Finding Experts Who Want to Help With Your Writing Project

Finding Experts Who Want to Help With Your Writing Project Finding Experts Who Want to Help With Your Writing Project Finding Experts Who Want to Help With Your Writing Project By Michael Youve probably read those acknowledgements at the back of a book: Special thanks to Nobel Prize winner Niels Ryberg Finsen for the many hours of medical advice and strong coffee he shared with me, without which this book would not be possible. And youve wondered what it takes to get a world-famous expert of your own, one who could answer the nagging technical questions that come up in your writing project. Now, unless youre working on a book for a major publisher, you probably wont get a Nobel laureate on your team, but knowledgeable experts can be found almost everywhere, at your local college or across the world through email. The good news is that experts are usually glad to help for free. They love finding someone who cares about their subject and they hate having their specialty misrepresented. The wife of one history professor joked that even if the university wasnt paying him, he would go door to door asking, Hi! Have you heard about World War I? Approaching an expert First, figure out what you dont know. As you write, add tags to your text such as [research] so you can search for them later using Control-F or Command-F on your computer. Make a list, in advance, of the most important questions you want answered. When you email an expert, show them that you didnt pick them at random. Show them you know who they are and what they do, that youve read something theyve written. Tell them a little about your writing project. The more reputable and stable it sounds, the more likely the expert will agree to help you. If you already have a book deal, thats good. If youre asking them to do your homework for school, thats not good. Limit your email to one or two brief, narrow, and focused questions. Include your contact information, especially if youre asking for a telephone or face-to-face interview. Give them lots of lead time; dont rush them. Ask for their help weeks or months before you need to submit your manuscript. If they dont reply to your email, stop there. Dont bug them again. You can find another expert. When you talk to an expert, be prepared; dont waste their time with fuzzy questions. Im reminded of a mock interviewer who asked Paul McCartney, Remember when you were with the Beatles? Yes, he did. Keep it open-ended: Is there anything else you want to tell me? An off-hand comment might give you a new story idea that transforms your old one. Ask about what you can ask for. If they answer one question, are they willing to answer more? To meet with you for lunch? To read over your manuscript and make suggestions? It all depends on their availability and interest which depends partly on your professionalism and courtesy. Seek viewpoints that disagree with you. For most writers, the most vivid parts are the points they support and the characters they like. That means your villains may be one-sided. Compensate for your weaknesses by learning about things you would ordinarily ignore. When I was writing a novel that included extremists, I read one of the key books written by their founder. Finding an expert Use your network. Ask people you know, Who do you know that knows about this subject? Reference librarians (often found at libraries) can help you find the answer to any question a sort of non-electronic Google, but without spam or fake news. If your local library doesnt have reference librarians, the U.S. Library of Congress does and you dont need to be a U.S. Congressman to ask them questions. Many colleges and universities have faculty experts lists that are searchable by topic. Many are especially skilled or specially trained as communicators, but all are eager to share their expertise. StackExchange.com is a family of websites where users can ask all sorts of questions and the most helpful questions and answers are voted up. The National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) website has its own Reference Desk in their forums, about which they say, What actually does relate to the price of cheese in China? How many cats can you fit in a coffin? Why does the ABC song and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star have the same tune? You have a research question. Someone in here has an answer. Sign up (you were planning on writing a novel someday, werent you?), log into the website and you can ask away. NaNoWriMo officially starts in November but the forum is open year-round. Showing your gratitude When youve finished your draft, send your expert the chapter or the article they helped you write. They may have more comments and corrections to offer. You can use all the help they can give. When deciding how to thank your expert collaborator, think about how much time and effort they spent, and how vital their contribution was to you. If you literally couldnt have done it without them, and youre making money from their contributions, you may want to offer them some of the money as payment or a tip. Like all of us, your expert has something they want to accomplish by working with you, so think about how you can assist them in accomplishing it. Do they enjoy helping others (you)? Let them know, in several ways, how much you appreciate it. Do they want to correct a misunderstanding, and give your readers an accurate view of their field? Make every effort to get their message across, without compromising your story. You might disagree with their perspective, but at least present it fairly. Do they want the prestige of working with a published author? Use their name prominently in your acknowledgements and publicity. They may want copies to give out. If they have worked with you extensively, they might deserve a co-authoring credit. Write a thank you note. You know, with pen and ink. Maybe on a note card. Send them an autographed copy of your story or article when its published. Bring or send an appropriate gift. If you ask to meet with them, buy them lunch. If youre a fiction writer, name a character or place after them. They will be tickled. Of course, mention them in the acknowledgments of your book. Everybody likes to be recognized. Unless theyre a spy and want to remain undercover. Writing can be a solitary occupation, and you may never have considered that someone important could be interested in working with you. But Joe Moore, a bestselling author of thrillers with Lynn Sholes, says, The most remarkable thing we’ve discovered is that expert advice is easy to get. Almost everyone we’ve approached has been eager to provide fictionalized theories and futuristic details that help make our often outlandish premises ring within the realm of possibility. 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:Comparative Forms of Adjectives7 Tips for Writing a Film ReviewIs "Number" Singular or Plural?

