Archive for January 2009
An Unexpected Dividend of Article Marketing…
Let me share the true story of something that happened to me thanks to article marketing… Over 2 years ago when I was writing articles on anything and everything that caught my fancy, I wrote an article about a world-class pianist after listening to one of his amazing performances on my car radio. I was…
Read MoreCareer Stuck In Neutral? Move Sideways To Find A Related But Different Job
Sometimes things don’t go as planned in life… People come and go, things change, and a career that has once sparkled may just start to sag in the middle and fray over the edges. So what do you do? Just sulk in your corner and play the blues? That’s certainly one alternative and the easiest…
Read MoreEXCEL Tutorial – How to Construct a Compounding Interest Financial Calculator
You can construct an almost infinite variety of calculators right within your MS EXCEL spreadsheet application. Here is how you can construct your own 10-year compounding interest financial calculator that would help you to see, for example, how much your $100 will grow at x percent of interest a year, on a year by year…
Read MoreOpen Source Software – 10 Great Free Tools of Technical Communication
Are you sick and tired of paying hundreds of dollars for writing and design software that does not work? You may want to give the following open-source programs a try. OpenOffice, the king and queen of office suits. Available for PC, Mac and Linux platforms. (Try NeoOffice if you own a Mac.) Totally free and…
Read MoreHow To Use "Use" Versus "Utilize" Correctly?
“Use” and “utilize” are two verbs with distinct meanings. Don’t confuse them. “Use” is to employ objects for the purposes they were designed for. “Utilize,” on the other hand, is to employ objects for unintended purposes. Authoritative proof: The Oxford English Dictionary defines the verb use as “to make use of (some immaterial thing) as…
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How to Write for an International Audience
Introduction Writing for an international audience is a task that many technical and business writers face every day. You’d better have a firm grip on the contemporary American slang if you are a screenwriter drafting the sequel to “Easy Rider.” But if you are a technical or business writer, get into the habit of writing…
Read MoreSoftware Documentation – Special Meaning of "Business" in Software Design
Did you know that for software developers the word “business” (as in “business requirements,” “business layer,” or “business specs”) has a meaning totally different than its regular everyday connotation? For a software engineer, a “business layer” has nothing to do with selling goods and services and making money or running a real business; but everything…
Read MoreHow to Write Like an "Insider"
It’s a common writing mistake – a head-on and high-handed criticism which leaves the “insiders” with the impression that “this writer has no idea what’s going on in here…” Imagine you’re the head of security at the Fortune-100 ABC corporation. You have worked for the last 15 years for this same company, developing many of…
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Writing Freelance – Is It For You?
Introduction Writing freelance is probably the dream of all writers out there. As a matter of fact, freelance writing has become a huge industry that has been growing rapidly in the past two decades. It’s a great way to make money and travel the world while doing what you love, while the clients pay the…
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Technical Writing – 3 Golden Rules of Indexing
Introduction Indexing is the process of compiling and sorting all the pages of a book, magazine or periodical. The indexer is responsible for creating an alphabetical list of all the topics covered in the text. The reader can then use it to find specific information in the text more easily by looking up words that…
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