7 Steps to Becoming a Freelance Writer

7 Steps to Becoming a Freelance Writer 7 Steps to Becoming a Freelance Writer 7 Steps to Becoming a Freelance Writer By Mark Nichol You love to write, and perhaps you’ve even had some of your work published, but you just can’t seem to get your career as a freelance writer of nonfiction off the ground. Here are some flight lessons: 1. Focus Nonfiction is an enormous universe. Map out a very small segment of the cosmos. Do you enjoy writing creative nonfiction long articles and essays with a narrative flair that reads almost like fiction? Or do you have a more practical bent, tending toward how-to articles or procedural guides? Perhaps you’d like to write reviews of books or video games or software or appliances. Narrow your topic field; you can always widen your scope later. 2. Adopt What are your favorite Web sites or magazines or books? Are there writers whose styles inspire you? Find the publications that publish the kinds of content you like to read, and study the writing techniques on display. Don’t strive to imitate; use this step simply to help you find your niche. 3. List Create a short directory of publications or publishers to target. Assuming you’re just starting out, list targets more likely to publish writing by a beginner, but don’t be afraid to include a couple more high-profile publications. And don’t neglect what’s right under your nose: community newspaper(s), local magazines, and Web sites that publicize your region’s businesses or cultural and natural assets. 4. Compile Collect some of your best writing published or otherwise that represents you well and matches the type of content those publications are looking for. 5. Contact Go to your publisher directory, look up the URL for publication Web sites, and search for submission guidelines. If there are none, send a request for guidelines to the editorial department’s email address or the information address. 6. Pitch Come up with proposals for a few articles or essays you’d like to write, match them to various publications, and send them in. Alternatively or in addition, submit completed articles on spec. (â€Å"On spec,† short for â€Å"on specifications,† means tailoring an already written piece toward a specific market and offering it for publication.) The strategy of writing on spec has its detractors, but it’s a good way to break into the writing market, and even if the piece itself is turned down, it may demonstrate to an editor that your pitch is worth a look, or that you might be a good match for an article they need a writer for. 7. Persevere Repeat step 6. If your pitch or your spec article is rejected, send it to someone else. If you strike out five or ten times, retire the idea, call in another one, and start another round with a new batch of publications. (Wait a few months before circling back around to those that turned you down previously, but never delete them from your directory.) Repeat. You may get an acceptance or an assignment on your first try. (It’s happened.) You may get turned down once, or ten times, or a hundred times. Don’t give up. If you want it bad enough, you’ll get it, eventually. Your goal is not to hear â€Å"No† a given number of times, but to hear â€Å"Yes† once, and then once more, and then once more after that, etc. An unpublished writer is a writer who has given up. If you would like more help to get started freelance writing online stay tuned for the re-opening of our Freelance Writing Course early in May. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Freelance Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:100 Words for Facial Expressions7 Tips for Writing a Film ReviewPersonification vs. Anthropomorphism

