Nettie's Ramblings

Seven Points to Consider When Presenting Your ?Work

I want to discuss the presentation of your work.? If you are into the swing of writing it?s quite possible that you might seek publication one day.? So it?s best to get into good habits now.? You need to format your work so that it?s reader friendly, in other words, so it makes the reader want to read on.?

Here are some tips I?ve learned along the way as a writer:

1.? Don?t use too many long words.??

Sometimes we feel the need to impress others, but if the language used is too elaborate it only seeks to confuse people and slow down the reading process.? After all, do you really want readers to have to pull a dictionary down off the shelf to translate???

2.? Less is more.??

It?s easy to get carried away and repeat ourselves.? When we post to the group it?s more likely to be a first draft, but if seeking publication, it?s often a good idea to pare your work down beforehand.? Magazines, publishing houses and websites often have a specific word count and no matter how good your work is, they will reject it if it goes well over that count.

3.? Show lots of white space!??

This makes it easier on the eye for the reader.? Construct paragraphs.? Do you know when you need to use a new paragraph?? I always begin one when there is something new to say, or when a different person speaks.? I don?t indent paragraphs for online purposes, I just double line space.? I do the same thing when I submit to publishers.? These are known as ?block paragraphs?.? Just the way I?ve written this!

4.? Avoid the use of ALL CAPITALS!?

Most of us have used all caps at some time or another, but it can give the reader the wrong impression, especially online as it?s associated with shouting.? As well as that, if you decide you want to submit your work for publication it becomes hard work as you have to rewrite the entire piece of work as editors will not accept work written in capital letters.

5.? Use speech marks.

When writing a short story, personal essay or novel, if you need to indicate someone is speaking then you need to employ speech marks, either ?? ? or ? ?.? Various publishing houses use either.? I prefer ? ? for speech marks and ?? to emphasise a point.? For example:

?Hello Jenny,? he said. ?It?s been a long time...?

Jenny stood, motionless.? Ten years ago Matt Webster had seemed ?the next best thing to sliced bread?, now looking at him in his blue scrubs he looked like all the other staff in the Accident and Emergency department, overworked, tired and a little rough around the edges...

6.? Begin near the end...?

This might sound like strange advice but often people get so caught up in setting the scene that they forget to get straight into the action.? Immediate actions helps to hook the reader and makes them want to read on.

?For example:

Sam rose out of bed and padded softly down the stairs.? He switched on the kettle to make himself a cup of tea. It was going to be an exciting day, his stomach churned at the thought of it.? He popped a tea bag into the awaiting cup all the while mulling things over, should he leave it for another day?? Were all his plans in action?? Could something go wrong?

The sound of the phone ringing diverted his attention.? He lifted the receiver.? ?Hi Mum...?

His mother liked to phone him first thing in the morning.? She wanted to know what he was having for breakfast...??

Etc, etc, etc,

Sometimes writers luxuriate by composing several pages of inconsequential prose before getting right into the action.

How about instead:

?Stop what you?re doing...? Sam hissed at the counter clerk.? ?I have a gun in this rolled up newspaper pointing straight at you... and I?ll blow your fucking head off if you don?t do as you?re told...I want all those notes beside you bundled up and placed in this bag.?? He slid a black cloth bag across the counter.

The clerk?s eyes widened with terror, his face a deathly shade of grey.? Sam watched the man become putty in his hands.? This was going to be like taking sweets from a baby and he took great satisfaction in that.

See how more exciting it is to get immediately into the action? Sam had planned to hold up the post office.? Do we need to bother telling readers about him getting out of bed, making a cup of tea, taking a phone call from his mother, etc? Why bore readers with mundane facts and actions before getting right into the nitty gritty of the story?

7. ?Avoid text speak.

With modern technology we are used to abbreviations, especially when it comes to our mobile phones, but that kind of thing doesn?t translate well for the reader.? ?Wat U up to en?? Isn?t going to work in a short story, essay or novel, not unless one of the characters is reading a text message.? It?s hard work for a reader to decipher text speak and publishers will definitely not publish work like that.

