It is a rare thing to find someone capable of writing tight copy. The primary reason is tight writing falls is more dependant on your editing skills than your ?first draft’ writing skills.

What is tight writing?

When you write in compact sentences using simple words without redundancies you are writing a ?tight’ article.

The excess words are sometimes called ?fluff’ and should be avoided.

An example of fluff

Brenda rode her bicycle all the way to the park. Her bike was one of these old style banana seat bikes that her mother rode when she was girl and had a whip antenna on the back with an orange triangle at the top. She had made the decision to right to the park after watching a program at school on the benefits of exercise, which of course was something that Brenda found herself very concerned about since she learned about the health risks of being a couch potato.

An example of tight writing

Brenda made the decision to ride her bike to the park. She made a firm promise to become healthy and fit after watching a program at school.

This may not be a perfect example, but the idea behind tight writing is to cut the fat. This involves the removal of redundant and nonessential language. In the above example the description of the bike had nothing to do with Brenda’s commitment to good health so it was easy to cut.

If you read through your writing with a laser-beam focus you will find words and phrases that are unacceptable. These words have little to do with the advancement of your story or the point you are trying to make.

Many writers add fluff to their work to enhance word count, but an editor will recognize fluff and may ask for a copy revision. They may also lay your work aside looking for something a bit leaner.

Tight Writing Pinpoints

? One of the most successful pre-writing tools is the use of an outline to identify where the story is headed.

? You shouldn’t worry about tight writing while working through your first draft.

? In editing nothing is sacred, every word and phrase should be tested and reduced or removed as needed.

? There numerous tricks to tight writing, but the best is that if your sentence is more than ten words it may be too long.

? Always consider revisions, working to shorten and clarify.

? Less really is more in writing.

Popularity: 18% [?]

Writing a thesis essay is one of the challenges that students face in their academic life. The main reason why so many students dread writing a thesis essay is its baffling complexity, which is hard to handle at times.

However, writing a thesis essay can be much easier, if you already know how it should be written. And the secret formula of writing a high quality thesis essay is incredibly simple: all you need is to understand the initial purpose of thesis essays and follow the tips for thesis essay structure that you’ll find below.

1. Thesis Essay Peculiarity

Thesis essay is an essay elaborating on the original research and arguing a specific point of view. It requires an argumentative topic on which you have a strong opinion and want to prove it by means of research findings and information analysis. To put it in other way, thesis essay is a scientifically-minded piece of writing.

Consequently, a thesis essay is much more demanding than the rest of essays. It demands responsibility, analytical skills, ability to summarise, compare, and contrast. In order to write a high-quality thesis essay you need to be persuasive and able to prove your case no matter what.

2. Thesis Essay Topic

Thesis essay topic requires tender treatment. To choose the one that is your best bet, stick to the following:

1. the topic must be to your liking, that is you must have strong feelings on its account and hold a solid point of view as far as the solution of this problem goes;
2. your thesis essay topic must be argumentative, ambivalent and thought-provoking;
3. your thesis essay topic should not be widely researched and be on everybody’s lips. On the contrary, it must be a problem that is not known to the public at large and still is concerns us very much.

Get down to choosing a thesis essay topic with these tips in mind, and you will find one truly argumentative and interesting.

3. Thesis Essay Structure

Thesis essay structure must be carefully thought over, since it is the foundation on which you build your proposition and prove your rightness. With a proper thesis essay structure you will create the necessary impression on the readers and make them reject their own views and stick to your point.

Your thesis essay structure should be like this:

1. the introduction must include a statement of your hypothesis, which is a summary of your controversy;

2. confirmation of your hypothesis must be logically arranged:

a. first, provide a short digression in the history of the problem corroborating it by the past attempts at its solution;

b. analyze the problem at the present;

c. prove your hypothesis by the supporting evidence you came across when researching the thesis essay topic;

d. compare your hypothesis with other existing propositions and prove why yours is the best solution;

3. reinforce your thesis statement at the end of the essay by providing a persuasive summary of your thesis essay to make the readers come over to your side once and for all.

This is the proven way of organising thesis essays. So, do not hesitate to use this structure in your paper.

3. The Use of Supporting Evidence

As it has been previously mentioned, your hypothesis in a thesis essay needs a back up in the form of supporting evidence from reliable and relevant sources. The related sources you can use to strengthen your proposition can be:

1. past research and writings and their impact on the study;

2. facts, statistics, and the testimony of others through personal interviews and questionnaires;

3. or articles and books;

4. and examples.

