Archive for March, 2009

Seven Easy Steps to Writing a Eulogy

Posted on Mar 4, 2009 11:10:58 AM

Both writing and delivering a eulogy are emotional, but at the same time a step towards healing. It’s never easy to put into words what someone’s life meant to you and to summarize their life in just a few minutes. By following the seven steps below you’ll be on your way to creating a memorable and heart felt eulogy.

Step One: Gather information. Jot down as many personal notes about the deceased as possible. Look at photos. Flipping through photo albums may remind you of important qualities and memories of the person who died. Answer a few questions: What made your loved one truly happy? What inspired you to write this eulogy? What were your loved one’s passions? What will you remember most about this person? Keep in mind that a eulogy is not a biography but more your personal thoughts and remembrances from your point of view. You may want to ask co-workers, friends and others for their stories and memories. You should see some repetition in your notes and this will lead to the main theme.

Step Two: Begin to organize your content. Outline the eulogy in these steps:

I. A beginning to establish your theme.

II. A middle section to build on your theme with personal stories, information, quotes, comments, sayings, poems and other content. This information should make up 90% of the eulogy.

III. A short conclusion to summarize your thoughts and restate your theme.

Step Three: Work first on the middle section (Part II). Once you have this part the beginning and summary will be easy. Develop the outline by grouping similar themes from your notes from Step 1. For example, you might want to gather all the achievements together. Merge the comments about the deceased’s philosophy of life.

Step Four: Organize the conclusion (Part III). A conclusion reminds the listeners of the theme and imprints the strong feeling you have about the loss. The key is to conclude effectively and quickly. Here is an example:

“We will all miss Jackie’s sense of humor, her talent for knowing what is really important in life and her famous chocolate chip cookies” (a little humor doesn’t hurt as long as it’s not offensive to anyone).

“Her example lives as an inspiration for all of us to follow.”

Step Five: Write the beginning of the eulogy (Part 1). This usually starts with an attention getter. It will set the theme and can be in the form of a short story, a poem, a saying, lyrics to a song. It will introduce the goal and theme you used when you began the process.

Step Six: Polish it up. Your best bet is to walk away from it for a few hours or overnight if possible. Work on it so it sounds like a conversation. You want to talk to the audience as naturally as possible.

Key tips: Keep it short, 4-8 minutes long, 3-7 typed pages.

Type it out using 14 pt type so it’s easy to read.

Vary sentence length.

Number the pages.

Practice the eulogy aloud and time yourself.

Read it to friends and family and get their feedback. Edit where necessary.

Keep the content in good taste and keep it positive.

Step Seven: Delivering the eulogy.

While normally speakers do not read word-for-word, because you are more than likely going to be emotional, don’t be afraid to read word for word. This way you won’t leave out any key points you or others wanted said.

If making eye contact with members of the audience will make you emotional, either try and keep your eyes on the page or look just over the top of the audience to the back of the room.

Feel free to pause, take a deep breath and drink some water. Everyone will understand. They are emotionally distraught also.

Speak as naturally as you can just as if you were telling someone about your loved one. Speak up. It’s very important that you speak clearly and loudly so that everyone can hear you.

Keep the written eulogy as a memento. You can add it to your memento chest and share it with others who may want a copy.

By following these steps, writing and delivering a eulogy will become less stressful and more of a healing process.

What Article Directories Are Looking For

Posted on Mar 2, 2009 05:44:07 PM

Just in case you haven’t noticed, there are literally hundreds of article directories cropping up on the Internet. In line with Google’s Adsense program and other such programs, people are looking to get on the Internet with their Web page. One thing that most Web site owners have learned is that having articles that say something help rank them higher on the search engines instead of having jumbled up keywords on a page that doesn’t read well at all.

Article directories have a big job&ndashevery day, thousands of authors and want-to-be authors submit their articles to these directories. These authors aren’t seeking payment, but rather a link back to their site, exposure for themselves as writers and for their websites. It’s a scratch-my-back-and-I’ll-scratch-yours society. Many of the articles that are submitted to these directories are not articles at all, but rather blurbs of nothingness with little content and usually lacking readability. The revenue from Adsense for the article directory Web sites can be substantial, but only if they have quality articles posted on their site and if they can get it up quickly.

