I blog, I write articles for other blogs, and I wrote articles to be placed in various other locations. That is a lot of writing. Sometimes I start to run out of things to write about, particularly if I am writing about one subject for a long time (which I often am). When that happens, I have to actively look for article ideas. And I have a method to do that. I thought I’d share that with you today.

The first place I look for article ideas is the news. There is almost always something out there that is relevant to whatever topic you want to talk about. And if there isn’t then you can talk about the news and how it might affect whatever you want to talk about. For example, let’s say you are writing about things a criminal defense attorney might do but you’ve run out of ideas. There are always stories about criminals in the news. What did they do wrong? What could they do different? And on and on.

Second, I just think about things that are interesting to me and then try to relate them to whatever I want to talk about. To continue with the criminal defense attorney example, I’m big into golf. I might write an article about the similarities between golf and criminal defense (if you think hard enough you can find some). Bam, another article.

Third, and finally, sometimes I’ll just Google what I want to write about, see what other people are writing about the subject, and then follow up on what they’ve said with my own thoughts. For example, let’s say I find an article about how to pick a great Seattle criminal attorney. I might agree or disagree with some of the criteria they suggest. I could build off of this and make my own article on the same subject (but no copying – original thoughts only!).

There you go, three ways to come up with new ideas for writing articles.

Pros and Cons of Keyword density

GuestPoster — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 14:26:00 +0000

The article should be natural so it catches the attention of the viewers. With the development of web business hundreds of SEO experts have come up that keyword density is
one way that SEOs use to generete traffic to the sites created by
them. Keyword density = keyword / all words. Keyword density means the entire
number that the specific keyword has appeared on the blog or on the article.

Ideal keyword volume should be approximately 5-7 percent, because if it is bigger then it will catch the spam filters of search engines like Bing and it can be marked as spam. That is the reason why it is best to use just 5 % keyword density – it will look natural both to robots and customers.

How you can check keyword density

1 First copy the content in Word.

2 From ‘Edit’ button, choose ‘Select All’ option. After that, click the ‘Tools’ button & choose the ‘Word
Count’ option. Now you will notice the count of all characters froum the blog post.

3 And now finally, you learned the total word count, just count how much you used the specific keyword and do the calculations

Keyphrase density

A keyword density number essentially concentrates on the data and simple estimates just how much it is mentioned in the
article. It was more important in older days
in comparison to these days.

However keyphrase density these days is practised primarily to get you more traffic with the correct usage of more long key phrases. In that way you will get a lot more traffic with out paying a lot of money to build different strong links. That is the reason why it will offer you with very good ROI(Return of investment), so it isvital for all kind of companies, but this is not the magical button that will full your web page with visitors and first place in Search machines.

Let’s Define Iambic Pentameter

GuestPoster — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 01:59:02 +0000

Iambic pentameter is a form of poetic meter, which is pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables used to write poetry. That iambic pentameter definition seems simple enough, yet might not make a lot of sense to someone unfamiliar with poetic terms. An example can make it clearer:

If you and I could swim the briny sea

Listen to the line and hear which words and syllable you emphasize. It probably sounds like this:

if YOU and I could SWIM the BRIny SEA

It’s in paired syllables, in which the first is unstressed and the second is stressed. There are 5 such pairs which make it a line of pentameter, and since two syllables together that are unstressed/STRESSED are called iambs, the line is written in iambic pentameter:

This is the pattern used to define iambic pentameter.

Once you understand what an iamb is (unstressed/STRESSED) then you can understand any line length written this way. Iambic monometer, for instance, would be a line with a single iamb or foot:

|the FROG|

Iambic dimeter would have two feet, iambic trimeter, three feet, and so on.

| the FROG| and TOAD |

| the FROG | and TOAD | they JUMPED|

All lines of poetry aren’t written this way, because there are other types of feet that help make up lines of poetry. But a great many poems rely heavily on iambic pentameter for their construction. Shakespeare famously used this type of meter in many of his sonnets, and some had very little variation. A good exercise to learn to recognize this form is to pick a few of his sonnets and read them through, then go back and try to pick out the lines with iambic pentameter.

How to Write a Book

GuestPoster — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:17:08 +0000

Are you an enthusiastic reader? Do you love books? Do you read contemporary fiction?’
• ‘Had to read ‘Of Mice and Men’ at school, and it was OK, I suppose. Not read a book since then, though.’
• ‘Never read books. Don’t have time.’
• ‘Modern stuff? It can’t compare with the proper classics.’
• ‘I mean, these days, people even start a sentence with ‘and’. Sometimes they don’t even have a finite verb in their so-called sentence!’
If your answers to those questions would be anything like these, writing a book might not be the best activity for you. Well, not a novel, anyway. Not one that is ever likely to find a publisher.
The best advice I can give anyone intending to write a novel is: read what’s out there. You don’t need to spend a fortune – especially if you’re reasonably close to a free library, and even if you’re not, books can be bought very cheaply in thrift shops.
Writing a novel is a huge investment in time, so why not prepare yourself by devoting a few hours per week to extending your range of reading matter. It’s important to know the type of novels you enjoy yourself. That sounds obvious, but even if you do already have your favourite genre, don’t get stuck in the past: Agatha Christie might still be widely read, but crime novels have moved on since then.
Not only should you be aware of what’s been published within the last few years, you should also (a) decide if you like these books or not, and (b) analyse how the author has produced the effects that you have enjoyed. For example, if you’ve been able to picture the scene very clearly, has the writer included lots of detail, or has s/he managed with merely a few brief phrases, leaving the rest to your own imagination?
One of the most frequent mistakes made by beginners is to include too much detail.