You do not have to conduct a deep research for your thesis essay, as you do for a research paper. All you need is to explore your topic deep enough to have a sufficient amount of evidence and proofs. However, make sure that the information you plan to use is up-to-date and is taken from reliable sources. Otherwise, it will be easy to discredit your proposition.

4. Disprove the Opposing Arguments

Every hypothesis has a weak point, which, if wisely used by opponents, can destroy it all together. To avoid it, try to identify weak points of your proposition and the possible ways how they can be used by your opponents. Then find counterarguments that will rebut your antagonist’s sharp rejoinders. Try to anticipate any objections the readers may have and rebut them at once.

That is all you need to know in order to write a good thesis essay. Be sure that w
ith the above tips in mind you will easily master thesis essay writing and even come to like finding controversial topics and forming your hypothesis on its account. Thesis essay writing will no longer be a tedious burden for you.

Popularity: 18% [?]

Persuasive writing is not a genre that can belong to any particular target writing. I use the phrase ?target writing’ because, for all that we know, a piece of writing has to necessarily have an objective to fulfill. A news item, for example, is meant to bring forth associated happenings in order to provide a clear view on a matter. ?How to write outline’, on the other hand, is a sort of tutorial, just as ‘Blog statistics reveal upward trend’ is a summary of facts related to blogging.

In each case, the writer aims to target a dedicated readership, concerned with the subject on hand. It is possible to make use of persuasive writing for any of these subjects, and indeed many writers do, either to drive a point or two home, or perhaps as part of their writing style. But, persuasive writing – many will agree – is reserved to make comparative analyses between two points of view, as if to pit one against the other.

If that be so, what are the ingredients that make a writing persuasive? For one, the essay must be based on facts – preferably supported by figures – and not mere conjectures. This apart, there are several other necessities of a persuasive writing, many of which apply equally to other forms of writing as well. Let’s have a look.

An unequivocal title

No doubt there. Capture attention of your would-be readers. A long title doesn’t serve well. It is better to economize on words that form the title, making sure that it conveys a clear meaning. Phrases and idioms are welcome, but once again, they must be unambiguous and succinct, contributing directly to the subject of your writing.

Opening sentences matter

It is said a whole story is hardly ever read on screen. That may not be true always, but let there be no doubt that very few people go through an entire piece. The onus is therefore on the writer to make the best out of the situation. Which means the opening sentences are important, because more often than not, they hold the key to whatever comes later. If the reader’s interest is not aroused in the first few lines, chances are he will skip reading the rest.

Set the tenor

If I may quote OUSD’s definition, “In persuasive writing, a writer takes a position FOR or AGAINST an issue and writes to convince the reader to believe or do something.” Holding this as a guide, it is necessary to figure out how do you plan to proceed. You may prefer going whole hog demolishing the opposing issue, or you may sing paeans to the issue you favor thereby subtly downgrading the opposing one. Whichever you choose, you need to set the tone of your writing right in the beginning. If you want to play between the 2 styles of arguments, you need to exercise caution so as not to confuse and antagonize your readers.

Facts first, opinion next

Many writers lead themselves into believing that readers are ignorant. The fallout of this fallacy is that a persuasive writing often runs the risk of turning highly opinionated too soon without commensurate backup facts. The ideal writing should first place the facts, based on which opinions must follow.

Depend on circumstance

It will rarely be that all persuasive writings will follow the same ground rules. If a sales pitch is one type, calling upon readers to make a buy, so too is a political commentary, that requires readers to make a firm opinion. However, the style of writing for one will be completely different from that for the other.

Wit adds color

If you can mix wit with your argument, you’ll be seen as gently persuasive. Writing such pieces may be hard, but if you do it well, half of your objective is won. People simply love this. Remember though that only wits cannot win you the day. You also need to balance with good amount of examples. If you have it in you to make a perfect concoction, even the most dour topic can make a good persuasive writing.

Popularity: 21% [?]

Better thinking skills come from practice. What are some good ways to practice? You can sit and think, for starters, you can work on specific puzzles and problems. You can have interesting discussions with others. There may not be a “best” way to practice your thinking skills and boost your brainpower, but one of the most powerful is to write.

Why writing? Because unless you are just copying words, to write is to think. There are three basic ways in which writing helps your thinking skills.

1. Writing clarifies your thoughts.

You may have noticed how much clearer an argument or opinion becomes to you once you express it. Talking forces you to clarify your thoughts, but not just to the other person. Putting thoughts into words is also a process of telling yourself the logic behind what you “felt” or what you only partly understood. You try to make the other person understand, but you are often also bringing yourself to that understanding, or at least a better one. You are thinking aloud.