There is of course Spam to these article directory Web sites as well&ndashrepeat articles submitted one after another or copied-and-pasted content that has been plagiarized from the Internet and another author. This Spam and plagiarism scam is the bane of article directories and the editors that run them.

Article directories are looking for articles&ndashif your article hasn’t been accepted, it’s likely for a good cause. The articles that should be submitted to an article directory should reflect your best work&ndashremember, you are putting your name and your link to your Web site on the work, and the people who are looking at it could want to commission you to do more work for them.

The articles themselves should be clear and concise, error free and well-written. Don’t get verbose on the bane of your own existence or the antics of your dog&ndashsave these rants for your blog and keep them off the article directory sites. Your article should be lengthy, at least 400 words and definitely not less than 250 words. Anything less than this suggests a lack of thought by the author and a cheap attempt to get their name in lights with a link-back to their site without sharing anything meaningful.

It is also important to note that adult material, gambling and pharmacy content are against the terms of service of Google Adsense. Editors at article directories are careful to delete these types of articles that are submitted so as to not lose their Google Adsense account and revenues.

All in all, it is highly important to output quality articles that are informative and well-written. These types of articles are much more likely to get through onto the article directory. Avoid plagiarizing materials from the Internet at all costs&ndashmost of the larger article directories and even some of the newer, smaller ones run the copy you submit through Copyscape to scan for plagiarism. Editors at article directories are constantly barraged with emails from irate authors who claim their content has been plagiarized&ndashthe usual course of action for the editors is to delete the article completely.

Article directories are very popular and are consistently gaining in popularity as well as more and more Web sites pop up on the Internet every day in hopes of making a few dollars. Articles are used by Web site owners to increase their readership; however, it is important to note that the more copies of the articles that appear on the Internet, the lower the search engine ranking can be for any particular Web site that uses it.

How To Create A Winning Headline In Just Minutes

Posted on Mar 2, 2009 12:46:57 PM

Keywords that cut to the heart of your prospect’s pleasure or pain zone are certain to capture the attention and interest of that specific group. Dynamite benefits, extra advantages and unique solutions all naturally draw attention and interest.

To the prospect suffering from a seemingly incurable case of Hay Fever, a headline such as “Stop Hay Fever In Seconds With This Secret Ingredient Found In Every Refrigerator!” is guaranteed to interrupt his online travels and the dozen or so thoughts swirling around in his mind and draw him towards your message.

The obvious keyword is “hay fever” — this is what the prospect’s radar is set to detect. More specifically, it’s the cure, or the alleviation of pain and discomfort that the prospect seeks. But it’s the use of the word “hay fever” that identified the message as having importance, triggering the reaction and shift in focus.

Prospects are constantly on the lookout for ‘new’ ideas, solutions, and upgrades — hence the common practice among marketers to unveil ‘new and improved’ versions of older products. ‘New’ implies an improvement over the old, established way. It hints at the promise of a greater benefit.

Promise a unique advantage in your headline and you’ll pull eyeballs towards your proposition. As humans, we’re wired to be on the lookout for ways to get more living out of life. We want more… and we want it faster, easier and at a lower cost. Headlines that scream such advantages reap the reward of higher readership.

Another strategy to create great headlines on demand is to employ proven, attention-getting words and phrases. Following is an ongoing list of such headline words and phrases. Obviously, you’ll want to customize your own headline, but stringing together a few words from this list can get you off to a good start.

Should You Write A Resume Cover Letter Yourself?

Posted on Mar 1, 2009 11:59:42 AM

In this day and age competition is fierce for a limited number of desirable positions in the professional world. The only hope that many job seekers have, no matter how qualified they may be for the position, is to create a cover letter that turns up the “wow” factor and impresses hiring managers as something a little above and beyond the others.

