Creating a Perfect Outline

Organazation- Creating the Perfect Outline

Traditional Roman Numeral Outline-

1.Major section
A. First-level subsection
1. Second-level subsection
a.Third-level subsection
1) Fourth-level subsection

Roman Numeral-

• Step 1- Know your topic well enough to be able to identify it’s major sections.
• Step 2- Decide first level topic is the overall topic of the article.
• Step 3- Decide on your second major section.
• Step 4- Once you’ve made your major section think about minor divisions.
• Step 5- After creating the outline go back and fill in other information.
• Step 6- Finally review your work and see if there is anymore information you can put in.

Decimal Numbering System-

1. Major Idea
1.1 Supporting idea for 1
1.2 Supporting idea for 1
1.2.1 Example or illustration of 1.2
1.2.2 Example or illustration of 1.2
1.2.2.1 Detail for 1.2.2
1.2.2.2 Detail for 1.2.2
1.3 Supporting idea for 1
2. Major Idea

Typical Uses of Decimal Numbering System Outline -

• Procedural Manuals
• Mathematical texts
• Scientific Material
• Technical Material

Conclusion-

Outlines-
1.Keep information in a professional order
2.Everyone is clear on the information at hand
3.Looks very professional
4.Efficient way of getting the information down on paper.
5.Time saver.

Time-Management Strategies

When work gets busy, you sometimes may feel a bit overwhealmed. There is so much you have to do and such little time. You may have tried drinking two cups of coffee or working extra hours but that only seems to make you more tired. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a way to never have to worry about this problem ever again? Lucky for you, there is time-management. In this post, I am going to share with you some key strategies that writers use to manage their time effectively.

Allocating Your Time

Keep a calender on your desk where you can put down all of your deadlines. This way you will be able to see all of your tasks in front of you at once. A good tactic is to turn the deadlines into shorter more manageable deadlines. Concentrating on smaller goals can help you make your deadlines more attainable and also helps relieve pressures.

It is best to work on your most difficult tasks in the time of day when your mind is sharpest. This will allow you to get all the smaller things out of the way first, instead of just wasting the whole day on one big task.

Preparing your Work Enviornment

Another good time-management strategy is setting up your writing environment and having your materials ready before you begin. This way you know what you are there for, and in turn put greater focus on the task at hand. It is also best to find a quiet place with as little distractions as possible. The better you can concentrate, the more you will get done.

Remaining Flexible

Writing may sometimes seem like it is getting no where. Either your not interested in what your writing or your at a tough spot in your outline. A good way to save time is by actually doing the part you enjoy most first. It can either be the easiest or most interesting part, it doesn't matter. The goal is to get some momentum going. Once your draft starts flowing from your finger tips, try not to take a break. You may lose your focus, and if you feel you must take a break, try to keep your paper in mind.

These strategies don't have to be used just for writing, they can be used with what ever type of tasks you are given. When using effective time-management you will see the great benefits that it offers. You will no longer be bound to your deadlines and have more times to do things you enjoy. Thanks for reading and don't forget to join so you can comment.

Making Your Proposal One Notch Ahead of the Rest

Effectively Writing and Formatting a Professional Business Letter

When it comes to business letters, it may seem fairly simple and straightforward to go about writing one. However, it takes great proficiency for your letter to stand out in a professional manner. It is important that your letter be organized in a way that is both appealing and useful to your audience. Professional business letters are most successful, with both fellow business associates and consumers, when they are written and formatted properly.

In order to communicate effectively with your audience, your letter must be arranged in an appropriate format. Have you ever noticed how most business letters are set up in a similar way? That is because there is a certain standard criteria that many professionals follow in formatting business letters. If you want your letters to look professional, you should consider doing the same.

Here are some helpful tips to format your business letters correctly:

• If you use letterhead, always align everything to the left of the paper, because you don’t want the content to look squashed between the margins.
• Make sure to use at least 1-inch margins – both vertically and horizontally.
• In your heading and throughout the letter, spell out every word, with the exception of the standard Postal Service abbreviations, to keep everything clear and comprehendible.
• The body of the letter should be single-spaced with small paragraphs, so the audience can read it more easily.
• In closing, always use your best judgment in what you say. The word “Sincerely” is often a good choice because it is a standard and respectful way to end your letter.

Business letters are extremely influential objects that are often the basis of your audience’s first impression of you. This is why the appearance of the letter is crucial because the audience will often associate the organization and look of the letter with the writer’s personality. For example, if it is obvious that your letter was carelessly thrown together, especially as a marketing professional, it is likely that your audience will not consider working with you. Effectively writing and formatting your business letters will not only improve your communication with others, it will also help show off your true professionalism.

How To Influence Customers!

For every marketer in the work force, the first thing that needs to be done to be noticed is by getting your audiences attention. There are thousands of other marketers out there that do the same thing as you. By getting noticed you are distinguishing yourself from others and removing yourself  out of all the "clutter". There 7 traditional media units that marketers use to get there product out.

