Defining the Scope of the Problem

Defining the Scope of the Problem

Among my rather broad-ranging interests within the general area of “writing” is the matter of challenges facing those who learn English other than “from the cradle,” whether they are developmentally delayed or whether they (more commonly in terms of my personal experience) are English as a Second Language learners.

While, as the Blog title “Writings, Etc.,” reflects, any writing-related topic is fair game, I have tried so far to focus on areas that would interest native speaker/writers of English either concerned with business-and-technical writing, or in a serious way with “creative writing.”

I recently had occasion to ask someone interested in developing English writing skills who is, essentially, learning the language as an adult the kind of topic he would like to see discussed in such a blog as this.

When he gave me his answer, I briefly researched one aspect I wanted to cover in a series of posts:  and realized he had hit upon a gigantic motherlode of raw material for a set of entries for this blog.

He indicated he would like to read about “word usage.” 

Well, at first I thought he meant using words correctly, which I know he has some challenges with.

But then he also made a point about wanting to have access to better ways to learn new words:  which is technically vocabulary development.

Now, apart from the fact that those are in a sense two different . . . although related . . . topics, each of them lends itself to multiple sub-topic areas.

At the same time, some other possible topics for coverage have come to my attention. 

So, I’m launching a series of Blog entries on different topics hopefully within the next week or two.

But for those interested in the challenges and potential solutions pertaining to the cultivation of vocabulary and usage skills for adults . . . primarily but not necessarily those learning English as a second language [as opposed to lack of education, developmental delays eventually resolved, and any number of other causes], I thought I’d start with an introductory post and a list of the sub-topic areas I now know of that factor into exploring the challenges of honing English skills in this situation. 

I do not rule out finding new sub-topic areas as I go along.

And there should be some fun for my blog readers along the way.  For example, we will take at least one stop along the way looking at nursery rhymes, songs, and other children’s “play” language exposure, like jump-rope songs.

I also want to make a note to my regular readers:  in posts on this topic, I anticipate that I will use words I would not use normally in similar contexts. 

That is because of my potential audience.

In business writing, it is good to have a great vocabulary, but reader accessibility is paramount.

In business writing, I can think of some, but very few, contexts in which I would use either the word “hone” or the word “paramount.”

BUT . . . if I am to go by my informant, vocabulary acquisition is a big concern and challenge.

And by my own experience . . . part of the solution is exposure.

So, ALSO in business writing, audience is paramount.  The demand of this audience is ‘make it attractive, but give us [new/unknown] WORDS, WORDS, WORDS.  The more unusual, the better.’

And I’m going to do my best to fulfill that anticipation.

So, for those more interested in the other aspects of writing I cover, I will be using words like “paramount” and “hone” knowing that THIS audience will WANT to look them up in a dictionary if they don’t know them.

When, for example, I’d rarely use such words either in business writing or in fiction with certain exceptions.

With that warning and caveat (I know of a few folks who teach ESL people, also who may have an interest.), here are some sub-topics to look at for those interested in this area of writing skills:  

Young’uns learn languages in ALL languages, why is English differenet?

[Or, the history and structure or English]

Natural acquisition processes [or why Sally may be much more literate than Brucie, or vice versa.]

Cultural issues:  yesterday, today, and tomorrow

The nature of a working vocabulary [including what’s wrong with the definitions I’ve run across in my research so far.]

The comparative level of working vocabulary for contemporary versus historical timeframes.

The impact of learning styles

Issues of exposure [related to learning styles and levels of working vocabulary at different historical times]

Complications for adult learners that “learning experts” appear not to take into account

Resources to advance the “cause.”

Those are my starters:  and those are more than one post apiece.

It’s a bit ironic that the person who asked this, while our first encounter suggested otherwise, is in fact doing all the right things that life makes accessible to him.

Hopefully, I can contribute a little bit to the progress quotient with this [in terms of the enormity of the problem as I now see it] humble effort.

Hope to see you in the audience.

Krista

Anticipation - Part Two - Enjoyment Reading

Anticipation – Part Two

Most of us go through it, I should guess:  periodic cash flow gaps.  I venture to say that even well-known, professionally successful writer such as Peter Bowerman, Jennifer Mattern and others who have a fairly consistent, even revenue flow from clients have the occasional situation when the unexpected – such as vehicular issues or a household move that involves unanticipated circumstances – results in a circumstance where it becomes necessary to live rather frugally for an interval.

