A, B, C... OF COPYEDITING

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Once an author sends his manuscript to a publisher, both a copyeditor and a proofreader go through the manuscript before it gets published. A copyeditor’s role is to edit author’s manuscript, while a proofreader checks the final copy to-be-published as per publisher’s guidelines. Copyediting is more tedious. A copyeditor does 3 types of editing in the author’s manuscript. These are: Style editing, Content editing and Technical editing.

If you have started your career as a copyeditor, you are going to love this e-book on copyeditng marks and symbols explained with examples.

Are you the one who thinks hardcopy edits an old school thought? Or may be digital edits with track changes are the most easy-to-understand editing form? Many of you might agree a page clearly marked with edits in pen is easy to understand than its digital counterpart. It's easy to make edits in a word file with track changes on, but edits on a hard copy too has its beauty, clarity and benefits.

Here is a small 6-page e-book on copyediting marks that every copyeditor should know, and which are acceptable by most of the publishers around the globe.

Download your free copy here.

Content Writing Module 3- The Irony of Quotes

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Let’s start today’s post with some examples.

Example 1 – He said that “he will come.”
Example 2 – While addressing the press, the President said “We will not tolerate terrorism at any cost.”
Example 3 – Jack said, ‘Look I can handle this alone.’ Jill replied, ‘I won’t let you do this alone.’
Example 4 – I think, I can “manage.”
Example 5 – Jackson’s famous move “slam jam” is inimitable.

How many of you agree if we say the usage of quotation marks (double quotes) is used appropriately only in Examples 2 and 5. Well, those who agree thanks, those who don’t let’s see why Examples 2 and 5 have correct usage of double quotes.

True quotes/Double quotes/Quotation marks are used in a text to highlight words, phrase, and sentence taken from some other source. It is also used to quote dialogs/speech told by some other person than the author or the narrator. There are certain rules you can keep in your mind

Rule 1: Use double quotes when you want to quote someone’s statement word by word. The reader should know that a particular sentence is not of the author but someone else has told this.
Example: Mr Miller was very tired, he told James, “I should go home and sleep, before coming back to the field again.”

Read more on the correct usage of quotes in Quote, unquote–The Irony of Quotes. Download now
You can also contact Web Content Guide for any content writing services. Read here what's on offer and CONTACT US by filling up the form below.

Content Writing Module 2 – Writer's confusion, editor's nightmare

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Content writers often while writing commit mistakes like 'its' in place of 'it's' or 'Our company is' in place of 'Our company are'. Sometimes what troubles them is “Is it OK to start a sentence with 'but' or 'also'”. Of course while writing, if a writer thinks too much of a grammar, he might lose the essence of the content and mislead from the context.

Such errors however should not be ignored at the editing or proof reading stage. A copy filled with writer's confusion, sure can be an editor's nightmare. So, content writers let's help our editors out by learning some very simple but valuable grammar points. You will find your copy much more worth reading. Who knows your copy might pass with least number of edits. :)

Subscribe for our free help document on punctuation and grammar (in pdf format).

The document covers:

• Common hyphen mistakes
• Help you clear the cloud of common confusion
• Show how to use punctuation correctly
• Explain some useful grammar terms

As a whole this document will help you to write more confidently and clearly.

Download your copy now and make a difference in your content.

Overcome writer’s block and get ideas for your newsletter writing

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If rolling out email campaigns is part of your job profile, then drafting newsletters for your online customers is indispensable part of our regular routine. Since you publish your newsletter on a regular basis, sometimes it's difficult to find innovative content for next issue of the newsletter.

The four tenet of scripting newsletters:

• Pre-write your ideas briefly using phrases

• Write the story from your first notes

• Read your story and edit it

• Re-write it

JOT DOWN YOUR IDEAS

You are sitting before the monitor and your fingers strumming on the keyboard, you try hard to think of something new for the next issue of your newsletter, but your mind is tied, ideas won’t flow. It may have happened often to you that brightest ideas don’t come to your mind when you need them the most. You happen to get the best ideas when you're doing something else. The key to this problem lies in creating an idea list. Whenever you get an innovative idea, just jot it down in your list. After sometime you will have hoard of topics to write article on. So whenever you want to write an article, you simply scroll down your list and select an issue according to your liking.

WRITE HOW TO ARTICLES

Most of the readers are interested in reading how to article that teaches them the steps to carry out a certain task, or gives them useful tips and clues. But don’t load your newsletter with how-to article solely, that will make it monotonous. Use other types of write-ups as well to bring variety yin flavor. But focus mainly on informative write-ups.

STUDY THE FORUMS

There is no end of forums these days on the Internet. Many people participate in these online forums, which will make you aware of various issues that prevail in the market. These forums will help you get professional advices right from the horse’s mouth. Participate in forums, where your target market hangs out. There you will discover many of the most common questions and problems that loom large in your target market. Consequently, you can write helpful articles about them.

