The Top Word of the Year - 2012

As 2012 draws to a close, the leading English dictionary makers have begun announcing their choice for the 'Top Word of the Year'. These words are usually selected based on how much they were used during the particular year, which is partly based on the frequency with which they were searched for and editorial choice.

Here is a list of the top words for 2012, selected by the major English dictionaries: 

• Merriam-Webster: This dictionary lists the words 'capitalism' and 'socialism' as the top words for 2012. These words were mostly searched for with reference to debates about these systems of government in the USA and Europe, particularly during the US presidential elections. 

• Dictionary.com: This online dictionary has chosen the word 'bluster' as its top word for 2012. Bluster means 'loud, swaggering, often empty boasts, threats, or other comments'. 

• Oxford Dictionary, American edition:  This dictionary has selected the acronym 'GIF', which is  pronounced 'jif', and stands for 'graphics interchange format'. While this tech term is not new, it has recently become popular because of humourous GIF animations shared on Facebook and other social networking websites. 

• Oxford University Press, UK: The editors of the British version of the Oxford dictionary have selected the word 'omnishambles' as their choice for the 'top word of 2012'. Omnishambles is a word which means 'a thoroughly mismanaged situation loaded with bureaucratic errors'. 

What do you think of these top words for 2012? If you had a choice, which word would you select as the top word for 2012?

StarEdits.com is a top writing and editing company, which offers high quality copy writing services to clients from all over the world. If you require well-written web content, marketing copy and articles, just email us at info@staredits.com or fill in our Contact Us form now.

What is A Behaviour Event Interview?

A Behaviour Event Interview or BEI is a backward looking interview process, through which candidates are short-listed based on the desired competencies required by an organisation. It is a revolutionary HR technique, which many leading companies have begun following while selecting candidates for filling various vacant positions.

The Behaviour Event Interview technique differs from the traditional biographical job based interview, which focuses more on job descriptions and technical knowledge. In contrast, BEI is more flexible, and helps select candidates with the desired potential as per their competencies. During such interviews, a candidate is asked questions to get them to recount a specific example or event, related to a particular competency the HR managers may be looking for. Such questions usually begin with the phrases “Tell me about a time when you...." or "Can you provide me with an example of when you....".

A Behaviour Event Interview helps you locate high performers, and it is always useful to know who the star performers in your company are. StarEdits.com is a Corporate Communications company and HR consultancy, which is experienced in defining competencies and developing structured questionnaire formats, to help companies conduct BEIs in their organisation.

What we do:

• We assist you in conducting a job analysis of the various jobs and roles, within your organisation. Based on this job analysis, we determine the key competencies that an employee needs to have for him/her to be successful in a particular role. 
• After an in-depth study of the various jobs, we will determine various threshold competencies based on the maximum job performance required from all employees in a particular competency. We will conduct interviews with senior managers to identify outstanding performers, who would be differentiated from average employees, based on exceptional characteristics and behaviours.
• We will create questionnaires to help guide your HR managers during the Behaviour Event Interview process.

A Behaviour Event Interview results in reduced recruitment costs, as it focuses on competencies. This means that only those people would be recruited, who already posses the required competencies, beforehand. Such individuals would be better learners, as they would be easier to train even when job descriptions change, due to changing technological and competitive environments.

How Will A Behaviour Event Interview Benefit Your Company?

Behaviour Event Interviews or BEIs, would bring your organisation several benefits, some of which include:

1. Better job-person match: While job descriptions might change over time, competencies don’t change. Hence, there would be better job-person matches. 
2. Training employees for leadership positions: Since employees with the desired competencies have already been identified, they would require less training, once they are promoted. 
3. Decrease in turnover costs: When a candidate joins, the candidate would be informed about tasks to be performed and options for career development. This would result in fewer employees leaving your company in a given year. 
4. Assists in developing a competency-based performance system: We study your organisation’s performance systems, and help develop new strategies for competency-based performance management. 
5. It is reusable as it is modifiable: When employees are recruited on the basis of their competencies, HR executives can re-define competencies, whenever job descriptions change.

Get Professionally Written Behaviour Event Interview Questionnaires

Drafting a Behaviour Event Interview questionnaire can be a time consuming process, and is often outsourced to consultants who develop competency based models for companies. Outsourcing this task to a highly experienced corporate communications consultancy like StarEdits.com ensures an objective view of your organisational processes, and helps avoid discrimination. This expert validation and better analysis, is sure to improve the functioning of your organisation.

