If you’re a freelance writer, yet you haven’t penned a series of best
selling novels, or written the script for a blockbuster movie, chances are
you could use a few additional streams of income each month. You
probably don’t want to write eight hours a day, seven days a week,
anyway. After all, most writers need time away from the keyboard to
recharge their creativity.

So don’t just write MORE to make MORE money. Instead, try a few
different ways to earn additional income from your writing experience.

1. Teach Writing – Many times, local colleges and universities look for
writing teachers who can teach part time. If you have a background in
teaching (and enjoy it) offer to teach a class or two in creative writing,
business writing, or whatever kind of writing you do, for a local school.

There are also various writing schools that offer correspondence
courses for writers. Students’ manuscripts from all over the world are
forwarded to you, so you can work in the comfort of your own home no
matter where you live. Check into teaching a writing correspondence
course if the idea of teaching from home appeals to you.

2. Speak at Writers’ Conferences – Authors are always in demand for
writers’ conferences. Develop at least a few presentations you can offer
at conferences. Speakers usually present in hour long sessions, so
make sure your presentations are well planned and you have enough
information to keep an audience interested for at least an hour (and
sometimes sessions last 1 1/2 hours, so be prepared for those too).

3. Make Author Visits to Schools & Other Organizations – Schools have
author days, career days, and other events (mostly in the spring or fall)
and they are always looking for published authors for these events. If
you’ve written at least one book, make sure schools in your area know
you’re available for author visits. Authors are sometimes hired to speak
at library events, at historical societies, or for small business
organizations, too. If you’ve written a book(s) that might be of interest to
any of these types of groups, get the word out so they know about your
book(s) and your availability as a speaker.

4. Mentor Other Writers – Offer weekly sessions to other writers who do
not have as much writing experience, or published credits as you do.
Help them with their ongoing writing projects by critiquing their work,
showing them how to write book proposals and captivating query letters.
Also, help them find appropriate markets for their writing.

5. Offer writing workshops – There is always a demand for writing
workshops. You can offer these through libraries, schools, or even
community centers. Put together a proposal for a short series of
workshops, then find a location where you can offer them. Next, get the
word out in your local newspapers, or make up flyers to post in coffee
shops, libraries, community centers, etc. so people know how to sign up
for your workshops.

It really isn’t very difficult to add to your freelance writing income once
you start thinking of other interesting ways to make use of your writing
experience and expertise. Plus, as you gain more writing experience
and publishing credits, you’ll have even more to offer the public as a
speaker, mentor, teacher, or workshop presenter.

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If you’re reading this article, you’re most likely in the preparatory stages of writing an academic thesis: a substantial academic paper written on an original topic of research, usually presented as one of the final requirements for the Master’s or Ph.D. degree.

It is important to note that an “academic thesis” should not be confused with a “thesis statement”. A thesis statement is “a basic argument” that clearly articulates what the Master’s thesis/dissertation is expected to demonstrate.

One of the initial building blocks to your immense writing project is to prepare a thesis statement: a sentence or paragraph that summarizes the argument you plan to make in your thesis/dissertation, as well as the supportive evidence you plan to use to back up that argument. In short, it provides a “road map” for the reader of where you plan to go with your thesis/dissertation. Most importantly, it must convince the reader that the claim is important to your academic field, and that it is likely to be true based on the evidence provided.

A good thesis statement should:

? Make a knowledge claim that purports to offer a new approach or idea in a particular field, and to explain why it is new. The purpose of any academic thesis/dissertation is to add to the existing pool of knowledge in a particular area, or to “fill in the gaps of knowledge.” As such, your knowledge claim should clearly state why the information/knowledge that you have to offer is new within your field, and should also convince the reader that your claim is likely to be true based on the evidence provided.

? Make an argumentative assertion that summarizes the conclusions you have reached about your topic after reviewing the literature. This assertion should be focused and specific enough to be “proven” within the boundaries of your paper. It should also identify the relationships between the pieces of evidence that you are providing.

? Outline the scope, purpose and direction of your paper. After finishing your thesis statement, the reader should clearly know the essence of your intended project, and also the boundaries you intend to place on it. Your thesis statement should not make the reader expect more than you are prepared to present in your final document.

Keep in mind that your thesis or dissertation topic should address an unresolved problem or knowledge gap in your subject area that needs to be explored and that concerns society as a whole. Your thesis or dissertation topic should be unique in that it should add something new to the existing literature. Merely digging up answers that already exist does nothing to contribute to an academic or professional field of knowledge. Simply put, a thesis or dissertation topic should be based on new knowledge and new solutions to existing problems?not on simply churning up old answers. However, conducting research on questions that have already been answered is considered part of the literature review and is a useful exercise to find out if someone has already conducted research on your proposed research topic.