Writing accomplishes the same thing. It is essentially like talking to the paper or computer screen. Compared to talking, it has the disadvantage of not giving you outside feedback. On the other hand, you get to express and develop your thoughts without interruption. This is a great way to work on your thinking skills. Boost your brainpower by exercising your “explain power.”

2. Writing establishes firmer memories.

We cannot use what we cannot remember. This isn’t entirely true, because we are often using a lot of information from our unconscious minds in decision making and everyday life. However, to consciously think about a topic effectively, we need to have the knowledge and ideas we have gained available. This means we need to remember things. Better memory equals better thinking skills.

Writing helps with this. This is why we were all advised in school to take notes. It wasn’t just to have the notes for later, but also because the process of writing things down helps us remember them. By the way, a piece of paper and a pen in your pocket is a good idea if you want to remember new people’s names. Just write them down as soon as you learn them.

3. Writing gives you new insight.

Do you want to understand a topic? Write a book or ten articles about it. Okay, you may not have the time, but if you are learning about behavioral economics, for example, you can write a letter to a friend about it, and you will understand it better.

Do you want to invent a new product? Write down an explanation of the problem you are trying to solve (ex: create a better chair). Include an explanation of the good and bad points of the current solutions. Write about some possible approaches, and write about anything else you can think of. Do this exercise, and you’re half-way to your new invention.

People don’t necessarily write about something because they understand it already. They often start writing about something because they want to understand it, and the process of writing is what brings about their understanding. Why not start a journal today and improve your thinking skills by writing?

Popularity: 19% [?]

Cursive writing flows across the paper like a magical song reverberating through the strings of a harp. Cursive lettering is more difficult than block lettering (or casual style writing). Lines, loops, spirals and swirls work rhythmatically in slants and rollercoaster hoops.

The formality of cursive writing was used in professional correspondence before the development of the typewriter in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Cursive connected words in a single stroke are quite distinctive from “printing” or block lettering. “Joined up writing” is a common phrase for cursive writing in British English. “Running Writing” is the term sometimes used in Australia.

There are different types of handwriting styles in two categories:

? Manuscript (print)

? Cursive

I remember during first and second grades, using the white tablet paper sectioned by solid blue and red lines, with dashes of a blue line running through the middle of the two. The area between the line of dashes down to the solid red line at the bottom of the section was the perimeter for small letters. The range between the solid blue top line and solid red bottom line was the designated area to write capital letters. The continuous development in personal penmanship brought a sense of pride in your written work.

Let’s step back into history for a moment and examine the signatures on the Declaration of Independence, signed by members of Congress on July 4, 1776. Notice how the printing of this document flows with influences from a combination of Cursive, Script, Old English and Manuscript lettering. Frequently, I always heard a phrase when someone made a request for my signature, they’d ask for my “John Hancock.” No one could ever give me an explanation on the origins of this saying, so I came up with my own summation. After looking at the image of the Declaration of Independence, the one signature that pops out at me located in the middle of the bottom portion of the document was that of John Hancock. Perhaps his creative and bold style brought forth some bantering from his colleagues. But if you look closely at each individual signature, it is clearly evident that these Congressional members were extremely meticulous about their stately penmanship.

With the advent of computers, cursive writing became unstandardized across different school systems in a variety of English speaking countries. It seems like handwriting skills are declining primarily due to the convenience and assortment of fonts stored on computers. Anyone can combat that claim by fine tuning your handwriting when you practice slanting your letters consistently and make the letters continuous. The partnership between pen and paper are used as an avenue to promote personal writing expressions, just like a paintbrush is to canvas – allowing the hand to sway and glide with creativity.

Many people look to re-popularize great and monumental things from the past that have been instrumental in the progression of modern technology and human development. We often hear this saying: “Everything old is new again.” This is clearly evident as we see car manufacturers going retro in their body styles, fashion trends rotating full circle, today’s commercials are using many popular songs from artists of yesteryear and anything vintage is a collector’s haven!

Now-a-days, “rarity” is an asset. Some creative traditions like cursive writing should not be deemed as becoming completely blas?. Despite the fact that cursive writing lost its popularity due to the lack of demand and modern technology, why not sit down and take time to rediscover the elegance and personal satisfaction of what this invaluable talent has to offer. Who knows if cursive writing will become retroactive? You certainly wouldn’t want to be left in the dark if it does.

Popularity: 14% [?]