Whether you are a big company or a small firm, if you require professionally drafted Behaviour Event Interview Questionnaires, just email us at info@staredits.com or fill in our Contact Us form now!

Seven Tips For Writing A Great Speech

A speech is similar to an essay, except that a speech is meant to be spoken, while an essay is meant to be read. In fact, most speeches are usually essays that are read aloud, with a few changes made to keep the audience listening on.

Seven Useful Speech-Writing Tips

If you wish to write a good speech that will keep your audience engaged till the end, here is a list of good speech-writing tips that you can follow:

1. Plan the speech: Before sitting down to write a speech, you should first plan the speech considering the event/occasion, the audience, the tone and the duration. Speeches can be informal, formal, sombre, humorous or business-like, depending on the event and audience it is required for. 
2. Pinpoint the main message/theme: Next, you will need to identify the main theme of the speech, and how you will deliver it to your audience. If it is a wedding speech, the main theme would be ‘congratulatory’, while for business speeches, the theme could range from the launch of a new product, company results, board meetings and so on. 
3. Get your audience’s attention: Make the opening lines of your speech interesting enough to get people listening to the whole speech. You can use a joke, quotation, an anecdote, an assertion or a thought-provoking question while drafting the introduction. This intro should not exceed 30 seconds. 
4. Make a list of the points you wish to cover: Just as you write informative essays, make a list of the things you’d like to speak about in your speech. 
5. Organise this list: Arrange the collected points, so that they support each other. Add or remove points, as required, to make the overall theme of your speech clear. Also ensure that the speech does not exceed the time limit.
6. Main speech content: The main content of your speech is nothing but a smooth transition from one point to another. You can use further jokes and anecdotes between points, to maintain attention and keep the audience from dozing off (which often happens during lengthy speeches). 
7. Write the conclusion: The conclusion of the speech should be just as strong as the introduction. First, summarise the points you earlier spoke about in your speech, before wrapping up with a comment or question that will get your listeners thinking and talking.

Most speeches go through a number of drafts, before they are finally perfected. While drafting your speech, first write it out in full, before keeping it away. After some time, go back to it, evaluate it, and make changes as necessary. Write as many drafts as you need, until you are satisfied that your speech is clear and compelling.

Next, get a few people to review the final draft of your speech. Ask them to find anything that is not appropriate for the event, as well as grammatical errors, organisation flaws, and lack of clarity in thought. Make changes, if required, based on their feedback. Read the speech aloud a few times, and make any other required changes, to ensure the speech sounds good.

Your impressive speech is now ready for the big occasion!

If you are too busy to write a custom speech yourself, just ask us to help you. StarEdits.com is a professional speech-writing and corporate communications services company, which has written hundreds of successful custom speeches for people around the world.

Whatever the event or occasion, if you require a well-written speech to wow your audience, just email us at info@staredits.com or fill in our Contact Us form now!

E-Learning Courses – Designing An Instructional Strategy

The success of an e-learning course depends on the instructional strategy adopted in the creation of the training programme. The task of defining instructional strategy is different from creating course content. It involves using all information collected through task analysis, audience analysis, performance analysis and context analysis, to generate an effective plan for presenting the training material to learners.

Instructional strategy for e-learning courses can be divided into four elements. They are:

Element 1 - Content Sequencing and Clustering: This involves deciding how the modules and lessons will be grouped. Some common forms of grouping are simple to complex, general to specific, chronological order and alphabetical order. While clustering content, one would also need to consider various factors such as the age level of the learners, the complexity of the material, and the time required to learn each cluster of content.

Element 2 - Learning Components: Successful e-learning courses usually include the ‘Nine Events of Instruction’ proposed by Gagne, a renowned educational theorist. These events help in faster transfer of knowledge, and are one of the first things teachers are taught as part of their teacher's training courses. These nine actions are:

1. Getting the attention of the learner: The best way to do this is to ask the learner a question that gets them wondering, or mentioning a surprising fact related to the topic. Ensure that this question or fact is something the learner relates to, and would be interested in. 
2. Informing the learner about the objectives: This step involves telling the learner what they will learn in a particular lesson, and on what they will be assessed. 
3. Getting the learner to recall prior learning: This is done by asking recognition or recall questions, to get the learner to relate the new things to be learnt with something they already know. For example, ‘do you remember when you learned about…..in the second module?’ 
4. Presenting the study material: This involves teaching the new material to the learner. Study material could include pictures, animations, shapes, interactivity, hyperlinks, audio clips and video clips. It may also include case studies, examples and non-examples. 
5. Providing guidance: This is the crucial trainer-learner communication. It involves stimulating a line of thought and making sure that the learner is on the right track. The amount of guidance required by each learner is different. 
6. Eliciting performance: This involves testing the understanding of the student with practice exercises, which can include multiple choice questions, matching, fill-in-the-blanks and so on. 
7. Providing feedback: This feedback should tell the learner about the correctness of their answer, help them understand where they went wrong, and if possible, give them a chance to rectify their answer. 
8. Assessing performance: This is the final test and evaluation. It is conducted to check if the learning goals of the e-learning course have been met, and the learners have learnt what was meant to be taught.
9. Enhancing retention and transfer: The last step involves thinking of ways to help the learner use the training in the real world. Some methods to improve retention are job aids, templates and posters.

Element 3 - Student Groupings: While individual learning is suitable for most online courses, sometimes, it may be useful to divide students into groups for certain interactive exercises, role plays or simulations. Whether you assign a partner for each student, or divide them into groups of five or ten, or split the class in two sections; it all depends on the needs of the course. Some e-learning courses where student grouping is encouraged are language courses, management courses and soft skills courses.

Element 4 - Selecting Media and Delivery Systems: Not all online e-learning courses are delivered through the Internet or through CD-Roms. Some e-learning courses are blended programmes, which include a combination of lectures, classroom delivery, videoconferencing, videotapes and book-based correspondence. The instructional designer will select a delivery method based on the needs of the course, and then choose various media to deliver the instruction (like books, CD-Roms, videotapes, audio CDs, photos, Internet, hyperlinks, learning management systems etc.).

StarEdits.com creates high quality e-learning courses, according to defined instructional design principles, strategies and models, which are sure to guarantee success. If you require a well-designed e-learning course, just email us at info@staredits.com or fill in our Contact Us form now!

Paid Blog Posts For Business - Why Product Blogging?

In today’s connected world, the combination of Internet-enabled smartphones, the Web and social networking tools, have transformed the way people communicate. This communication shift has also changed the way how people learn about a product, conduct market research, and make purchase decisions.

As a result, we have moved from the traditional sales-driven cycle to a more buyer-driven cycle. Think of it like this:

Imagine a sold-out sports arena packed with fans. In the traditional sales-driven cycle, you were standing in the middle of the field hawking your wares, while the people in the stands were your prospects, waving to get your attention. In today’s buyer-driven cycle, the person standing in the middle of the field is the buyer, while you are just one of the many sellers in the stands, trying to attract the distracted buyer’s attention.

As just a tiny dot in the crowd of sellers, you’ll have to use the right online marketing tools to stand out from the crowd, earn the customer’s trust and win their business. This is where product blogging can help you.

What is a product blog post?

A product blog post is a short promotional article about a product or service, which is posted on an Internet blog. Product blog posts are designed to generate publicity and get your targeted audience talking. They are also designed to give information about a product, and usually include details about a product’s features, specifications, uses, advantages, price and availability. In addition, some product blog posts may also contain photos and ‘follow’ links, to boost search engine rankings.

Product blog posts are usually written in three styles:

• The Review Style (I vs Their): This sort of product blogging uses the ‘first person’, and usually involves a positive review of the product/service from the ‘satisfied customer’ angle. 
• The Seller Style (You vs Our): This type of product blogging uses the ‘second person’, and generally involves convincing a customer to buy a product, from the seller’s perspective. 
• The Media Style (Company ABC): This form of product blogging uses the ‘third person’, and talks about the product from the ‘news media’ standpoint. This is the most preferred form of product blogging, for most businesses.

A product blog post is especially needed when you are launching a new product or service, and require strong exposure to get noticed by your targeted audience. A product blog post will help you pass on product information, generate publicity, and get people to talk about you online.

StarEdits.com offers high quality professional product blogging services. If you require a well-written product blog post, just email us at info@staredits.com or fill in our Contact Us form now!

Eight Different Types of Marketing Headlines

One of the first things your readers will notice is the headline of your article. A headline is like a virtual handshake. It provides readers with a glimpse of what your article is all about. If your headline is cold or lacklustre, you could make a poor first impression. As a headline can be a great tool for attracting people’s attention, make sure that it is interesting and stands-out. If you can't get them written by yourself, you can always hire a professional content writing services company to help you out.

Online content writers use different headline styles for marketing a product, service or even an idea. In this article, we'll look at eight kinds of headlines for marketing a home theatre system.