A Study of Health & Safety Management on Construction Sites, for Dissertation

A Study of Health & Safety Management on Construction Sites, for construction companies within Riyadh city in Saudi Arabia - Dissertation Example While this may stand true for more developed nations, however, nations such as Saudi Arabia are still trying to tackle with a high construction rate coupled with a low safety assessment and enforcement methodology. Overall, there is no single governmentally sponsored safety assessment and enforcement system within Saudi Arabia for the moment. (Fullman, 1984) Though there has been a move forward by the creation of the â€Å"Saudi Building Code National Committee† but as yet work within the safety and health portfolios remains scant and as yet experimental. (Mena Report, 2006) The lack of coherent safety assessment and enforcement schemes implies that there is still much ground that needs to be covered as per the Saudi safety standards in general and construction safety standards in particular are concerned. Hence, the need for research into current safety practices arises based on the concerns noted above so as to have a baseline available before policy making on safety begins. The proposed research aims at plugging some gaps in the current research base so as to expand horizons. The other question now, is the methodology that ought to be applied in order to conduct meaningful research.

Great deprassion Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Great deprassion - Research Paper Example This saw most of the Americans loose their farms and homes which led to some of them deciding to escape from America using trains which crossed over their borders to the neighboring countries and other states within America which were not adversely affected by the depression. These people who migrated to other states and countries thought that they would find new jobs wherever they went but that was not to be as the depression had affected almost the whole of America and its neighbours.From the studies it was noted that America was the first country to recover from the Depression which started at around 1933 but the recovery was slowed down in the following two years but after the two years of slowing down the economy started to have a steady recovery in the year 1935.As the economy was recovering and doing well in the 1940 there came the World War 11 started and America was drawn into economic depression again which slowed down the process of recovery and that’s why it was ca me to be known as the Great Depression. In the history of U.S this depression which is said to have affected the whole world has come to be known as the ‘defining moment’. This depression made the federal government change the Way it was performing towards the economy. The government had to control all the business activities which the businessmen objected to in order to control the economy. Some of the drastic measures that the federal government took to recover the economy included laying down of the elderly citizens who were working thus giving them involuntary unemployment compensation. It as well changed the labor engagements between the employers and the employees through the Wagner Act which promoted the formation of unions to act as their arbitrator so that they could be fairly represented. But all this changes needed an increase in the federal government size. After the expansion of the federal government there were some economical changes which were experience d like in the case of paid citizens in the 1920s they increased in number as they approached the 1930s.The depression also changed the way people looked at the economy as many of them blamed lack of adequate demand which all the economists thought that the federal government should intervene and stabilize it through formulating good economic policies. Overtime many Economists have tried to demystify the cause of the depression and its reasons to affect other nations adversely than others but they have not come to a unanimous conclusion on what caused the depression. During this economic hardship America was very cautious with all the nations that it associated itself with economically. This was so because other European countries which had been hit by the depression had decided to operate within their borders this meant that there was less global trade which in turn would hurt the American economy due to its presence in most of these countries. The reason why some countries detached themselves from the global trade is that they blamed it for the emergence of the two world wars and they did not want to see the occurrence of such wars again. So as to resuscitate the global trade and promote the economy there was a dire need to form global monetary bodies so that they could assist in the supporting of the global trade. Due to this need then it led to the formation of two International Financial Institutions that would

