  Noticing Newbies
This week: Put your best foot - and words - forward Edited by: Kate - Writing & Reading  
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Greetings to the newly arrived and to those of us who have been around long enough to keep finding new things to do and people to meet daily.
The moment a man sets his thoughts down on paper,
however secretly,
he is in a sense writing for publication.
Raymond Chandler
Our WDC Community welcomes daily 'Newbies' who arrive, each with a unique voice, eager to add that voice to the symphonic chorus that is our Community. To all the 'Newbies' and 'Not So Newbies' ~ I'm honored to be your guest host this week for your WDC Noticing Newbies Newsletter.
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Greetings, fellow writers!
Welcome to the Writing.Dot.Community (writing.com)
Congratulations for daring to share your words, your verse, prose, fiction, fact, essay, article. You see folks are looking (view count), but you've not many comments or reviews. Consider taking a second (or third, or fourth) look at your presentation.
Even if it's a first draft, read through your work before hitting the 'save' button to make sure it's something you (and, therefore, others in our Community) want to read. Yes, I'm talking 'proofread.'
Think about it, you want your readers to engage your story, your poem, learn something from your article. To engage your readers, first be sure to present your message clearly. It's like, when you're talking, you think and pause for a moment so that your voice is clear and your message distinct.
Yes, I'm talking proofreading. If you read through your work before sending it along, you'll be able to present your message, your story or verse or article, so that your readers will get the message and respond. Remember, here at Writing.Com we're a community of peers. We're each writers who want to share our words and engage in the words offered by our fellow writers.
Once you've finished your work, find a place where you can focus and concentrate. Even if it's in 10 minute blocks, read what you've written for clarity ~ does it make sense to you? Do your sentences have subject, verb, object (not run-ons). Do paragraphs, verses, stanzas, flow in logical sequences? Are there clear transitions? Do names and places, people and things, remain constant or change in a believable way? Do gender-specific pronouns remain constant - we don't want to change him to she or her to he
Don't rely completely on your spellchecker. It will not catch nuances of speech and can leave some funny typographical errors, such ass this (Now, if the story is of a donkey, this could fit ~ but do keep it in context. In addition, spell checkers will not catch misspellings that form another valid word. For example, if you type "your" instead of "you're," "to" instead of "too," or "there" instead of "their," the spell checker won't catch the error.
Proofread for only one kind of error at a time. If you try to identify and revise too many things at once, you risk losing focus, and your proofreading will be less effective. It's easier to catch grammar errors if you aren't checking punctuation and spelling at the same time. In addition, some of the techniques that work well for spotting one kind of mistake won't catch others.
Read slow, and read every word. Remember, if you read out loud, which forces you to say each word and also lets you hear how the words sound together. When you read silently or too quickly, you may skip over errors or make unconscious corrections.
Next, check your punctuation. Look for missing periods at the ends of sentences. Check your apostrophes and quotation marks. Read aloud and see if you need all the comma pauses, unless you're working with a list.
Proofreading is a learning process. You're not just looking for errors that you recognize; you're also learning to recognize and correct new errors. This is where handbooks and dictionaries, your online thesaurus, comes in handy. Keep the ones you find helpful close at hand as you proofread.
You'll often find things that don't seem quite right to you, but you may not be quite sure what's wrong either. A word looks like it might be misspelled, but the spell checker didn't catch it. You think you need a comma between two words, but you're not sure why. Should you use "that" instead of "which"? If you're not sure about something, look it up.
Now that you've a story, poem or article you want to read, others here will likewise want to share their thoughts, comments, in the form of a review.
A tip, once you've done your editing and proofing and would like to request reviews for specific items, I suggest posting your item to a reviewing forum; and introduce yourself and get to know fellow writers. Remember to return the 'review' by reading someone else's work in the forum and offering your comments. It's the neighborly thing to do ~ go on, check it out, add the link to your 'favorites' by clicking on the + at the top right corner of the item screen, then come on back ~
and
Welcome, once again, to our new members, and I look forward to reading your words in verse and prose. I hope you've enjoyed today's exploration. Now, I invite you to visit with some of our newest members, check out their portfolios, offer them a review or your comments.
Write On!
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading
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Check out the following good reads by some of our newest members ~ in verse and prose each offers a unique creative voice ~ welcome them in true WDC Fellowship ~ a review perchance. By the way, if you stopped by the two sites we explored earlier, you will recognize a number of these authors.
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#1778857 by Not Available. |
| |  | Early Joy (18+)
Love is always a joy to remember, but here is one experience that goes far and beyond...
#1778980 by lightbreeze  |
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This item number is not valid.
#1778894 by Not Available. |
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#1778872 by Not Available. |
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Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
https://www.Writing.Com/go/nl_form
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Thank you for sharing this exploration. I look forward to some good reads and invite you each to welcome our newest members, fellow writers, by offering your comments and questions and thoughts in response to the words they share in verse and prose.
Write On!
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading
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Noticing Newbies: May 25, 2011 Issue [#4411]
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