1. Direct Headlines: This approach may seem dull, but there are some people who may be looking for such plain statements. A good example of a direct headline is ‘Home Theatre Systems on Sale’. Anyone who is looking to purchase a home theatre system on sale would be pleased to see such a headline, and say “Oh, that's exactly what I wanted”.
2. News Headlines: Such headlines convey authority, and are clear-cut without being too plain. A good example of a news headline is ‘Soundbar Home Theatre System to be Introduced in October”
3. How-To Headlines: When searchers wish to learn something, they usually enter a search phrase, beginning with the words ‘how to’. Headlines that start with ‘how to’ tell the searcher that there is someone out there who is willing to teach them what they want to learn. A good example of a how-to headline is ‘How to Install a Home Theatre System’.
4. List Headlines: An alternative approach to a how-to headline is a list headline. If you check article directory sites, you’ll see that a large number of articles begin with a number. People like browsing through items enumerated in a list, as such lists assure them of countable results from their reading experience. A good list headline is ‘Five Ways to Improve Your Home Theatre System’.
5. Question Headlines: A query-based headline acts like an invitation, promising the reader that they’ll get a surprising answer if they click on the URL, and read the article. A good example of a question headline is ‘Is Your Home Theatre System Right for Your Home?’
6. Command Headlines: You don’t have to be in military service to know that a direct command can get quick action. Of course, in the marketing world, such direct commands are more likely to succeed if the pitch supports the desires of the targeted audience. A good example of a command headline is ‘Go to Television Central for the Best Home Theatre Deals’.
7. Testimonial Headlines: Whether authentic or fictional, a testimonial is a time-proven marketing strategy to promote a product or service. People are attracted towards sketchy user descriptions, especially if such content includes a photo of a celebrity or a good-looking model. While most testimonials are considered to be unreliable, if you routinely write trustworthy descriptions, it won’t be long before even the most sceptical readers begin to find them engaging. A good example of a testimonial headline is ‘I Got a Great Deal on a Home Theatre System’.
8. Teaser headlines: Use such headlines carefully, as you can easily go too far with them. A good example of a teaser headline is ‘The Best Investment You’ll Make This Year’. When a reader reads this, he or she will undoubtedly ask themselves, “Really, how can a home theatre system be the best investment I’ll make?”  Hence, you’ll have to back up the tease with surveys or industry statements about why buying a home theatre would pay rich dividends, such as savings gained from not having to go to a stadium for a game. Remember, unproven teaser headlines can drive away readers forever.

StarEdits.com offers high quality web copywriting services and corporate communications services. If you require well-written marketing copy and articles, just email us at info@staredits.com or fill in our Contact Us form today.

Write As You Write, Not As You Speak

Many people often unnecessarily include self-referential expressions like ‘as you will’ and ‘so to speak’ in their writing. This is known as word patronage. This article advises you on how to inspect your writing for anything that smacks of spoken English, and modify it to sound more professional.

If you compare a prepared script for a speech, with a transcript of the speech that was actually given, you will be able to clearly see the difference between written and spoken English. In some cases, the difference between the written speech and what was spoken can be immense, as speakers often ad-lib while speaking, giving their listeners spontaneous examples and quotations.

Spontaneous speech is usually riddled with qualifications and equivocations. While transcribing a speech recording into an essay, it may be easy to get rid of utterances like ‘er, um, uh, well or you know’. However, it is important for writers to also purge their writing of other unnecessary utterances, words or phrases; which while adding immensely to the word count, may not provide much to an argument or description.

Here is a list of some common hedging phrases, which transcribers and copy writers should consider omitting from prose:

• As I see it
• From my point of view
• In my opinion
• It seems to me
• Be that as it may
• Other things being equal

While such sentence fillers are understandable in spoken English, whether rehearsed or impromptu, they are actually quite meaningless words usually uttered when the speaker was trying to collect his or her thoughts, or thinking of what to say next. Such phrases usually clutter a speech, and often confuse or discourage the listener. As readers expect speech transcripts to be direct and dynamic, content writers should avoid using such self-gratifying phrases in the written form.

StarEdits.com offers high quality web copywriting services and corporate communications services. If you require well-written marketing copy, speeches and articles, just email us at info@staredits.com or fill in our Contact Us form now.

Spelling Differences In British vs American English

English is spoken and written differently in different parts of the world. Some common types of English, which editors at our online content writing company work with are British English, American English, Indian English, American English, Canadian English and Australian English. This blog post will discuss some of the most common spelling differences between British English and American English.

