Pros and Cons of Working as a Remote Writer

Working as a remote writer might sound like a dream job, but it can also have its downside. One of the main challenges is that you’re not surrounded by coworkers on a day-to-day basis. The following are some of the pros and cons of working remotely: Pros of Working as a Remote Writer: Remote writers…

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How to Write Web Content with SEO in Mind

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a “necessary evil” for most writers and I agree with them. It’s not easy to write with SEO in mind because that brings in yet another level of discipline and complexity to a craft that is already complex and hard in many ways. But, on the other hand, if you…

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How to Split and Simplify Your Complex Sentences

© 2009 Ugur Akinci Here is a sure-fire method to split your long sentences into shorter and more easily understandable ones: Split your sentences at conjunctions like “and”, “or”, “while”, “however”, “although” etc. Those are the connection points where one clause is linked to another. By breaking your clauses apart you can develop a simpler…

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How to Eliminate Redundant Words from Your Writing

© 2009-2010 Ugur Akinci Repeating an idea has its rightful place in article writing, essays, or journalistic writing. Even if you’re writing a technical article for engineers and scientists it pays to express the main idea once in the header (a must), then in the sub-header, another time in the opening paragraph, and lastly for…

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How to Use Twitter to Promote Your Writing Services

© 2009 Ugur Akinci There is a good way to use the Twitter to promote your writing services, and another way that’s not that good. I’m finding these things out myself by trial and error and I wanted to share some of my findings with you. 1) Always share something useful and relevant, either by…

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Writers: Searching Through the Job Ads is not Marketing

© Ugur Akinci Generally speaking, we writers are not good at marketing our services. We love what we do and yet expect to be “discovered” and paid well for it too. Think again. This blog entry was prompted by an email from an obviously-very-qualified reader who asked whether she needs to get a technical writing…

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Quality Control Plan

How to Write a Quality Control Plan (QCP) — Part 1

Introduction Quality Control Plan (QCP) is an important document for those hoping to secure a U.S. government contract. A quality control plan is a document that ensures the safety and accuracy of a product. Quality control plans can be applied to any type of project, from building houses to developing new software. A quality control…

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Document Menu of Adobe "Writer" (Professional)

I know —  the good and hard-working folks over at Adobe do not like me refer to Adobe Professional as “Writer” but there are 2 good reasons why I do so: 1) “Writer” is a term well-established within the technical writing community. Every tech writer I know refers to Adobe Professional as “Adobe Writer.”  I’m…

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Perseverance vs. Perseveration and the Role of Stress in Writing Life

© Ugur Akinci I have always wondered about the relative merits of hanging in there and keep pushing up against life’s obstacles (perseverance), on the one hand, and continuing to do what clearly does not work and suffering the inevitable consequences of uncontrollable repetition (perseveration), on the other. The dominant market mentality encourages us to…

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