• Advertising
• Personal Selling
• Public Relations
• Internet
• Direct Marketing
• Publicity
• Sales Promotion

All 7 of these are used by a marketer on an everyday basis. Though there is a certain way of influencing your customers to listen to you. There's two ways of making contact: Exposure and Attention. In order to get your buyers attention you need to someway get them to focus on wanting what you have. Make sure you dramatize your ideas to help persuade the customers your way.  

Even though customers use selective exposure, which is the process of the customer deciding on what they want to be exposed to. You as the marketer needs to get there attention on your product and find a way of getting them focused. Don't force it upon them, but easily inform the customer and always follow these three steps:

• Connect with there needs
• Remind the customer of their needs
• Educate the consumer to there need 
  

By doing all this the customer will be influenced and enlightened by the words you are saying which will lean in both yours and their favor. 

As a marketer you need to always use a professional manner when writing or creating an ad. Though if you can take your writing skills and use them verbally the same way, the customer will fall for your product because you will be able to catch there needs and they will want to get your product from you.

By keeping a professional manner with your clients, those customers will then go refer the product to there friends and family. Everything you do as a marketer has an effect on how you are perceived and how you go about influencing your customers. Always keep everything simple and to the point. Highlight keywords and phrases and keep the customer intrigued. Never forget the customer makes your product sell, they are the final say and whether your product stays around. 

Content and Organization

In the marketing field it is vital to make sure that you message is clear and concise. If its not, you may mislead your target and a number of things could go wrong. To ensure this never happens, use proper content and organization. Proper content and organization allows you to effectively get your point across and at the same time be easy for your target to read. Below are some simple steps that can help you improve in this area.

Content

The first thing that you need to pay attention to is the content in your writing. After you write your draft, put yourself in a frame of mind to view your work objectively. Some things you should ask yourself are:

• What is my purpose?
• Do I need to add or elminate content?
• Is my content accurate?
• Are my recommendations supported by my conclusion?

When thinking about adding more content, make sure that it is tied in with the purpose. The last thing you want to do is have a bunch of useless information in your paper. Even if it's interesting, your distracting your reader from the purpose. So don't add anything unless it will help improve your case.

Organization

The first thing you need to do when focusing on organization is make an outline. The benefits of having an outline is that it breaks down blocks of text into single ideas, and makes the sequence of points easy to evaluate. It is a lot easier to organize your thoughts when they're only one or two lines. If you find a problem in your outline, simply revise it until it sounds better. You want to make sure that there is strong logic in your sequence to ensure your readers can easily follow.

Assessing Audience and Purpose

I think that this is very important information that everyone should no regaurdless of what line of work they are in. Everyone should be able to write knowing whom they are addressing and what their purpose is.

The first and obvious step is determinging what you will be writing about. You want your readers to learn something new and take it with them when they are finished. Knowing your purpose gives you a sense of direction in which you want to write your paper.

After figuring out the purpose of your paper you need to access your audience's needs. When they are through reading your paper there should be no misunderstanding as to what you wanted then to recieve from this.

You may want to ask yourself before you begin writing-

• "Who is my audience?"
• "What do you want your audience to know?"
• "What does your audience know about the subject?
• "Does your format enhance audience understanding?"
• "Do you have more than one audience?"
• "Have you narrowed your topic to what you want your audience to know?"
• "What are your audience's needs in relation to the subject?

When you feel you know enough about your reader you may than begin your writing. You will have an advantage which will result in a better outcome with your audience.

Now you need to consider your context in which you are going to write. The environment or situation are to key factors in chossing your context. It will ultimitely affect how your reader interprets the meaning.

When thinking about the context you may ask-

• "What is your professional relations with your readers and how might that affect the tone, style, and scope of your writing?"
• "What mediums to do your readers prefer-memo, letter, report, or e-mail?"
• "What specific factors or values are important to your readers company?"
• "What is the corporate culture in which your readers work. ?"
• "What are the professional relationships among your readers?"

The process following this would be generating, gathering, and recording ideas and facts. It's what we like to call brainstorming. A good way to start off this process is to think about your own knowledge of the subject and personal experiences that you may have encountered. Just start listing as many ideas as you can think of. Later you can go back through and pick out the most important ones.

Brainstorming may not bring you all the information you need. Therefore there are other means of finding your information such as the library that provides books, articles, reference works, and other material for you to use. The internet is also a popular way of doing research these days.

When you believe you have all this down you can begin to downsize it to only the actual information you need and will use in your writing. You must determine your scope of how much you need to get your point across to your audience.

Once you have narrowed it down you will take the remaining information and organize it. As you put your ideas together on paper continue to move them around seeing if you need to add something you forgot and delete more information.

Now you are ready to begin writing. Begin by writing a draft to get all your ideas down on paper. When finished you may want to set it aside and doing something else to get your mind off of your work. Maybe even wait until the next morning to review it. This way you're working with a fresh mind and you are more focused. You may also want to have someone else check over your work.

Following these short easy steps is a sure way to make you a good writer. You will feel like you have accomplished teaching your audience new and have the confidence that they will walk away remembering what you said.