I actually lived in that circumstance off-and-on for several months in late 2011 and early 2012 when it became necessary to replace a vehicle during a time when I had lost a major client.  I may, in fact, be in that circumstance again in the near future because of a combination of needing repairs on the recently purchased vehicle and tax time.

Before anyone gets huffy about needing repairs on a vehicle purchased less then three months ago, I’ve said to acquaintances in-person and will say here that I paid very little for the car, so I really can’t complain.  It is an emissions problem, which also means that not only when I bought the car the sellers didn’t know, but a good three weeks later when I had the car inspected the “check engine” light had yet to go on.  A rather expensive repair so soon after the car, but under the circumstances just one of those things.

As to taxes:  I did well enough with the Federal tax and got a refund.  However, I do owe a few hundred on state taxes.

As to anticipation, I am going back to essentially the beginning of March and the last few days of February.  I began working on-site at that time, an assignment I have had over the last several years.  However, having just gone through all the expenses of purchase, registration, sales tax and inspection of a car, it was a difficult stretch to get through the three full weeks to the first paycheck.

That interval became a time of anticipation for me.  A time of anticipating when I could once again have a few dollars to spend as I would like.

The first thing on my list of what to spend things on was books.  During the interval between going to work and the first paycheck, I spent a handful of sessions looking over my materials from Crossings book club [for Christian material] and checking out the Recommendations list at Amazon.com.

I put together a Wish List from each, and enjoyed the anticipation of planning to order when that first paycheck arrived.

Indeed, although I normally order my Christian romance fiction through Crossings, I decided to order a couple such books through Amazon.

Why?

Because the Crossings editorial team assesses the Christian fiction they consider adding to their line, and try to select only offer what they classify as “the best” of what’s available.

Yet, as a fiction writing hopeful myself, I feel that we also learn something from fiction at any quality level:  from ‘how on Earth did that get published?’ up through ‘top drawer’ material and every quality level in between. 

So, ultimately:  my sense of anticipation of acquiring some books when cash became available, and then of starting to read those books during the in-transit time, helped smooth over the psychological rough edges of some necessarily quite frugal days towards the end of the winter.

And, I truly think the anticipation helped heighten my enjoyment of the material once I got to read it.  [I’ve read one novel a weekend since they began to arrive.]

I still have several left that I have yet to read:  most with something specific to anticipate about the book. 

So, I’m still enjoying that anticipation of having some pleasant reading time to come.

There’s still more on my Wish List I would like to add to my collection eventually:  but for right now, I have enough likely enjoyable fiction reading to provide a delightful sense of anticipation across the next at least three or four weekends.

Anticipation – Part One

I am in a state of anticipation on several levels, right now.

The one most on my mind today deals with the, as it were, secular seasons.  Or, more specifically, the change of seasons.

In reality, each season has its own  . . . variety . . . of things.

Each season has its beauties, certainly.  Each season also has its own potential problems.  There is winter cold and the accompanying heating bills and sometimes precipitates such winter illnesses as flu and colds, summer heat that can cause its own potential health problems including such things as heat prostration and respiratory distress brought on by poor air quality, and Spring has the potential for bringing with it flooding concerns.  Well, at least in my area it does.

The upcoming change of season from Winter to Spring is on my mind just now because of a few things.  First, where I live we have a warming trend over the next few days. 

After a very mild winter this year, we had a snowstorm late last week.  It was only the second actual snowstorm of the season, and started on the last day of a Leap Year February.  It was, however, an extended storm that lasted two full days.

After that storm, the temperatures dropped to the low-to-mid 30s up until the day before yesterday [a Tuesday, after a storm that ran Thursday, Friday, and into the wee hours of Saturday last week.]

Yesterday, however, the milder weather that characterized most of our winter returned for a few days.  It was in the 50s.  Today, it actually got into the 60s, and then it cools again but only to daytime temperatures in the 40s [lows of 30s are forecast, but I anticipate that is overnight temperatures.]

In addition to this warming trend prompting thoughts of Spring, the Springtime clock change to Daylight Savings time is scheduled for this weekend.

And the official first day of Spring is only a week and a half away.