Comparison of Heroin Lies with The Basketball Diaries Essay Example for Free

Comparison of Heroin Lies with The Basketball Diaries Essay Heroin is a deadly drug, which kills approximately one million people every year. In this essay I will be comparing two dramatic acts. Heroin Lies, which I acted out. The other is a 1995 hit called The Basketball Diaries. I chose this particular film to compare with my act because they have several similarities but also a number amount of differences. The beginning of the film The Basketball diaries starts with an ordinarily boy waking up in bed on a normal day. Instantly you see that he has got a type of book in his hand, which later on we see that it is his diary which he occasionally writes in. In the block opposite him we see a strong religious woman constantly shouting out what seems to be a prayer. We then witness the boy by the name of Jimmy Carroll change from an innocent being to a horrifying beast as he tells this religious woman to Shut up! We now see that Jimmy has a horrible side to him. As we watch on we see that Jimmy Carroll is a star basketball player on his New York City Catholic school team. Fellow basketball team mates Mickey and Neutron and unofficial cheerleader Pedro are Jimmys closest friends, and whenever trouble stalks one, it invariably affects them all. So, when the drug cycle starts, it quickly spreads to each of the four corners of the friendship. What begins as casual use first becomes a weekend habit, then an everyday obsession. Grades plummet, on-court performance becomes unreliable, and crime looms as the only means to pay for a seemingly endless supply of uppers, downers, cocaine, and heroin. Heroin Lies is a play written by Wayne Denfhy. The story is about a young teenage girl that is having problems with friends. Later on she finds her self addicted to heroin and soon after dies at an early age. We chose a scene from the play and we made changes to the scene as apart of our task, for example we added monologues and dialogues. I learnt a lot about the characters in our scene. Vicki was a young stubborn teenager who had a lot of confusing things going on in her life, although she finally decided to make a decision and start taking drugs to solve her problems. Mandy had been involved with drugs longer than Vicki. So obviously Mandy would be more confident about it. Mandy can easily loose her temper as we showed in the play when Vicki hits the drugs all over the floor. Mandy ends up slapping Vicki. This implies that Mandy is quite violent and doesnt know how to control her emotions very well. My character (Jason) wears corded trouser and an old knitted woollen jumper to sho w that he bought them from Oxfam, since what he wears is mentioned in the script. I believe that Jason is quite immature watching playschool and pretending to grow into a big tree. However this end scene Mandy got what she came for. Jason, my character, was an older brother of Vicki, as it says in the script however I had played him younger then Vicki. As Mandy was flirting with me I used a stuttering voice to emphasize the fact that I was shy. This tells us that Jason is growing up as the tree is growing, and Vicki is stuck, still having problems with friends and drugs. This scene Mandy probably would like to know more about Jason. Not only does the relationship between Mandy, and Jason but the relationship with Vicki later on in the scene. Vicki seems more dominating with Jason since she scares him off. I dont believe that Vicki feels very comfortable having Mandy in her house. This results in Vicki snatching the drugs off Mandy and Mandy hitting Vicki. After Vicki has been hit. Mandy comes to her senses and tells her she regrets hitting her and asks Vicki to take some drugs. I believe that this is the most important part of the scene because this is the first step of Vicki ending her life. Heroin Lies and The Basketball Diaries in my opinion had interesting but defiantly very similar characters. Vicki Brown (Heroin Lies) who is a drug addict who gets thrown out of her house. Jimmy Carroll (The Basketball Diaries) is a drug addict and like Vicki Brown gets thrown out of his house. This is an example of a similarity. However after becoming a drug addict Vicki Brown then leads to a tragic ending. Whilst Jimmy Carroll then realises his mistakes, then fights his addiction to drugs. I have researched Heroin to find out more about this drug. Heroin is a highly addictive drug, and its use is a serious problem in America. Recent studies suggest a shift from injecting heroin to snorting or smoking because of increased purity and the misconception that these forms of use will not lead to addiction. (From a website discussing drugs) The play that I did Heroin Lies and the film The Basketball Diaries had several similarities and differences. The main similarity that I picked up was that these two plays were based on drugs. This is also the main reason I chose to compare these two plays. Heroin Lies was set in the 90s, which is modern time. These days it tends to be teenagers that are addicted to these drugs. The film The Basketball Diaries was also set in the 90s, which again the teenagers are pushed towards Heroin.