News Review Example

News Review Example News Review – Article Example Obama calls preliminary deal with Iran Our Best Bet- from New York Times In the recent past there have been calls and movesby the global community to curb the upsurge of assemble of nuclear weapons by the Iran. The world or the United Nations has in the past threatened Iran and indeed effected bans and sanctions against Iran on the purported nuclear weapons and armory collection. However, the surge of other countries and neighboring nations such as Israel have increased their participation and interest in the issue of nuclear expansion in Iran. Obama has since called the renewed surge by the global partners, the best shot and chance of curbing or dealing with the menace of Iran. In principle, Israel has also warned that it would invoke or initiate military actions on top of monitoring measures to curb the threat or surge of nuclear weapons by Iran. Question: qualitative possibility of improvement on the success of monitoring Iran nuclear plans by USA and Israel:Obama has since termed the move to join the current move and aim by Israel as the best move in ensuring that the endeavor by Iran to assemble nuclear weapons is defeated. This is so because the U.S cannot afford another military incursion into Iran on such claims and secondly, the sanction by the United Nations Security Council do not yield fruits (Shultz et al 6). In principle, the United States would be better placed to rally behind Israel who are perennial rivals with Iran and instead offer their support to ensure the nuclear plants are monitored. Similarly, it is in the best interest of the United States and the global community to have eyes in the procurement process used by Iran in the nuclear plant. The graph below shows the qualitative likelihood of success of the joint supervision and mission in Iran nuclear supervisionReferencenytimes.com/2015/04/06/world/middleeast/obama-strongly-defends-iran-nuclear-deal.Shultz, George P., et al. "A world free of nuclear weapons." Wall Street Journal 4 (2007) : A15. News Review Example News Review – Article Example News Review Article Discussed: More unemployed youths? IBGS, WSJ, 15/04 this article discusses the effect of unemployment to the economic status of Brazil. This is important because Brazil is a middle income economy with several dynamism in economic growth and unemployment rate slightly higher that its counterparts. Unemployment is increasing steadily and economic conditions are worsening. The rate of unemployment has almost tripled in the recent year with a slight decrease in rate of unemployment. Since population is the main determinant of consumption, unemployment has led to slow rate of consumption thus slow rate of economic growth.Question: use the model of regression analyze to determine the relationship between economic development and rate of unemployment. Be sure to highlight all the relevant drivers of unemployment and economic development. Answer Key: the graph below indicate the relationship of unemployment and economic development. As the rate of unemployment increase, t he rate of slow economic development also increases. The key determinant of slow economic development is the level of GDP while the key determinant of unemployment is low consumption caused by low expenditure. As the rate of unemployment increases, the rate of expenditure will reduce thus lowering consumption rate. This in turn lower the rate of GDP and thus slow economic growth.The graph below represent the above case.Graph of rate of unemployment and economic development

Human Resource Managment in Business Context Essay

Human Resource Managment in Business Context - Essay Example However, as companies design strategies, it has been found out that competitive advantages of companies are difficult to sustain and on average period, there is an observable decrease (Ruffigins & Ruefli 2005). In this regard, firms have to come up with strong strategies that will enable it to respond to the demands and challenges of the global business environment, while at the same time, keeping the company’s niche for longer period. In this situation, human resource management (HRM) plays a crucial role, since, HRM is â€Å"strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organization’s most valued assets – the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of its objectives† (Armstrong 2006, p. 3). This view offer the notion that HRM is no longer just concern with the traditional functions that are normally associated with HRM such as payroll, recruitment, pensions, benefits and other administrative concerns (Werbel & DeMarie 2005). Instead, it offers the framework wherein HRM activities and undertakings become strategic as it aligns its functions with the goals and endeavours of the organisation. From this framework, it becomes essential that HRM develop strategies that will not only align its activities with the goals and objectives of the company, but will also help the company develop programmes and policies responsive to the demands and challenges of the business environment and not reactive to crisis as it happens (Kew & Stredwick 2010). This is significant because, in this way, HRM becomes strategic and proactive. In effect, this approach of HRM undertakes a holistic view of HR in such a way that the business environment, organisation, theories and best practices become the fundamental elements in the determination of the appropriate activities, policies, procedures and programmes for the company. In this study, The Condition Understanding the condition involves looking at two i mportant factors – external environment and internal environment. This is necessary as organisations do not operate in a vacuum, but are integrated in the society and carrying out social interactions (Tencati & Zolsnai 2009). As such, the external environment of the company is essential in understanding the business environment or climate where the company is thriving. At the same time, the internal environment of the organisation is necessary, as it will help in understanding the context of the firm. Briefly, on the external environment, globalisation has transformed the manner in which countries conduct business transactions with one another. Through globalisation, trade barriers in the forms of taxes and trade tariffs have been removed or substantially reduced. This economic policy allow for a freer movement of goods, services, products, capital and people across nations and between physical boundaries (Coatsworth 2004; Suarez-Orozco & Qin-Hillard 2004; Stiglitz 2009; Bala krishnan 2008). Moreover, another factor, which has changed the manner of doing business, is the rapid development in information and computer technology (ICT). This change has created the platform wherein knowledge and information have become an integral part of doing business, aside from the fact, that faster and newer forms of conducting business have been established in view of this development (Chi 2011). Finally, the last important factor