Presentation is important it can mean the difference between publication and rejection and more importantly, whether we hook the reader in!

Source: http://nettiesramblings.blogspot.com/2012/07/normal-0-false-false-false-en-gb-x-none.html

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Blair High School football team's season could be lost

The Blair High School football team is scheduled to play its first game of the season in six weeks.

But for some players and parents, it's hard to imagine that day will come.

Most area teams are concluding their summer preparations, which include practices, passing tournaments and linemen competitions, but Blair is a program without a head coach and the team, what's left of it, has not had an organized practice since early June. The Vikings are scheduled to open the season Aug. 24 against Hoover.

"Most of the parents have said `This is crazy. This is ridiculous. We're going to pull our kids and take them somewhere else,' " said Carl McClain, whose son Logan was an All-Rio Hondo League defensive end last season as a junior and still is holding out hope something will happen. "The main players, the majority of them, have left. They're gone. If my son was in the 10th grade, that would be no problem for us to pick up and go somewhere else, but he's a senior.

"I shouldn't have to move my son out of the city of Pasadena so he can go somewhere else to play. He's a senior. I shouldn't have to pull money out of my pocket so my son can play somewhere. That's not fair."

Blair was coached last season by Gary Parks, who resigned this past offseason after four years at the school. Blair started last season with 22 players on the roster, but Logan McClain estimated the team had just 12 players when the season ended.

After Parks

left, the school began its search for a replacement in April, according to Pasadena Unified School District board president Renatta Cooper.

The school's first choice was hired but quickly quit because of a lack of equipment and poor facilities, according to Cooper. The school's second choice turned the job down because no teaching position was offered. A third choice was preliminarily hired but failed a background check and was let go.

"The position has been re-flown and it's my understanding that they're going to be interviewing again Thursday," Cooper said on Wednesday. "What more can they do? They had to re-fly the position. It is unfortunate that they were not able to secure the services of a coach. They began the process early enough to have this taken care of.

"I believe that everything that can be done is being done. I believe they started the process early enough to not have this problem. You would think out of your three top candidates, you would be able to secure the services of any of them, especially when you started in April."

With no coach and no organized practices, the player pool has subsequently dwindled. Parents like McClain are frustrated by the lack of action and answers from Blair principal Trudell Skinner and athletic director Saul Rico.

The closest Blair's players have come to some form of practice is an open weight room the school has provided for another program not related to football, according to Logan McClain. The 6-foot-1, 190-pound college prospect instead has worked out mostly at home.

Another problem standing in Blair's way is even when a new football coach is hired, it's questionable there will be enough players to field a starting 11. Logan McClain estimated through his own correspondence with classmates that only eight players remain in the program. Blair also will welcome in a new freshman class later this summer, but getting those players ready for any level of football competition will be an uphill battle even if a coach is named soon.

The CIF-Southern Section requires a team to have 14 practices before it plays its first game. Each individual student must have had at least 10 practices before being allowed to compete in a game.

With time running out, Blair needs to act fast in getting a coach and enough players to field a varsity football team. Despite the concerns of many, school officials aren't ready to pull the plug on the season.

"I'm confident that they're doing the best they can," Cooper said. "Are they in danger of forfeiting their games and not having a team? I spoke to the principal and she didn't seem to feel that. She didn't express that level of concern.

"She feels that they're going to get this taken care of and I'm going to take her opinion."

Meanwhile, the McClains are left to wonder whether they should trust the school or scramble and figure out Plan `B' before it's too late.

"He wants to play at Blair," Carl McClain said of his son. "He says, `Dad, I want to finish what I started,' and that's understandable. He says, `Dad, I want to graduate with the kids I went to junior high school with.'

"But I told him that if you want to play football and this is what you want to do, you may have to give all that up and go somewhere else."

Source: http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/ci_21066320/blair-high-school-football-teams-season-could-be?source=rss_viewed

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Making a Career Change? Franchise Consultant shares steps to ...