For every version of English, there are sure to be a few ‘experts’ who will vow that their version is the ‘proper’ version of English. While a few British editors have a lot to say about the inability of Americans to spell simple words like colour and tyre; their counterparts across the Atlantic have often stated that the British can’t always tell the difference between words like ‘advice’ and ‘advise’.

Well, before we list the differences in spellings between British English and American English, let’s get one thing straight: writers from both countries struggle with bad spelling and grammar, which is why online professional copy editors still have work! Hence, if you wish to strengthen your writing skills, it is important to do a lot of reading, research and practice; whenever you find the time.

Here are seven common differences in spelling, which often confuse British English and American English writers:

1. Words that end in -our (British) against -or (American): Some common examples are colour vs color, flavour vs flavor, honour vs honor, and neighbour vs neighbor.
2. Words that end in -re (British) against -er (American): Some common examples are metre vs meter, centre vs center, litre vs liter, and theatre vs theater.
3. Verbs that end in -ise (British) against -ize (American): While both –ise (Cambridge spelling) and –ize (Oxford spelling) are used in British English, most people favour the more traditional spelling of –ise. In America, -ize is the only way such words are spelt. Some common examples are specialise vs specialize, optimise vs optimize, and realise vs realize.
4. Verbs that are spelt with a double L (British) against a single L (American): Some common examples are travelled vs traveled, counselling vs counseling, and cancelled vs canceled.
5. Verbs that end in -yse (British) against -yze (American): Some common examples are analyse vs analyze, paralyse vs paralyze, and catalyse vs catalyze.
6. Nouns that end in -ce (British) against -se (American): Some common examples are licence vs license, defence vs defense, practice vs practise, and of course, advice vs advise. Note, this rule applies only to nouns; the verb form of these nouns is always spelt with an -se.
7. Verbs that end in -t (British) against –ed (American): Some common examples are spelt vs spelled, dreamt vs dreamed, and learnt vs learned.

Here are a few more examples of British vs American English spellings to watch out for:

• Grey (British) vs Gray (American)
• Anaesthesia (British) vs Anesthesia (American)
• Cheque (British) vs Check (American)
• Oestrogen (British) vs Estrogen (American)
• Whilst (British) vs While (American)
• Manoeuvre (British) vs Maneuver (American)
• Tyre (British) vs Tire (American)
• Kerb (British) vs Curb (American)
• Programme (British) vs Program (American)
• Disc (British) vs Disk (American)

Please note, the spelling guidelines mentioned above are not comprehensive, and there are many exceptions to the rule. If you are not sure about the spelling of a word in your English dialect, always consult a dictionary or an online Internet resource, to make sure that you are spelling the word correctly.

Do you write in British English, American English, or both? Share your writing experiences with us, by posting a comment below.

StarEdits.com offers online copywriting packages and business communication services, at affordable rates. If you require high quality articles and marketing copy, just email us at info@staredits.com or fill in our Contact Us form today.

Tips to Prevent Voice Disorders

There are many ENT clinics in London that offer accurate diagnosis and treatment to patients who are suffering from voice disorders. If one is suffering from voice problems, one should consider consulting an experienced ear, nose and throat doctor, who may be able to provide a suitable remedy to treat the underlying cause. Voice problems can have severe psychological and physical ramifications, which is why it is important for one to take preventive measures, to reduce chances of developing them.

Below are some tips to lower the occurrence of voice disorders:

• Limit alcohol or caffeine intake: These substances act as diuretics, which cause the body to lose water. According to leading ENT doctors, this loss of fluids dries out the throat, causing various voice disorders.
• Drink plenty of fluids: It is recommended to drink six to eight glasses of water per day, to prevent dehydration, which may lead to voice problems.
• Avoid smoking: This includes inhaling second-hand smoke as well. Cancer of the vocal folds is a severe voice problem that is displayed, most often, in individuals who smoke.
• Avoid using mouthwash or gargles that contain alcohol or other harsh chemicals, as they may irritate the throat, leading to voice disorders.
• Follow good breathing techniques: When one is speaking or singing, it is important to support their voice with deep breaths from the diaphragm. This form of breath control helps reduce the strain on one’s voice, and lessen voice problems.
• Avoid consuming spicy foods: Such foods may cause stomach acid to travel into the throat or esophagus (reflux), causing different voice disorders.
• Use a humidifier: Most ENT doctors advise at least thirty percent humidity in your homes or offices. This is particularly important in winter or dry climates.
• Avoid cradling the telephone: Holding the telephone receiver between the head and shoulder, while speaking for extended periods of time, can result in muscle tension in the neck area and severe voice problems.
• Avoid noisy places: Talking above the din in noisy places can cause strain on the voice. Consider using a microphone to amplify one’s voice instead.

