We are a week away from finals the most stressful time of the semester, at least for me it is, with four papers to write and two finals, I am living off redbull. This is the time when I wish the day had 32 hours instead of 24, even though sometimes my days do feel like they were 32 hours long.
I live in Purcellville VA, and work in Washington DC. I leave my house by seven every day, after driving, riding the metro, and walking I usually arrive to work between 8:45-9:00. In the afternoon I run from work to school, the days I have class from 720-1000 I get home almost at 11 pm. By the time I get home all I want to do is to go to sleep so I can wake up at 5:45 the next morning.
So what is the best way to manage our time? What is the best way to learn to have discipline? How can we make more time when we don't have it?
If I only knew, I would be studying right now instead of complaining.........
Monday, December 1, 2008
Friday, October 10, 2008
15 Tips for Becoming a Better Writer
Surfing the internet I came across this article, which gives us 15 Tips for Becoming a Better Writer. English is a great, yet difficult language. I often see many people born and raised in the U.S., who struggle to write a good paper. Now imagine coming from another country and learning English at the age of 17, Oh yeah very hard. I am always looking for ways to improve my writing; I enjoy reading magazines, books, and newspapers. I find it very helpful, it helps me to improve my vocabulary, my writing, and my reading. Sometimes I feel like that is not enough, I still struggle a lot writing a paper. I find English 302 a very helpful class, because I am learning to use some words and punctuation, which I had to idea how to use. I still do a lot of mistakes but now I try to pay more attention. The class has made me so paranoiac about writing and reading, that now when I read I am always trying to find something wrong. Even though most of the times I can’t see the mistakes, at least now I see a few that I didn’t see before.
I don’t know how good these tips are, but the research is still going on….
1. Never Be Boring
Your reader will forgive almost anything except you being boring. Your reader doesn't have to agree with you, but he or she should at least be intrigued. Make the reader care. Don't be afraid to be "edgy." Look at every sentence and ask yourself, "Why will the reader care about this?"
2. Write in Short Sentences
The reader shouldn't have to work hard to understand what you're saying. If he or she has to go back over a sentence because of poor structure it's not his or her fault, it's yours. Read what you've written aloud or have someone else read it aloud to look for sentences that are too long or convoluted.
3. Write to the Reader
Use "you" often. Look for ways to eliminate or reduce "I" and "me." Present tense, second person is always best. It feels more to readers like you're talking to them.
4. Go Active
Use active verbs as much as possible. They're more engaging. They move the reader along and take fewer words to get your message across. "John loves Mary" is much more powerful than "Mary is loved by John."
5. Keep it Simple
The front page of The Wall Street Journal and all of USA Today is written for the eighth grade reading level. Why should we be any different? People aren't interested in things they don't understand. Make your points quickly and succinctly. Make your words work and use as few of them as possible. Use the right word, not just to show off your vocabulary (or your new thesaurus), but to convey your message clearly.
6. Tell Stories
Facts tell and stories sell. The best writers and speakers of the world have always been good storytellers. Your own stories are the best. What you are sharing is wisdom from your point of view and stories can illustrate this better than anything else.
7. Know Your Subject
Write on things on which you've earned the right to write. The more you know, the more confidence and credibility you'll have.
8. WIFM
This is the radio station that everyone listens to. The call letters stand for "What's in It For Me". People want to know what they'll get out of what you're writing, so appeal to what they want.
9. Write Like You Talk
Often I see people who are good verbal communicators trying to put on a different air in their writing. It doesn't work. It's much better to be conversational.
10. Paint Pictures
We think in pictures and should write in ways that create these pictures in the mind of the reader. Be descriptive. Use examples. Describe the unfamiliar by using some of the familiar. For example: "Jennifer's first day at her new job reminded her of the freshness and unfamiliarity she experienced on her first day of school."
11. Sleep On it
It's a rare individual who can sit down and write something well at the first attempt. Any writing of import should be written and then reviewed later, preferably at least a day later. Some things should be edited several times over an extended period of time in order to properly convey a clear understandable message.
12. Write and Read Extensively
This advice is from Stephen King, a prolific writer. If you want to be a good writer you have to do two things … read a lot and write a lot. Enough said.
13. Break it Down
Where appropriate use bullet points. Use them for summaries or outlines. Think about someone who may only start out by scanning your text. Let your bullet points draw the reader in.
14. Keep Paragraphs to no more than Six Lines
Short paragraphs provide white space to the text. They break up the page and make it appear less formidable to the reader. Like in music, the space between the notes is as important as the notes themselves.
15. Avoid using Capital Letters to make a Point
Capital letters are harder to read than upper and lower case. They also can be perceived as SHOUTING! A little uppercase usage is OK but regular use of words with every letter shown as a capital doesn't work and it looks amateurish.