Popularity: 19% [?]

Writers can ply their trade for lots of audiences: academic, television, radio, Internet, young, old, domestic, or foreign.

The number of distinct audiences is staggering.

If you’re a business writer, just have a look at various sectors that are depicted in Standard Industrial Classification Codes (SIC’s). There have to be thousands of them, and each one constitutes at least one audience, and probably a lot more.

As writers, we have implicit audiences, as well.

Years ago, I heard that daily newspapers are written so an eight grader could understand their contents. That’s an implied audience, right there: the average eighth grader.

The President of The United States has a chief speechwriter, who in a very real sense has an audience of one: the Commander In Chief. If he fails to please his boss, he’s beating the bushes with a laptop, but his implied audience is huge, and it includes the collective unconscious of Americans dating back to the Revolution.

I saw a movie the other night about songwriter Cole Porter who made a successful transition writing for the New York stage to movies. In a memorable scene, he is told by a studio head to tone down his sophistication and instead to write for the average person.

That abstraction of the average moviegoer is another implied audience.

Of course, very often a creative writer is really communing with himself. He is his own audience and chief critic.

While he may be paid to craft a feature article for publication, his own standards of excellence or cleverness inform his work to such an extent that a higher self, the writer he wants to be, is the one who is screening and evaluating his output.

I think it’s especially valuable to consider the question: For whom am I writing?

The answers might surprise you, motivate you, or refocus you!

Popularity: 13% [?]

I felt yesterday was a supremely productive day.

I wrote five articles, gave some serious thought to a business proposal or two, and then, when I had about an hour on my hands, I idled the time away at Starbuck’s.

Perhaps this last line item, repairing for some brew, stimulated the zenith of my productivity, because, as is my custom I write a few pages in long hand of whatever comes to mind.

Sometimes these musings are accompanied with squiggles or very poorly drawn people, but a mix of completely free meanderings almost always leads me to some insights.

Yesterday, for instance, I pulled together an idea that had been a mere fragment, a business concept for an integrated suite of public seminars, short speeches, and consulting.

What I came up with is so clear that it has to be a great idea. What writing enabled me to do is get beneath surface distractions to explore what I was really feeling about my occupation as a coach and consultant.

I could see, at last, the types of people and companies with which I’m most comfortable, while distinguishing them from those with whom I don’t really click.

Once this portrait appeared, it was easy to generalize to see how I could offer programming that would appeal to these prime clients.

Finally, I could see them in the same room, in my mind.

What happened next is my hand wrote a perfectly succinct title for the class, and I could then see the individual topics sorting themselves out.

Without writing, I’ve found, there isn’t much quality thinking. Jotting down ideas and concepts expresses to us what’s within, and it will emerge if we just get out of the way and let it.

I think this is akin to taking notes during a lecture or after reading passages from books. Our minds read the ideas or hear them first, from these sources, but solid connections aren’t made until we translate them into words that mean something special to us.

When we take the ultimate steps of writing our words, seeing them on the page, and considering them, we finally promote deep understandings.

By having a leisurely coffee and thinking and writing we accomplish much the same thing without the external stimulus.

Writing then becomes a natural process of reaching in and reaching out, a rhythm that’s similar to breathing, or the movement of the tides.

Popularity: 11% [?]

When I informally ask aspiring writers who they prefer to review their manuscripts, answers range from professors to community college instructors to writing workshop coordinators. These responses are fine if you are writing for an audience of community college instructors, but this scenario is in fact quite rare.

I have a brother who is thoughtful, intelligent, pragmatic and by no means “artsy”. It is for these reasons that I value his feedback. I classify his reaction as a “real world” reaction to a manuscript. Is he bored? confused? lost? entertained? His feedback may reshape my writing.

Audience obviously plays a crucial role in writing. Any composition would benefit from review by members of the intended audience, whether the subject be professional, avocational, personal or a combination of the above. The process could even help identify the true audience for which you are writing.

Creative writing tends to widen the audience boundaries. If John Q. Public is a member of your target audience it is best to get a range of responses to your work. There is a large segment of the population who spend their days working in cubicles. How would they be impacted by your writing? Single moms struggling with the cost of daycare? Teenagers drinking cola from enormous containers at the convenience store? The plumber in your building or home?

If any of the individuals above are part of your intended audience, their opinions could be invaluable. There could also be a lot to learn from their “art”, be it a trade, a white collar profession, juggling an impossible budget, or finding rare songs on the Internet.

The next time you need a manuscript reviewed, show it to the usual suspects. Then offer your plumber a coffee or lunch in exchange for editorial comment.

?2006 Robert W. Mann

Popularity: 10% [?]