If you are wondering whether or not you should write your own resume cover letter the answer is a resounding “yes.” There are many reasons you should write your own cover letter not the least of which is the fact that no one knows your qualifications any better than you. Feel free to take suggestions and research the proper methods of doing so but do not fall into the trap of using a form cover letter for your resume that was written as a one-size-fits-all sort of cover letter or having a cover letter written just for you by someone else. The voice will not transfer well to the interview and you want perspective employers to resonate with you rather than someone else who filled in the blanks on your behalf.

Your cover letter is your first chance for a first impression with potential employers. It is the opportunity to highlight the skills and talents you can bring to the table or, more to the point, how you can help them rather than how they can help you. It is also the perfect opportunity for you to give them a small taste of your personality in action. Personalities are the ones that show up to the office day in and day out. Your personality is going to have a greater impact on your ability to fit in well with a particular corporate climate than your skills (unless you are grossly incompetent or some sort of prodigy). Use your cover letter to let a little bit of your personality shine through. This will make it a little more interesting than the boring “just the facts ma’am” approach that so many job applicants use when creating a resume. While it may have worked in Dragnet it isn’t quite as likely to work in the corporate climate of today.

Cover letters are becoming popular because they are more personality influenced (or they can be) than traditional resumes and they allow a good feel for the person on the other end of the paper without reading quite as many stale facts and figures as you will typically find in a resume. Many hiring mangers simply find a cover letter much more appealing than they find reading resumes and they can often skim cover letters initially and review those that they found compelling a little more closely.

Ultimately a cover letter is one of, if not the most powerful tools in your job application arsenal. An artfully written cover letter that remains positive, professional, and personable is much more likely to achieve the desired results than a resume that has been professionally prepared in hopes of gaining a foot in the door and that is no small accomplishment. The problem for most is that professional cover letter services cannot provide that personal touch that can only come with you. As I mentioned above no one knows the contribution you can offer by way of skills and personality better than you. This makes you your best advocate in the process of creating a killer cover letter for your resume.

Make sure that your passion for the position shines through when writing your resume. If you have a sincere passion for the work you do or the work you are hoping to do your words are the best in the world to get that message across. A passion for the job, product, or service is one of the greatest things you can bring to a company and hiring managers are well aware of this fact. If you write your own cover letter you can explain your passion, it might make the difference between being invited back for an interview or not and every positive edge you can find is an edge worth exploiting in today’s competitive business climate. Most importantly, try to have fun writing your cover letter yourself. You may discover a hidden talent.

How Do You Write A Book Report?

Posted on Mar 1, 2009 11:12:15 AM

Some time or the other during our schooling most of us have been assigned the task of writing book reports. We have to live with book report assignments throughout our academic life, grade school, high school and college.

Book reports in grade school are easy as the writing is simple and most of the times the teacher takes an indulgent view due to the student’s age.

High school book reports are a different ball game altogether. Are they not? The teacher expects us to know what we are doing and the assignments too are more unmanageable. This is the time when we are expected to know how to write a book report properly without those irritating grammatical errors and fledgling mistakes.

Nobody likes remarks like “see me after class” from teachers but still every one of us has had to face them one way or the other during high school.

College, again, throws new challenges when we find that the concept of book reports is not crushed but haunts us under a different name altogether. Suddenly book reports are termed as essays and instead of broad stories the assignments become more focused on an idea that is a recurrent element in the book and specific themes. Instead of indulging in wishful thinking and hoping we were still in high school where things were easier, it is the time when we are required to unearth our talent if we have any.

If we really get down to doing it seriously, learning how to write book reports is pretty elementary. It is simply a matter of organizing and doing it chronologically instead of indulging in it in a haphazard manner. The best way of writing book reports is to work on it step by step. Without trying to make notes in-between, first read the entire book. Writing notes in between may result in loosing focus of the underlying idea the author wants to convey.

The second step is to decide on the focus of your report as per the guidelines of the assignment: depending upon whether the assignment is for a general summary or a focus on a particular aspect of the book, prepare a general outline and structure of the report.

Once the outline and the structure is ready all that is needed is to keep in mind the book’s major themes and start pouring your heart out on what you feel the book and the theme is all about. After all, a book report is all about enlarging the small issue.

However, if you are practically a novice in writing book reports and/or want to improve your technique, there are a good number of websites that can assist you in your endeavor.