I don’t know how good these tips are, but the research is still going on….
1. Never Be Boring
Your reader will forgive almost anything except you being boring. Your reader doesn't have to agree with you, but he or she should at least be intrigued. Make the reader care. Don't be afraid to be "edgy." Look at every sentence and ask yourself, "Why will the reader care about this?"
2. Write in Short Sentences
The reader shouldn't have to work hard to understand what you're saying. If he or she has to go back over a sentence because of poor structure it's not his or her fault, it's yours. Read what you've written aloud or have someone else read it aloud to look for sentences that are too long or convoluted.
3. Write to the Reader
Use "you" often. Look for ways to eliminate or reduce "I" and "me." Present tense, second person is always best. It feels more to readers like you're talking to them.
4. Go Active
Use active verbs as much as possible. They're more engaging. They move the reader along and take fewer words to get your message across. "John loves Mary" is much more powerful than "Mary is loved by John."
5. Keep it Simple
The front page of The Wall Street Journal and all of USA Today is written for the eighth grade reading level. Why should we be any different? People aren't interested in things they don't understand. Make your points quickly and succinctly. Make your words work and use as few of them as possible. Use the right word, not just to show off your vocabulary (or your new thesaurus), but to convey your message clearly.
6. Tell Stories
Facts tell and stories sell. The best writers and speakers of the world have always been good storytellers. Your own stories are the best. What you are sharing is wisdom from your point of view and stories can illustrate this better than anything else.
7. Know Your Subject
Write on things on which you've earned the right to write. The more you know, the more confidence and credibility you'll have.
8. WIFM
This is the radio station that everyone listens to. The call letters stand for "What's in It For Me". People want to know what they'll get out of what you're writing, so appeal to what they want.
9. Write Like You Talk
Often I see people who are good verbal communicators trying to put on a different air in their writing. It doesn't work. It's much better to be conversational.
10. Paint Pictures
We think in pictures and should write in ways that create these pictures in the mind of the reader. Be descriptive. Use examples. Describe the unfamiliar by using some of the familiar. For example: "Jennifer's first day at her new job reminded her of the freshness and unfamiliarity she experienced on her first day of school."
11. Sleep On it
It's a rare individual who can sit down and write something well at the first attempt. Any writing of import should be written and then reviewed later, preferably at least a day later. Some things should be edited several times over an extended period of time in order to properly convey a clear understandable message.
12. Write and Read Extensively
This advice is from Stephen King, a prolific writer. If you want to be a good writer you have to do two things … read a lot and write a lot. Enough said.
13. Break it Down
Where appropriate use bullet points. Use them for summaries or outlines. Think about someone who may only start out by scanning your text. Let your bullet points draw the reader in.
14. Keep Paragraphs to no more than Six Lines
Short paragraphs provide white space to the text. They break up the page and make it appear less formidable to the reader. Like in music, the space between the notes is as important as the notes themselves.
15. Avoid using Capital Letters to make a Point
Capital letters are harder to read than upper and lower case. They also can be perceived as SHOUTING! A little uppercase usage is OK but regular use of words with every letter shown as a capital doesn't work and it looks amateurish.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Oh no! she gave me the finger...
Yesterday, I was peacefully driving from work to school, on rout 28, as I was passing through the Air and Space museum a car was exiting, trying to merge onto my line. According to the road sign, the card had to yield, but of course none ever seems to pay attention to those signs. As I kept on going, so did the car, I decided to slow down, to let the car go, but I guess the lady who was driving, an older lady, and by older I don’t mean she was old I mean older than me, maybe on her mid to late 40s, thought I was not going to let her go so she slowed down too. I was being very nice letting her go but she couldn’t make up her mind to whether go or let me go; she got really up set, came next to me and with a very angry, and ugly, face she gave me the finger. What? And immediately I started laughing really hard. I don’t understand why people are still doing this didn’t she get the memo that the finger is not insulting anymore? Why some people take their anger while driving on other people in the road? I would understand a teenager doing that, but this lady; I can’t even imagine what kind of manners she teaches her kids.
These are the kind of people that causes accidents in the road, because this kind of situations leads to a chain of anger, after the incident I could have been angry and take my anger out on somebody else, and the anger would keep on going from person to person.
We all have bad days, we all hate traffic, we all are mad because gas is so expensive but please let’s don’t put other people’s lives and our own in danger.
Anger management classes people…..
These are the kind of people that causes accidents in the road, because this kind of situations leads to a chain of anger, after the incident I could have been angry and take my anger out on somebody else, and the anger would keep on going from person to person.
We all have bad days, we all hate traffic, we all are mad because gas is so expensive but please let’s don’t put other people’s lives and our own in danger.
Anger management classes people…..
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