Perhaps you have been thinking about making a career change and becoming a business owner. For many, owning a franchise can be better choice.? A franchise company provides a blue print for new unit owners to follow that has been proven successful over and over.? But before you start thinking of possible franchises to own, the first thing you must do is focus on yourself.? Success starts with understanding your personal needs, business goals and financial requirements BEFORE zeroing in on specific franchises.

So why don?t prospective business owners take the time to think this through?? Because self-discovery can be a difficult process!? It can be hard for some people to be really honest with themselves.? Many just don?t know what qualifications are required.?? Often people get so excited about getting into a franchise they lose total sight of a possible exit strategy down the road ? and NO business should be started without this in mind!

For these reasons, it is very important that a qualified franchise adviser be consulted.? What is a franchise adviser?? The adviser is similar to a career coach, only they focus on helping people understand the world of franchising.? They help them sort through the many options available to determine which may be the best fit for them.? But all of this comes AFTER the adviser has helped their client look inward to determine what they want to get out of a business at many levels.

Here are 7 key steps a qualified franchise adviser will go through with their client:

1. Initial interview ? A franchise adviser will start off asking some basic questions and will share information to help you determine if business ownership would be a smart Career Change for you at this point in your life. A lot of people are intrigued with the idea of owning a business but need some help understanding what it would really be like.

2. Self-evaluation ? A franchise adviser will use a confidential questionnaire to help you think through what you would want to get out of a franchise before you ever invest in one.? For instance, will you have a partner and will they be passive or active?? Is your spouse supportive?? Would you be willing to work some nights and weekends for certain types of businesses?? Would you be better with customers coming to you in a retail store or could you succeed networking and going out to customers with a service based business.? Would you prefer selling to businesses (B2B) or to consumers (B2C)?

3. Search Criteria ? Once you have gone through self-evaluation, the next step is to use this information to develop the ?Search Criteria?.? This will be used by the franchise adviser to conduct their search and ensures a greater likelihood of finding a franchise or Business for S that would be a very good fit.

4. Potential franchise solutions ? The franchise adviser will present the franchises that match up well with your Search Criteria.? A very experienced adviser will know a great deal about these companies and will be able to explain their executive team?s track record, their differential advantage, their support systems including training, marketing, sales, etc.

5. Due diligence ? Now that you know some franchise companies that could be a good fit, you need to confirm which one you prefer.? After interacting with existing owners of a specific franchise and becoming aware of what it will take to be successful with their model, you may determine this particular franchise isn?t for you.

6. Discovery Day ? Once you have zeroed in on a particular franchise that seems to fit you well, you will attend ?Discovery Day? which is normally held at a franchise company?s home office.? You will meet their executives and support team and they will explain the process of coming on board and the support they provide, should you select them.? The franchise company will also be evaluating you to make sure you have what it takes to be successful.

7. Refer specialists ? As you go through the franchise selection process you may need certain specialists to assist such as a CPA, franchise attorney, financing sources, etc.? The franchise adviser may be able to refer professionals for you to consider in addition to your own.

To learn more about potential franchise ownership and how to make the transition, take the next step.

People use a real estate agent to purchase a home.? So why wouldn?t you use a Franchise Consultant to help guide you through one of the most significant investments of your life?? There are franchise opportunities that may be the perfect match for you, but without a franchise adviser how will you ever know?? People who use a franchise adviser are often pleasantly surprised with the types of franchises presented to them.? There is no charge to use a franchise adviser because they are compensated similar to an executive recruiter.? You also will not pay more to purchase a franchise if an adviser has helped you.

For more information on the Veteran programs above and help exploring franchise ownership, Contact us. There is no cost or obligation for our service.

Source: http://www.clearchoicefranchising.com/franchise-advice/making-a-career-change-franchise-consultant-shares-steps-to-follow-when-looking-for-a-business-for-s/

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Smartphone owners more likely to vote for Obama: poll

14 hrs.