Our ENT clinic in London has a team of eminent ear, nose and throat doctors, who are committed to offering the best ENT care to all our patients. Our ENT doctors are experienced in treating different types of ENT problems, including voice disorders, and have built up an outstanding reputation over the last 30 years.

This is an example of an SEO medical article written by our copywriters. If you require high quality medical articles for blogs or SEO purposes, contact us today at info@staredits.com or fill in this online form, and we'll get back to you shortly.

Ten Writing Exercises For Overcoming Writer’s Block

Sometimes article writers may experience writer's block for weeks or months, which could be a very frustrating experience. Plainly, writer’s block means the inability to come up with anything worth writing about. If you are a professional writer, you’ll know that at certain times ideas fly easily, and writing articles is very simple. You’ll also know that at other times, it becomes really hard to think of anything new to write. Fortunately, there are many ways to cure writer's block, before it gets you down. The trick is to try different writing exercises to get your creative juices flowing.

Below are ten writing exercises to help you beat writer's block, and start writing highly creative content once again:

1. Book titles: Scan the titles of books that you own, as well as those in a library or bookshop. Select a few titles, and write a story based on them, or the words within.
2. Baby names: Look through baby books, baby-name websites or the telephone directory for unusual or exotic names. Select a few interesting names, before creating characters based on those names, and building a story around them.
3. Television: Watch an unfamiliar TV show or movie with the volume muted, to avoid being influenced by dialogue, sound effects or music. Later invent a story based on the setting and characters seen in the show.
4. Dictionary: Randomly pick out words from a dictionary or publication, by shutting your eyes and running a fingertip down a page. Select a few of the chosen words, and create a narrative around any or all of them.
5. Historical figures: Conduct research on historical figures over online reference websites like Wikipedia. Write a story about a fictional incident from their life. You could perhaps write about some imaginary secret, or maybe a chance meeting with another famous figure of that era. The options are limitless.
6. Photographs: A picture is said to tell a thousand stories. Select a photo or painting from the Internet and study it, before writing a plot around the subject. Your story could be based around a person, animal, place or thing; or a combination thereof.
7. Historical locations: Visit a historic site, like a palace, church, fort or ancient city. When you’re back at your computer, do a bit of online research and collect facts about the location. You can later write a plot featuring the historical site, or one inspired by it. If there are no historical sites near your home, you can do the same for any modern structure, such as a bridge, building or train station.
8. Magazines: Cut out pictures or words from different magazines, and arrange them in patterns (linear, groups or sequences) until a line of thought develops. Use that line in the first sentence of your article, and fill in the following lines, accordingly.
9. People watching: Go to a public place like the mall, and watch people. Do this unobtrusively, so that the cops are not called in to investigate what some might consider ‘suspicious’ behaviour. Select some interesting characters, and create background stories based on their appearance, behaviour and communication style.
10. Animal watching: Go to a zoo, aquarium, pet store or even a dog show, and study the animals. Select a few animals, and develop human characters based on the characteristics seen in these animals. Later, write a story around these newly created characters.

Did you find these tips helpful? Have you ever suffered from writer's block? What do you do to overcome writers block, and get back to your writing best again?

StarEdits.com offers high quality copywriting and book manuscript writing services. If you require professionally ghostwritten books and articles, just email us at info@staredits.com or fill in our Contact Us form now.

Five Tips For Writing Medical Articles

Whether you need medical articles for medical brochures, a blog or article submissions, it is very important to ensure that the medical content in your article is accurate, and of a high quality. Albert Einstein once said that, “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. So is a lot”. If you wish to write medical content, you need to follow this advice to the hilt, as what you say or don’t say, may cause people more harm than good.

