5 Benefits of Writing: Why You Should Write Every Day Writing every day has numerous benefits far beyond finally getting that novel of yours out in the open. Whether you’re aiming to improve your vocabulary, keep track of your dreams, or keep a journal of all the goings-on in your world, writing daily can bring about some stellar effects in your life. A Wake-Up Call for Your Brain Have you ever hauled yourself to work and then sat there for a couple of hours, waiting for your brain to warm up enough so you could be articulate and productive? That’s a massive waste of time, especially since anything you’d be forced to tackle during that warm-up would be tepid at best. Instead, consider hitting the ground running by sitting down with a writing assignment while you’re sipping your coffee/tea/wheatgrass smoothie. Stream of Consciousness Purging Writing a few pages as soon as you wake really is a perfect way to begin your day. What good does all of this do? Dream Recall Vocabulary Maintenance and Expansion Evening Contemplation and Relaxation
How to Market Your Freelance Writing Website so That Potential Clients Find You and Fall Over Backward to Hire You In last week’s Wealthy Web Writer e-letter, I shared a blueprint you can use when developing content for your professional freelance writing website. Just to recap, a professional website is one of the most powerful marketing tools you can have. It builds your credibility, helps you make contacts, and gives you an automatic way to build and nurture relationships with both clients and prospects. This week, as promised, I’m going to show you how to turn your website into a client magnet. How to Establish an Ongoing Relationship With Your Prospects and Clients There’s really no secret when it comes to establishing ongoing relationships with your website visitors. Start up an e-letter (or e-newsletter) — Adding a subscription box to your site and then sending out an e-letter is one of the first strategies you should consider. Marketing Your Site Once you have your site up and running, the next step is to attract traffic. Add your site URL to: Customer Convenience Pages A Few Final Tips
401 Prompts for Argumentative Writing Note: We have 300 new argumentative writing prompts to add to this list. Of all the resources we publish on The Learning Network, perhaps it’s our vast collection of writing prompts that is our most widely used resource for teaching and learning with The Times. This list of 401 prompts (available here in PDF) is now our third iteration of what originally started as 200 prompts for argumentative writing, and it’s intended as a companion resource to help teachers and students participate in our annual Student Editorial Contest. So scroll through the hundreds of prompts below that touch on every aspect of contemporary life — from social media to sports, politics, gender issues and school — and see which ones most inspire you to take a stand. Each question comes from our daily Student Opinion feature, and each provides links to free Times resources for finding more information. What’s your favorite question on this list?
How to Write an eBook that Makes Money (Even if you HATE Writing) In the last month I’ve talked a lot about affiliate marketing. So let’s shift focus and discuss the other way I make an online income – Selling eBooks. Affiliate marketing is an excellent business model. But I’ve found that offering an information product is how you make the real money. Currently I only have a single eBook offer. Yet this product nets me an average of $3,000 to $4,000 of income each month. In the last month you’ve heard me mention that I’m working on a massive eBook: Affiliate Marketing Without the Bulls**t Creating this product has been a grueling experience. I feel that many folks have trouble with the process of writing an eBook. Basically this is a crash course for non-writers on how to start and finish a lengthy information product. Step #1: Research eBook Ideas There’s been a lot written about picking a niche for an eBook. Others recommend looking at “problem keywords” and writing an eBook that provides a solution. These are all great ideas. Pick a Narrow Niche 1.
Over 1,000 Writing Prompts for Students Note: We have 300 new argumentative writing prompts to add to this list. Sign up for our free Learning Network newsletter. Receive new writing prompts in your inbox every week. Of all the resources we publish on The Learning Network, perhaps it’s our vast collection of writing prompts that is our most widely used resource for teaching and learning with The Times. We’ve published iterations of this post in the past — 200, 401 and even 650 prompts — but never before have we gathered all our prompts, for both personal and argument writing, into one categorized list. Admittedly, the list is huge.