Suzanne Choney

Smartphone owners may be likely to give President Obama their vote than Mitt Romney, according to a Harris Poll.

The organization queried 800 iPhone and Android phone users, and asked, "If the presidential election were held today, who would you vote for?"

The response:?49 percent of iPhone/Android users said they would vote for Obama, and 31 percent said they would vote for Romney.

Romney did?have the edge over Obama among retirees polled: 57 percent of retired iPhone/Android users say they support Romney, vs. 34 percent who say they?would vote for Obama if the election were held today. ? ??

What do the results mean? Not a lot in the real?political world, where polls and stances change daily.?

The survey was commissioned by mobile marketing and advertising technology company Velti, which does make an interesting point.

"The smartphone market is becoming a whole new demographic that candidates must take into consideration when building a comprehensive campaign strategy,"?said Krishna Subramanian of?Velti, in a press release.

"Clearly, mobile advertising is emerging as an influential medium and a distinct audience," she said. "We are just beginning to see a more strategic use of this platform, such as Mitt Romney?s iAd campaign, and believe that others will follow suit. More importantly, the survey results reveal that greater intelligence in understanding the behavior of this emerging demographic can be a critical differentiator?in brand awareness," whether that "brand" is a candidate or a box of detergent.

Velti's infographic about the poll and related results?is shared here:

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on?Facebook,?and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

Source: http://www.technolog.msnbc.msn.com/technology/technolog/smartphone-owners-more-likely-vote-obama-876120

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Establish Yourself As An Expert - Your SEO Content Writers

Content Writer ? Establish Yourself As An Expert

When you are a content writer, you have a lot to live up to. Many non-English speaking writers are now taking over the market because they offer their services for next-to-nothing prices. Of course, this looks very appealing to the person buying the services however; it does not mean that the work is high quality. In fact, more often than not the writing will be difficult to understand and will lack any thorough research or viable sources. To stand out from the rest, you should learn the three best ways to establish yourself as an expert in this field.

You may have seen many online commercials showing business cards and the influence they can have on your career. Generally, it is possible to purchase 500 business cards or more for less than $10 and when you think about it, this is a very affordable form of promotion for a content writer. For content writers who are just starting out in the field, this will be even more important because it gives them a step up the ladder, without expensive costs. Placing business cards in various local stores and handing them out to friends and family will help you to get noticed and this will result in the most powerful form of advertising ? word of mouth.

Content Writer ? Websites

Making your own website displaying your skills as a content writer will be a remarkable move to make if you want to be known as an expert. Think about when you want a service ? you always look for a company that maintains their own website, right? If so, you are like most people. If a business does not possess a website in this day and age, what exactly are they doing? Bear this in mind because a website could help you to look professional. In addition to making your own website, use other sites that display your skills. You can do this by making pages on Twitter and Facebook or alternatively, by making a HubPages or Elance account.

Content Writer ? E-Books

An e-book is an electronic book that can be created on the computer and read on the computer. These e-books are simple to craft and if you have skills to share, consider pouring all of the advice you have into an e-book. A benefit of this is that people will remember your name, recommend you to others and also, you could make money in the process. A content writer should implement this method because an e-book can be read on the move, making it possible for absolutely anyone to see it.

Source: http://yourseocontentwriters.com/content-writer-establish-yourself-as-an-expert/

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3 Ways For Non-Profits to Get the Most from ... - Business 2 Community

Sometimes they?re a true blessing. Other times, well, not so much.

Hopefully your non-profit?s experience with corporate volunteer programs has been nothing but positive. ?The program was organized, the volunteer team was filled with eager and genuinely engaged employees, the team took their work seriously, stayed on task, accepted direction, and the day was a resounding success because of it all.

Odds are, however, that you?ve seen corporate volunteering in its less laudable form.