Below are some tips to help you write high-quality medical articles:

1. Be careful about stating facts: Doctors, dentists and other medical professionals know that medical knowledge is constantly changing with advancements in new technology. It is crucial for professional content writers to also understand the same, and be very careful about stating anything as an irreversible medical fact while writing medical articles. Most readers believe that medical articles have been written by medical experts, and blindly follow online medical advice without consulting a medical practitioner about their individual case.
2. Use proper terminology: Use the scientific or recognised medical name to describe a disease/drug, rather than a lay term, when you first mention it in your medical article. This medical name should be the word most commonly used in recently published, high-quality content, in English language medical journals. You can use lay terms, alternative names and synonyms later on, to help your readers understand the content better. This is even if you are writing medical articles for search engine optimisation purposes. Some sources you can use are WHO’s International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (for diseases); The International Non-proprietary Name (for drugs); and the Terminologia Anatomica (for anatomy).
3. Use ambiguous parts of speech: If various reliable sources show different information, and you are not sure about a medical fact, use vague parts of speech (adverbs, nouns etc.) to describe that fact. For example, if three medical sources state different time periods (three months, five months, seven months) for dental implants to fuse with the jawbone, you can write ‘In most cases, titanium implants generally take around three to seven months to osseointegrate with the bone’.
4. Conduct online research carefully: As accuracy is fundamental in any medical article, you should conduct online research only from reliable websites, such as those sponsored by an educational institution, medical organisation or the government. Some marvellous research sources for medical articles are the US National Library of Medicine, The American Medical Association and The American Psychological Association. Another good online source of information is The Web MD, even though it is not a professional medical association website. Avoid using Wikipedia or other doubtful websites that pop up in search engine results, when you search for a particular medical term.
5. Include a disclaimer: As legal action can sometimes be taken regarding medical content posted on a website, it is always important to include a prominent disclaimer telling readers that you are not a medical expert. This disclaimer is in addition to the legal disclaimer, generally displayed by medical practices on their website. For example: “The writer of this article is not a medical professional. Information contained herein has been collected from sources believed to be reliable, and every precaution has been taken to ensure its accuracy. The information provided here is for general informational purposes only, and should not be used as a substitute for medical care provided by a qualified medical professional”.

Of course, if you want great medical articles without any hassle, you could always hire a professional medical writing company, like StarEdits, to help you out. The content writers at StarEdits have loads of experience in writing medical content, and are sure to do a good job for you. If you require high quality medical articles, just email us at info@staredits.com or fill in our Contact Us form today.

Fifteen Steps For Copy Editing Your Own Work

You may have just finished writing the manuscript of an exciting mystery novel, but you know you're not really done yet! It is now time to get the text spruced up, so that your writing sounds fabulous to the reader. This polishing of text into a finished readable product is known as copy editing.

Most professional writers know that their book, or rather the first draft of it, would be filled with grammar, punctuation, spacing and other errors. They know that it can be nearly impossible to catch all these errors by themselves, so they look for a professional copy editing company to help them out. Such companies have professional editors who work together with the writer, to improve their copy while keeping the original tone and expression of the writing intact.

However, today, many authors wish to do copy edit their manuscripts themselves. If you are a writer who wishes to do so, here are some tips to help you out:

1. Wait a bit: Give yourself a break of a week after you've finished writing your manuscript. Then write a synopsis of your work. Wait for a few days, before revising your writing, based on the synopsis.
2. Read the entire manuscript from beginning to end: If your manuscript is not too long, you can print out a hard copy in a medium font. This will help you easily notice hidden errors. 
3. Focus on various parts of speech: Select different nouns to describe the same thing. Consider using vivid action verbs, rather than passive sentences. Also, reduce adjectives and adverbs.
4. Use descriptive language: Instead of using adjectives and adverbs to describe something, use descriptive language. For example, instead of saying 'the river flowed rapidly', say 'the river flowed like an express train hurtling down a mountain'.
5. Use the dictionary: If you are not sure that a particular word means what you think it does, look up its meaning in a dictionary or on the web. You can also decide to use a different word, if you think it would say what you want better.
6. Check the structure of sentences: Try to shorten long sentences so that they make sense, or punctuate them appropriately. Sentences with few words should have a purpose, or else they should be combined with another sentence.
7. Active sentences: Try and substitute passive sentences with active ones, to make your writing sound more appealing, and reader-friendly.
8. Avoid sentence rhythms: Sentences with alliterations or assonance may tire the reader, so change them unless you are using them for literary effect.
9. De-emphasize emphasis: Avoid repeated use of scare quotes, italics and exclamation marks, unless they are part of the message you want readers to get. Such punctuation usually annoys readers, and gives your writing an unprofessional look.
10. Appraise your writing for its style: Use slang, humour or a conversational tone, according to the personality of the characters, and the theme of the book.
11. Do a word check: If you feel that a certain word has been repeated too often in your writing, cut it down, and replace it with synonyms or other text.
12. Check the plot structure: Look for structural flaws, and alter the sequence of plot elements to make your story sound more convincing. Here, you can add interesting new scenes or subplots, or remove subplots that do not add meaning to the story.
13. Check key words: This is the time to check if the names of characters, places and things fit. If you don't think they are suitable, change them to something more creative. Also, check if chapter headings fit the content of the chapter.
14. Read your manuscript aloud: While doing so, change any sentences that are too wordy or long; and remove any words that do not fit.
15. Send your book manuscript for publishing: Once you are done, read through your manuscript once again, before sending it for publishing.