Violence :: essays research papers

Media Violence   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Psychological research has shown three major effects of seeing violence on television. The three major effects that many parents world wide fear are children may become More aggressive and behave in harmful or hazardous to others. Be less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others, and children may be more fearful of the world around them. Violent programs on television lead to aggressive behavior by children and teenagers who watch those programs. Children begin watching television at an early age, sometimes as early as six months, and are ardent viewers by the time they are two or three years old. The general pattern of viewing is one of the steady rise in the number of hours viewed from early childhood to preadolescence and then a sharp drop in viewing during the adolescent years. According to audience rating surveys, the typical American household has the television set on for more than seven hours each day, and children age 2 to 11 spend an average of 28 hours per week viewing. There is a growing concern in this country about teenage violence and how it is connected to the violence seen on the television. The impressionable youth of America somehow fall victim to spending many hours a day watching television and is exposed to violence. Studies show that the average child has witnessed eight thousand murders before they actually finished elementary school. Most of the shows that the younger generations watch contain some vi olence. Several years ago when Power Rangers was first Broadcasted, it had a great effect on the younger population concerning violence. Many children began trying to imitate these so called â€Å"Heroes.† Three out five children, eight-six percent males had a tendency to want to rough house with the other children and or had outbursts of violence. Of course, conditions in society, does not make it easy to pull a child away from the television. Parents work and most families cannot afford to have a parent stay home and watch the children. This situation is understandable and does not necessarily mean that parents do not care for their children. Parents regardless of the situation should try to be as involved as much as possible. Parents should take time out to speak to their children about certain programs they might come across while viewing the television. Parents should also view programs with their children so they can get a better understanding of what their children see when they turn on the television.

Bus 303 Practice Midterm Essay

Characters: Cathy and Dave, a well-to-do professional couple Al, a real estate salesman Cathy and Dave are young, upwardly mobile. They hold good professional jobs in downtown Chicago. One day Cathy received an invitation in-the mail, from a resort called Green Acres (GA), which was located near the mountains, about eight hour driving time from Chicago. The mailer invited the young couple to spend two nights free of cost and receive $50 for expenses. All they had to do in return was to listen to a presentation, see a video, and take a tour of the resort for about two hours. Additional conditions included 24 hour advance booking of the room with 24 hour notice for cancellations, and a valid credit card. Green Acres would charge $50 for a no show. Although the letter made no mention of it, Cathy and Dave knew the invitation was a real estate promotion and guessed that the two hours with the GA staff meant a hard sell for a condo or a timeshare near a lake or a golf course, something they did not want. They decided to take the offer anyway in order to get a free vacation and arranged to visit GA the following weekend. Cathy and Dave had a good time at GA. The only sour point of the trip was the last exchange they had with Al the salesman. At the end of the two hour presentation when Cathy and Dave had refused to buy any GA properties, Al looked at Dave in frustration and said, â€Å"If you knew you weren’t going to buy any property here, why did you come? Our company spent $300 to get you down here, and you have taken food off my family’s table. What you did is immoral. Please don’t do it again.† At this Dave retorted, â€Å"Your letter was clear, there was nothing in it that said a purchase of real estate was involved, and we had no obligation to buy anything from you. Your invitation was unconditional, I don’t owe you or your family anything and I resent what you just said.† At the end of this uncomfortable exchange, Cathy and Dave left the room with an unpleasant feeling. But the unpleasant feelings did not last long because the drive back through the m ountains was truly spectacular. After a few days Cathy said to Dave, â€Å"You know, I’m still mad about what Al said to us at Green Acres. Should we write to his boss, or to the real estate board or to some government agency? You know, if we don’t do something, some poor unsuspecting people might fall for their gimmicks!† Dave replied, â€Å"No, I don’t think we should waste any time on this. Most people know, or should know what they are getting into-there are no free lunches! Besides if we complain, Al may lose his job and when we’ll be really taking the food from his family’s table!† What Are the Relevant Facts? 1. Cathy and Dave are educated and well paid. 2. They received an unsolicited invitation from Green Acres (GA). 3. The invitation had nothing in it that said they had to buy anything from GA. 4. They correctly guessed that the GA sales staff would put pressure on them to buy real estate. 5. GA was eight hours driving time from Chicago. 6. Al made a sales presentation. 7. Cathy and Dave listened to the presentation. 8. Al said Cathy and Dave had acted immorally and had deprived him of a chance of earning a sales commission. 9. Dave said that they had fulfilled their obligation, as outlined in the invitation, and had not acted incorrectly. What Are the Ethical Issues? 1. What is the role of inducements in marketing? 2. What is the responsibility of individuals who accept inducements? Do they have any moral obligations to purchase goods if they accept free gifts from merchants? 3. Is giving attractive gifts to potential buyers an ethical practice? Does the size of the gift or the inducement matter? 4. Cathy and Dave were sophisticated, educated city folk and did not feel pressured to buy from GA. Do less educated or less sophisticated consumers feel pressured to buy merchandise under enticements of gifts? Would such business practice be considered ethical? 5. Should Cathy and Dave complain so that other vulnerable people may not be pressured into buying expensive property they do not want? Who Are the Primary Stakeholders? †¢ Cathy and Dave †¢ Al †¢ GA †¢ GA’s stockholders †¢ Other potential consumers, especially the vulnerable ones What Are the Possible Alternatives? 1. Cathy and Dave can forget the incident and do nothing. 2. They can file a complaint with GA. 3. They can file a complaint with the appropriate authorities. 4. They can write to Al. What Are the Ethics of the Alternatives? 1. What is the best course of action for Cathy and Dave from the moral standpoint? What is the best course of action that Cathy and Dave take that will provide the greatest benefit to the greatest number? 2. Do Cathy and Dave and other potential customers have rights not to be pressured or induced into actions they may not wish to take? Do GA and Al have rights to pursue their business and personal interests? Were any rights violated? 3. What is the just thing to do in this case? Which alternative distributes the burdens and responsibilities fairly? If Cathy and Dave act and if GA improves its practices everyone except Al may benefit. Not complaining may mean Al will continue his tactics and undermine GA’s goals assuming that word would get around and additional customers will be offended. What Are the Practical Constraints? None. What Actions Should Be Taken? 1. What should Cathy and Dave do? 2. Which alternative would you choose? 3. Which approach (utilitarian, rights, or justice) makes the most sense to you in this situation? Clearly, no action could mean unsuspecting people may be lured into buying expensive real estate with potentially severe consequences. Complaints could lead to improved practice and better performance but could lead to the loss of Al’s job. 4. What is the right thing to do?