How to Deliver Bad News in Writing While you can't turn bad news into good through clever wording, the way that you deliver bad news in writing can affect how it is received the same way that it does when speaking. Some speakers know how to deliver bad news, and others only make it worse. The same is true in writing. The introduction is very important. It sets the context for the bad news, and context has a lot to do with how bad news is received. Instead of jumping straight into the bad, try leading with something positive. The bad news itself should go in the middle of your message. Once delivered, the bad news should be followed by the remedy, lesson learned, or course of action that will result in future prevention or improvement. Conclude by showing that you care. The key to delivering bad news is trust. By Carl Dickson, Founder of CapturePlanning.com Click here for more free articles like this one
Over 140 Picture Prompts to Inspire Student Writing Sign up for our free Learning Network newsletter. Receive new writing prompts in your inbox every week. Updated: May 31, 2019 Think The New York Times is only for readers at a high-school reading level? Besides written articles, The Times also offers a rich collection of visuals — photos, illustrations, graphics, GIFs and short videos — that are accessible to learners of all levels. Teachers tell us they use these prompts in all kinds of ways. For more ideas, we have a lesson plan on how to teach with Picture Prompts and other Times images, as well as a free, on-demand webinar that explores how to use our thousands of writing prompts for everyday low-stakes writing practice across the curriculum.
Write & Get Paid Get Paid $100 Do you want to earn money online? Listverse was built on the efforts of readers just like you. Readers who didn’t have any experience as writers but decided to put a list together and send it in. So here is the deal: We will pay you $100 for your efforts. It works like this: You write your list (10 items per list minimum), you send it in, we reply and say “Great—we’ll publish it” and send you $100 by PayPal (don’t have an account? Either way you win—your list will be read by us and reviewed, and if it’s amazing it will appear on the front page of Listverse to be read by millions of people a month! We can not accept lists from writers who do not have a PayPal account; this is non-negotiable. The Rules The rules are really pretty simple. Oh—and there’s one more thing: If you have a blog, a Twitter account, or a book you want to promote, mention it in the submissions form and we will stick it at the bottom of your list. Pictures and Video Ready to start?
Five Things: Writing a Short Story | Scottish Book Trust I love writing short stories. You can complete one in a matter of weeks, rather than the years it takes to finish a novel. You can try out new – often riskier – ideas (and sometimes, ironically, you can find the germ of a novel inside an idea you might otherwise never have tried). Follow a Dream My short stories often start with an image that has found its way into my head: a swimming pool in autumn ('The Incomprehensible Mortality of Karen Mack') or a young woman in a beret, going in a rowing boat to a small island somewhere near Skye ('The Girl In The Boat'). Start writing and see what grows from the daydream Use a Strong Voice Voice is obviously important in other kinds of writing, too, but it's particularly crucial to have a strong voice in a piece of work that your reader will only be experiencing for a short time. Try a New Format Short stories are ideal forms for carrying different kinds of writing. Choose Your Moment, or Age A short story is a microscope and a telescope.
What are the Fallacy Files? I began collecting and studying logical fallacies about twenty-five years ago, when I first became interested in logic. This collection took two forms: A collection of named fallacies—such as "ad hominem"—that is, types of bad reasoning which someone has thought distinctive and interesting enough to name and describe. Some years after I began to amass these files, I wondered just what I ought eventually to do with them, how best to organize the information within them, and in what form to make them available to others interested in fallacy studies. Praise for the Fallacy Files Contribute to the Fallacy Files You can contribute fallacies and examples to the files by sending them to me. The Fallacy Files is an Amazon Associate and every time you click on a link to Amazon and make a purchase, the Fallacy Files will receive a small commission. Email Policy Any examples sent to The Fallacy Files or questions asked may be used in entries, the weblog, or other features. Advertisement Policy
300 Questions and Images to Inspire Argument Writing Update: This list is available as a PDF. If you’ve taught argument writing with our resources in the past, you already know we ask a fresh question every day as part of our long-running Student Opinion series. Teenagers around the world are invited to visit and post their thoughts on topics including politics, medical ethics, fashion, sports and entertainment. We’ve rounded up lists of these prompts in the past, but this year we’re doing something new: Below you can find a categorized collection of all our recent, relevant Student Opinion questions, but alongside them we’re also including related Picture Prompts. These short, image-based forums are accessible to learners of all ages, but still provide engaging jumping-off points to help students make and support claims. For instance, let’s say your class is interested in meme culture. So give your students both “voice and choice” by inviting them to find the questions and format that speak to them. Image-Based Prompts 286.