Maybe the program dissolved into one elaborate cause marketing ploy. ?Your corporate partner was more concerned with poignant photo opportunities and heart-warming press releases than the actual task at hand. Or maybe the volunteers saw the program as a much needed day off from the daily grind, spending the day giggling with their colleagues, taking naps in the sun, and spending more time discussing who was buying the first round of drinks that night than the actual volunteer work itself.

If you?ve ever worked as a non-profit volunteer coordinator, chances are you?ve felt the disappointment of gently urging your volunteer team to come back from their long-extended lunch break, only to be met with a harmlessly intended joke that cuts a little too deep given the circumstances: ?Well, you can take it out of our paycheck.? ?Sound familiar? ?Then you know all too well the ensuing frustration as you force a chuckle, walk back to the job site and desperately hope that your volunteer team will follow your lead.

What separates successful corporate volunteer programs from the not-so-successful kind? ?And what can you do to ensure your non-profit is getting the most from your corporate partners?

In past years, the corporate partnership game has changed for non-profits. Corporate social responsibility is fast becoming a critical ingredient of bottom line success in the modern business world. ?Not only is a global consumer base increasingly demanding that corporate philanthropy efforts are stepped up, but a new generation of socially-minded professionals wants to see their employers do more than just cut a check to worthy causes. ?Instead, corporate volunteer programs are on their way to becoming a mandate for companies who want high employee retention and employee engagement rates for their top young talent.

As such, you can?t simply bring home a hefty check from a corporate sponsor and then call it a day. ?To nurture lasting relationships with top corporate partners, your non-profit needs to develop novel fundraising ideas that involve a company?s employees and create meaningful, impactful volunteer opportunities which advance mutual goals. ?In the best of all worlds, corporate partners enjoy an enriching volunteer experience which aligns with their cause marketing strategies and promotes employee engagement, and you gain access to a hard-working and capable volunteer team which helps you pursue your mission.

Some factors are beyond your control ? the internal motivation of the volunteer team, for example, or their willingness to receive your guidance and instruction. ?But if you?re a non-profit leader, there are three key measures you can take to give your corporate volunteers the greatest chance of success:

1. Get organized

Don?t assume you can simply throw a volunteer team into the fire on their first work day and expect them to take care of themselves, no matter how prestigious their day jobs might be. ?A well-run volunteer program means extra effort on your part. ?These aren?t your staff members; they?re not around your non-profit?s work day-in and day-out. ?Plan accordingly, doing everything you can to create a work structure which will allows your volunteers to make the most of their talent and energy.

2. Strike the Right Tone

Find a leadership style which keeps your volunteers on track without stripping them of their enthusiasm. ?In the world of volunteer management, there?s a fine line between leading your volunteers and bossing them around. You certainly don?t want to make your energetic volunteer team feel ?voluntold,? but you also need to keep the work balance tilted toward structure as opposed to chaos.

3. Delegate Wisely

Give your volunteers meaningful and rewarding jobs. ?What?s the best way to sap your volunteer team?s enthusiasm? ?It?s a toss-up between a dictatorial, unappreciative leadership style or mind-numbing under-stimulation. ?If you or your staff are on site, you should be taking care of the most menial tasks available, not your volunteers. ?Even if it would be more efficient for you to simply take over and complete the more substantive work, it doesn?t matter. ?Take the extra time to set your volunteers on course, or, if necessary, work alongside them. ?But don?t relegate them to the jobs you?ve been avoiding because they?re the least interesting.

Positioning your volunteers to leverage their skills pro-bono (or, if the work is outside of their skill set, then at least their enthusiasm) will help ensure that your non-profit makes the most of corporate volunteer programs. ?Better yet, smart use of company volunteers will lay the foundation for a lasting corporate partnership that keeps a steady stream of resources and funding flowing to your organization for years to come.

I want to write about how?your?non-profit navigates the business world. ?Email me at ryanscott@causecast.org and tell me how you work with your corporate supporters.

Source: http://www.business2community.com/strategy/3-ways-for-non-profits-to-get-the-most-from-corporate-volunteer-programs-0215113

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Rochester police investigate 2 shootings (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

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