This winter has been mild, and I have been grateful for the savings on heating oil.  It has in many ways been a quite difficult winter for me in other ways, and I’m not sorry to move on to the warmer [and longer] days of Springtime.

And so, I’m anticipating . . . and looking forward to the kind of events and opportunities that Spring may bring about this year.

Certainly, we don’t want to live our lives too much in the past or the future:  there is much to be said for living in the moment as much as we possibly can.

Yet, there is something in a way delightful about a state of anticipation.  This is true in creative writing as well as in life.  And true on the flip side of the writing coin:  a build-up of anticipation in the reader.

There’s a certain highly enjoyable tension involved in reading a book that we can anticipate some element of the outcome without anticipating the details.  In a romance, for example, we generally can rest assured that the hero and heroine will form a lasting, loving relationship.  The book may or may not take us to marriage, but by the end we likely have some sense of a firm commitment between the primary male and female characters.  In an artfully done such book, the anticipation of that basic formula of ‘girl meets boy, they fall in love’ lends a deepening of the enjoyment of the read to the details that we don’t anticipate:  the ‘how’ of the relationship’s realization.  The little surprises.

Indeed, I have noticed some particular trends in Christian romance in recent books, and they often lead to this balancing act between what the reader does and does not anticipate.

But that is a Blog post for another time:  the trends in Christian romance.

What about you?  What are you anticipating at this time?  In your own life, or in your creative writing.  If you are involved in a creative writing project, how are you setting the stage?

If you haven’t thought about that as you work on your fiction, perhaps now would be a good time to consider the element of reader anticipation of your character’s progress in the story you are creating.

Diversions and Distractions

I started the Blog with excellent intentions to post a couple times a week each week, and sometimes more than that.

Unfortunately, as they say:  “Man plans, God laughs.”

I did well enough for the first few weeks.  I knew there were going to be a couple weeks I would have some trouble with posting more than once, and probably one week that I might not be able to post at all, due to diversions and distractions.

When I finally got back to the Blog, I found I had not posted for a full month during that phase.

I unfortunately had a variety of distractions during February that kept me away from the Blog, and to be blunt in some instances it wasn’t a matter of the time or energy to write a Blog entry . . . which I find easy to write . . . it was a matter of mental disarray such as to make coming up with a topic an exercise in futility.  That is a matter I will get to later in this post to draw this subject around into the area of ‘topics about writing.’

An element of the distractions and diversions is anticipating a recall to seasonal work on February 27^th, and dealing with getting ready for that event.  I knew the date throughout February, or nearly so.

I was also involved in writing articles for a site in hopes of raising my Internet visibility during February.  Normally, like the Blog, that site is a “write at your own pace” site, but they had a “challenge” from mid-January to mid-February, offering a valuable information document for those who completed an average of one article per day during that timeframe, for 30 days.  This was an exclusive offer:  not sold, only provided as a result of completing the challenge.

That went well enough at first, but towards the end, I was again finding it difficult to come up with topics to write about.

I also had my own personal writing objectives during that time:  I have two novels in process [actually three, counting one in Beta reader limbo], and I had enough long-hand manuscript to feel rather uncomfortable with that in limbo when I went back to full-time work. 

So, I prioritized manuscript typing during the approximately last work week before I returned to work.

But, the biggest distraction and diversion involved the need to replace a vehicle as inexpensively as possible in time to return to work on February 27:  plus get all the follow up paperwork, inspection, and so on done.  To some degree, that had a fall-out effect on everything else.

There were several uncertainties in the course of finding, negotiating, funding, etc., the vehicle and this created a significant distraction that kept me from keeping up with everything.

Normally, return-to-work preparation just involves some wardrobe and budget organizing.  But in this case, the budgeting is more difficult and I had to go through purchase, insurance validation, registration and inspection of the vehicle and as a result deal with an even more limited budget than is normal starting out a return to on-site work.

In the middle of all this, I realized that before returning to work I also had to replace my driving eyeglasses which not only was I using a prior prescription having ruined my current pair, but that back-up pair was falling apart as well..  That meant working something more into a tight budget, and finding a source for inexpensive glasses online.

At times, the things that needed to be done were exhausting.  All in all, this led to my having enough diversion and distraction in operation during much of February that I didn’t get back to the Blog as I should:  especially for such a new Blog.