FIND OUT THE KEY WORDS

Do a little research over the Internet and find out the keywords that your target audiences are searching through the search engines. Then write an article about it. This will help you in two ways. Your articles will be optimized to the needs of your subscribers and you will also get a good ranking for that article in search engines, which will bring you lots of targeted traffic for free.

ASK THE SEEKERS

Ask your readers about the information they are looking for, and then cater them accordingly. The simplest way of doing this is to add an “Ask the Editor” section in the newsletter. You will soon receive emails from your readers asking you questions on various issues. Select the most common and major questions and problems and write an article about it. In this way you will be flooded with innovative ideas to script your articles on. The edge in your write up will be that they will be tuned to your reader’s interest.

INCLUDE INTERVIEWS

People like to hear stories of “rags to riches”. So interview people who have been successful in the relevant field. You can interview over the phone or online. Your interviewee need not be someone very famous. Very famous people may not let you interview them. If you happen to get a famous personality to interview, keep them very short, as they will not like a long-winding questionnaire. But generally speaking your interviewee need not be a millionaire, aim for someone who has gained considerable success in the field. You can also include guest columns in your newsletters too.

TAKE A LOOK AT THE ARTICLE DIRECTORIES

There are numerous article directories that are available in the Internet. Browse the relevant sites and you will find torrent of issue to write articles on.

WRITE BOOK REVIEWS

You might be aware of some really helpful books, software programs, and services that will be useful to your newsletter readers. So you can write a review about one of them, so you’re your readers may buy them in case they suit their needs. This will also help you grab some business. You can join the affiliate program of the publishers and earn a commission from every sale you make via your affiliate link.

Don’t surrender yourself to a writer’s block, next time while preparing your newsletter. Keep the tips given above handy to spark some creative ideas if you’re stuck for a theme or article idea.

Content Writing Module 1 – How is online writing different from writing for print media

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With the introduction of Internet, people/readers (anyone browsing net to get some information, or trying to look for products and services) have got a complete control over the content they are reading or want to read. A reader of an online content piece doesn't need to read the entire content to decide if he wants to continue reading. He quickly browses the page and pay attention to headline, sub headline, some bullet points (if any), etc and decide whether to read it full or not.

Online writing has different rules and tips to practice. Some of them are:

1. Don't play hide and seek
2. Don't miss the keywords
3. Don't make your content a half-baked cake

To learn more about online writing and how to write it differently, download our Helpbook on
How is online writing different from writing for print media.

This Christmas, Cherish 3 Wonderful Ebooks

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The Sale is On…..

Three exciting and highly-informative eBooks – all at a smashing price of $29.95 each. That’s a real steal. This week you can save 20% on the original price during the Christmas Sale when you use coupon code XEJ604.

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Hurry before we close down the sale.

Before you shop, grab discount codes or coupon that may translate into 20% or even deeper discounts at checkout.

Click here to avail the fabulous discount

Ebook Arcade wishes you all a Merry Christmas! Over the past year, Ebook Arcade has grown in its size and strength. And on this auspicious occasion of Christmas, we would like to convey our Special Thanks to all our clients all across the globe.

We thank you for your constant support. We thank you for believing in us, in our eBooks. To make this occasion more special we have come up with exciting discount offers. Only for this Holiday Season, we have decided to slash down our price and give away heavy discount packages. But believe me, these are once-in-a-lifetime offers. You can bet on it.

All you need to do is enter your name & contact number in the sign-up form below along with the coupon code and Voila! We will surely get in touch with you.

But do understand we can't go on giving it at this throwaway price. We simply can't continue with this discounted price forever. So, this offer will be valid for only for a limited period of time only.

Believe me, it's a steal! But hurry. Time is fast running out! Grab this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity NOW! You certainly won’t find a better deal anywhere else. And frankly, that's like getting an entire fortune for peanuts!

Click here to avail the fabulous discount

MERRY CHRISTMAS & A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A writer's checklist

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Web content writer is always under constant pressure of writing a piece that is

• Search engine friendly
• Contains keywords and a Call to Action
• Capable of grabbing reader's attention
• Grammatically correct with no typo and subject-verb disagreement

A writer knows very well that each piece of his content cannot be his masterpiece. However, each piece, article, web page he writes can be error-free in terms of grammar, subject-verb agreement, complying with manuals he is asked to follow.

Web Content Guide from ContentReach presents a simple yet useful checklist including every possible relevant points a writer needs to check before submitting the final copy. By using it consistently for different types of content for an article, a whitepaper, a webpage, etc., you will get into the habit of Writing Right. Remember “The greatest mistake is to continue to practice a mistake”. So download the checklist now.

If you have any question about our checklist or our various content writing services, call us at 888-471-3784 or email us at info@contentreach.com.