How to Conjugate Remplir (to Fill) in French

The French verb  remplir  means to fill. When trying to remember it, it may help to think of replenish, which sound similar. Yet, when you want to use it in the present, past, or future tense to mean things like filled or will fill, youll also need to know its conjugations. This lesson will introduce you to the simplest forms youll need for your French conversations. The Basic Conjugations of  Remplir Remplir is a regular -ir verb, so it does use a rather common conjugation pattern found in French verbs. The endings you find here are the same as you would use for words like bà ©nir (to bless) and finir (to finish). If you study a few of these together, each is just a little easier to remember. The first step is to identify the radical or stem of the verb. For  remplir, that is  rempl-. To this, different endings are added to fit both the sentences subject pronoun and its tense. This gives us, for example,  je remplis  for I am filling and  nous remplirons  for we will fill. Practicing these whenever you see someone fill something will help you commit them to memory. Present Future Imperfect je remplis remplirai remplissais tu remplis rempliras remplissais il remplit remplira remplissait nous remplissons remplirons remplissions vous remplissez remplirez remplissiez ils remplissent rempliront remplissaient The Present Participle of  Remplir Useful as a verb as well as a noun or adjective in some instances, the present participle of remplir is an easy conjugation. Simply add -issant to the radical and you have remplissant. Remplir  in the Compound Past Tense In French, the compound past tense is called the  passà © composà ©. Its also easy to form and youll begin with the present tense conjugate of the auxiliary verb  avoir  appropriate to the subject. All thats left is adding the  past participle  rempli, which implies that the act of filling happened in the past. This leaves us with things like  jai rempli  for I filled and  nous avons rempli  for we filled. More Simple Conjugations of  Remplir To question the certainty of whether something is filled or not, youll use  the subjunctive  form of  remplir. Similarly, if it will only happen if something else does,  the conditional  can be used. Youll encounter the passà © simple  and  the imperfect subjunctive  only in written French as these are literary tenses. Subjunctive Conditional Pass Simple Imperfect Subjunctive je remplisse remplirais remplis remplisse tu remplisses remplirais remplis remplisses il remplisse remplirait remplit remplt nous remplissions remplirions remplmes remplissions vous remplissiez rempliriez rempltes remplissiez ils remplissent rempliraient remplirent remplissent The French imperative  is used for short and very direct statements and the subject pronoun is not required. All you need to say is  remplis  rather than  tu remplis. Imperative (tu) remplis (nous) remplissons (vous) remplissez