Now, as to how this specific situation for me relates to other writers.

In one of my first courses in my Major as an undergraduate English Major, the instructor indicated that “all writers work under constraints.  Constraints of time, constraints of health . . .”

Professional writers always make their best attempt to do their best work.

The fact of the matter is, though, situations do arise when because of constraints, the individual writer’s “best work” is “best in context” and not necessarily the writer’s best work rated, if such a thing were possible, in a vacuum so to speak.

Tight deadlines may mean a partial response timely is better than a full response late, for example. 

Even in projects for which the currency is not payment in cash or electronic funds transfer, but which we still want to put our best foot forward to advance our professional reputation and visibility, time and-or health constraints may mean a writer has to choose among a variety of projects that should get completed and determine on which are the most essential at that time. 

Such constraints could mean putting up something much shorter than a writer would like in a Blog, just to keep a hand in the game.  Indeed, when I first assessed how much time I missed, I did put up a fairly short post just to ensure such readers as do stop by the Blog find it still active if rather dormant.

With cash or electronic funds transfer compensated work, time constraints may mean negotiating more extended deadlines so as to enable doing the best work, or it may mean being more flexible on terms.

Writers [and clients] do need to recognize that constraints can and will occur:  and do the best they can to compensate for that such as to allow them to continue to submit the best work they can for each outlet they have for their work.

Another important aspect of writer constraints, especially those that are due to sidetracking by diversions and distractions, is to try to come full circle once you get past those distractions and try to tie up all the loose ends:  such as by revitalizing a Blog you haven’t managed to post to for an interval through resumption of a more frequent posting schedule.

I would have tried to do that this weekend in any event, but am taking advantage having taken a Friday Leave day in part due to questionable weather/driving conditions in my area.

Is it time for you to take stock of your writing activity, and find any areas you wanted to develop that you have not pursued as fully as you would like?

Even if those areas are things more on your “want list” such as personal projects like novels you have no publisher or agent on tap for rather than paying projects, making even a start on tying up some of your loose ends on such projects is likely to both give you a psychological boost and contribute to improving your writing endeavors across the board.

Happy writing!

www.kristawriter.com

More Reason to Write for ‘Visibility Only’ Currency

While my Blog is primarily directed at people who don’t write for business unless they have to, I am aware that some of my readers [at least] are, in fact, freelance writers themselves.

As such, it’s likely that even if they don’t write material for the express purpose of publication to raise the individual writers’ visibility quotient, they have at least heard of the basic reasons for doing this.  As more than one successful freelancers has termed it, this kind of effort is part of “building a writer’s platform.”  Many kinds of activities can go into building a platform, such as self-publishing materials that your client prospects find useful and interesting:  and that function as a form of sample of your work.  Guest blogging, reviewing other writers’s blogs, participating in forums and many other activities can all form a part of building a platform.

Another activity that some writers choose to participate in in terms of building a platform is submitting articles to a ‘visibility site,’ a site that in itself gets high search engine ranks which then ties back to the author.  Such sites usually have ways of back-linking that can help lead to passive revenue, but you can get some visibility benefit just from having an article presence on that site.  These sites are also moderated, so there is a potential for article rejection, although the reasons for article rejection are far more limited than the reasons a site that pays for articles may apply.  The articles are not directly revenue-producing:  the currency is the potential visibility they provide you as a writer.

That is to say, to try to come around to the premise of this Blog post:  a moderated visibility site is less free-form than one’s own blog, and more free form than client-assigned web content articles. 

I have been participating in such a visibility site since about the middle of January, or a bit before that. 

I have found that there is yet another reason to include writing for such visibility sites, at least one or two good ones, in your efforts to build a writer platform.

What I have found is that just the nature of the process of submitting to such a visibility site has a positive effect on one’s scope as a web content writer. 

Even though, through training and long practice in planning my documents rapidly and upfront, I am typically a fairly fast writer, I found the work there challenging in terms of coming up with a variety of interesting articles primarily in two specific topics:  writing [and reading as applies to writing development]; and the crafts of knitting and crocheting [with an occasional foray into personal development or book reviews.]

However, I found also that although I always am aware of audience profile . . . again through training . . . I found myself with a refreshed awareness of that.