Of course, if you are not self publishing your manuscript, you can consider sending it to a professional copy editor, who will polish it further. Professional copy editors have edited numerous manuscripts, and know exactly what publishers are looking for. They will give you useful tips on how to revise your writing, so that you get published.

StarEdits.com offers high quality copy editing packages and ghostwriting services. If you require professionally written/edited book manuscripts and articles, just email us at info@staredits.com or fill in our Contact Us form now.

Publishing Checklist For Self-Publishers

If you wish to self-publish, here is a handy checklist of questions you should ask yourself, before going to print: 

• Who will proofread and copy edit my manuscript? Select an experienced proofreader and copy editor, who can be trusted to do a professional job.
• Who will my book be sold to? Specify your targeted audience.
• Where are they? Find out the geographical areas where your targeted audience resides.
• How can I reach them? Use signboards, posters, direct mail and other forms of advertising to inform people about your forthcoming book.
• Get a professionally designed cover for your book. The cover is the first thing buyers will notice, so ensure that it is attractive and suits the theme of the book. Many great self-published books have been let down by bad cover design.
• Convert your manuscript into a professionally formatted eBook in both versions: .mobi (for Amazon) and .epub.
• Get an ISBN number. An International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a unique numeric code, which is assigned to each edition and variation (except re-printings) of a book.
• Price your book competitively. Check the prices of books in the same genre, before fixing the price of your work.
• Find out about distribution channels. Look for distributors/ bookstores in the targeted locations, who will supply/sell your books to the targeted audience.
• Get active online before publication. The Internet can be a great place to generate some interest in your book, and a fan following for yourself. Use social media websites, like Facebook and Twitter, to spread the word about your writing.

Now, you can start printing paperbacks. First consider a short print run, before printing books according to demand. Always ensure that a high quality printer is used during printing, as bad prints can put people off even before they’ve read the first page of your book.

If you are too busy to write or don't have a way with words, you can always ask us to ghostwrite your book manuscript for you. StarEdits.com offers high quality ghostwriting services, and copy editing packages for improving the quality of your written manuscript. If you require professionally written/edited book manuscripts and memoirs, just email us at info@staredits.com or fill in our Contact Us form today.

Article Writing - Lack Of Traffic Bothering You?

Have you ever found yourself going through your website statistics, and wondering why no one is visiting your website? Do you ever ask yourself the question, “When will I get the results I am looking for”?

Rather than getting irritated or upset with your low visitor count, think about solving the main cause of the problem: your lack of visibility. Below is a list of tips to help you enhance your article writing campaign, and solve your traffic issues:

• Article planning: If you want to write high quality articles in less time, a little bit of planning is sure to help. This planning should include idea generation, making a writing schedule, and creating an environment in which you can concentrate on writing.
• Be an innovator: Do something new instead of reinventing the wheel! Join forces with others, so that you can write more engaging web content, which will bring you the leads you need.
• Exercise your writing skills: Practice makes perfect, and just like an athlete, your writing also needs regular exercise. Hence, use your spare time to improve your knowledge and skills about writing. This includes subscribing to content writing newsletters and blogs, as well as watching writing-related web videos.
• Take advantage of social networks: Share the URLs of articles published in articles directories, on your social media profiles, like Facebook. This will boost the reach of your articles, and bring you more subscribers and leads.
• Be determined: Develop confidence in your writing ability, and include article writing in your daily work routine.

Remember, if you want to maximise your results, you’ll need to write and submit original articles to article directories today!

If you consider yourself a good writer and have dabbled in content writing before, you could try writing a few web articles yourself. However, if you don’t have the time for that, you could always get a professional content writing company to write a few great web articles for your company.

StarEdits.com offers high quality web copywriting services and corporate communications services. If you require well-written marketing copy and articles, just email us at info@staredits.com or fill in our Contact Us form today.