I also found that the renewed audience awareness drove my article writing there so that, for the most part, I was writing faster than normal for me:  even though I’m a fairly fast writer for web content writing for the most part anyway.

Although the rejections were minimal, those too, taught me some more things about better audience evaluation principles.

So, if you are in the process of building a writer’s platform, consider writing some articles for at least one of the better visibility sites as part of your business-building activity.

If you would like to see some of my work of this type, visit

http://www.streetarticles.com/

and look up articles there under my byline [which is Christine Lebednik there.]

You can also get information on my own range of services as a freelance business writer at my professional website at:

http://www.kristawriter/

I do hope to get this Blog back on track over the next few weeks, but I will be working on-side, full-time for several months and am uncertain how that will affect my mental gears for the first couple of weeks.

I've Got Wheels Again!

I’ve Got Wheels Again!

I’ll be doing another post at some point, hopefully today, as to a more complete view of what has kept me from posting to this blog regularly in the past few weeks.  I had thought it was only two weeks, but on finally posting something yesterday, I realized it was just about a month and I never intended for it to go that far.

There were three or four different factors involved, but in all cases an element of that involved that I had a deadline . . . essentially today, Sunday, February 26^th, to resolve any “loose ends” matters, since I will be working on-site full-time starting tomorrow for anywhere from four to six months. 

The biggest consideration in that regard was obtaining a viable vehicle.  My previous car did not pass its September inspection and it was a matter of too much wrong to put the repair money into a 1995 vehicle rather than just a brake light or something.

I’ve been pretty much scrambling since then to find a vehicle I could affordably acquire.  I have had one for just over three weeks, now, but then there was all the follow-up detail to take care of such as trip to the insurance company, trip to the registry, and the new owner inspection.

I also had some minor hitches in learning my way around a vehicle with a very different set of controls than I had had in my previous vehicle.

The good news is I do have a vehicle now, it passed inspection without a hitch, and I’m roadworthy again.

This wasn’t the only distraction from keeping up with the blog, but it was one of them.

A big one.

Pizza Without the Champagne

I just joined a new writer’s forum, and in the “Filling Station” section [food and beverage posts] the forum founder offered Pizza and Champagne.

When she clarified that she was serving goat cheese and onion pizza, another poster responded she’d take the goat cheese but the forum Mod could keep the onions.

This incident reminded me of an event this past week.

I went to a regularly scheduled community supper at a local church this weekend.  My denomination, but not the congregation I normally attend.

It’s always the fourth Wednesday of the month, each month and the church puts on a meal for anyone who wants to come to the event from within the community.

Evidently, no one thought in advance this year to check and realize that this particular occasion, held at a Roman Catholic Church happened to fall on Ash Wednesday.  Which meant needing to serve a meatless meal.

The first complication involved the fact that also scheduled at the same time was a 5:30 Ash Wednesday Mass, which was heavily attended.  This particular parish has parking issues at Masses at the best of times.

The connection with the new Forum?  Two types of meatless pizza factored as part of the meal.  Plain cheese.  And mushroom and spinach pizza.  [I’d never heard of that combination before.]

Some people had to decline the mushroom pizza due to food sensitivities, which is why the goat cheese and onion pizza reminded me of the incident.

The sponsor parish did do a good job, though, and came up with a filling, meatless meal that included the above-mentioned pizza, cheese lasagna, meatless calzone, two kinds of hot vegetable [green beans and carrots], Greek salad, and a variety of desserts.

A very tasty and filling meal that the participants all seemed to enjoy.

My appreciation, also, to Sabrina, the founder of the Forum that gave me the idea for this particular blog post.  I’ve been away from this blog for awhile because of needing to deal with some particular personal matters that interrupted the flow of my routine enough to make it challenging to come up with the topics in the first place.

As is appropriate in such an instance, I want not just to thank Sabrina, but to give the Forum a mention and post a link.  Sabrina’s blog has the purpose to provide networking and general conversation among writers, and is open to all writers who would like to join.  Most initial members share a common writing experience, but that is not a requirement for anyone to join the blog.

If you are interested in joining a Forum where you can hang out with other writers willing to help each other out with things ranging from research on obscure topics to exchanging “what’s for dinner?” recipe ideas, check out the WordSmiths Forum at the following URL:

http://wordsmiths.lefora.com/

I’m sure Sabrina would love to have you onboard.