It seems that no matter how much or how little experience we have in regard to writing, there is always room for improvement.  We all constantly strive to make our articles more attractive and interesting to our audience.  There are some things we can consider whenever we begin our writing, that can help bring attention to our articles, and at the same time, keep the reader’s interest peaked.  Here are a few tips to help us improve our writing and reach our desired audience.

We know that narrative adds interest to any type of writing.  “Telling a story,” is an excellent way to attract your reader’s attention at the beginning of your article.  Its a great way to start, but remember we don’t want to stop there.  Our goal is to keep our reader hungry for more information.  If you can begin your article by introducing a good story line, the chances of your article reaching more reader’s will be maximized.

Another great way of attracting readers to your article is simple but explosive.  Use a “startling statement” like a fact or opinion, to open your article.   Very few things gain the attention of a reader than an opening sentence that is startling and direct.  You want your reader to be “shocked” into reading further.  You want them to be pulled into your writing or be intrigued with it.  An example might be; The United States plans to bring back the draft in its attempt to wage war with Iran.

One of the most powerful ways of bringing attention to your writing is beginning your article by, “asking a question.”  This introduction has a number of useful purposes that can benefit the author.  By asking a question, we are informing the reader what the article is really about.  This also gives the reader a chance to decide whether or not the article is of interest to them.  This type of writing strategy also stirs a response in the reader, and may even illicit a mental response that will allow the reader to challenge your statement and read further.

The ability to use “specific language” in your writing also helps attract interested reader’s.  Always use specific details and examples to support your statements.  Nothing is less attractive than a writer that cannot support the topic he is writing about.  Always remember, the content in a piece of writing is more important than its style.  If what you are writing about is not interesting, your way of saying it, no matter how skillful, will probably make it less desirable to your audience.

A good writer may also incorporate the use of images, specific active verbs, strong adjectives and descriptive words that convey meaning to our senses and help us delve more deeply into the writing.

I hope these few tips serve as useful tools and help transform some of our articles into interesting topics for our reader’s.

Good luck and great writing!

Acting on stage is generally an area that has no middle ground…either you love it and crave the spotlight, or hate it and couldn’t be paid enough to set foot up there. If you’re new to the stage, be it acting or pubic speaking, here are some guidelines to ensure that your performance will be at its best:

You must PROJECT your voice. This doesn’t mean just yelling, but speak at a much louder volume than you normally do. Imagine that you are speaking to someone at the very back of the room who needs to hear every word you say. If you are fortunate enough to have a lapel or headset microphone, you will not need to project as much, but you will still need to rehearse your speaking so that it is clear.

Speak slower than normal. When you are at a distance from the audience, your words can get muffled and distorted. It may sound funny, but if you speak slower and more purposefully, what you say will be much clearer to the audience. Obviously, if you are acting, you must stay in character, but don’t rush through your lines. The last thing you want is to spend weeks or months rehearsing and have the audience not understand you.

Face the audience when you speak. It may sound obvious, but we have a very strong tendency to turn our head and face the person we are speaking to. That’s normal, but on stage, it can cut your volume almost in half. It can seem very unnatural to face forward while talking to someone next to you, so rehearse this diligently. It may help to visualize the two of you driving in a car together; you can be talking, but not necessarily looking at each other. Don’t worry, it doesn’t look as strange to the audience as it feels to you.

Don’t look in the eyes. If you are giving a speech or monologue and must look at the audience, look at the tops of people’s heads, not directly into their eyes. This can be extremely helpful if you are nervous about public speaking as looking directly into someone’s eyes can be very distracting and unnerving. This way, there is no eye contact but from a distance, it looks as though you are looking directly at each person.

Keep movement to a minimum. If you are a persistent toe or finger tapper or you tend to ‘sway’ when you stand or otherwise fidget, make a conscious effort to stand still. Even the littlest movement can be a distraction on stage and you don’t want anyone to miss what you’re saying because they couldn’t keep their eyes off your jiggling leg.

Keep going! If you forget your lines, don’t stop and stare blankly at your fellow actors or the audience. Make something up and keep going. Always stay in character! It may take you a minute to get back on track, but if you stay calm and don’t panic, chances are that no one will even know you missed something. This is where the art of improvisation can be very helpful in getting you through those tight spots. Make it a point to rehearse this way as though it is “live” and keep going no matter what.

These few guidelines will get you off to a good start for your performance. Don’t worry if it feels very awkward and unnatural at first. The more you practice, the better you will get and the more natural these techniques will become. Then it will be your moment to shine in the spotlight!

INTRODUCTION

We all know that English is the International language of all. This language is the way so that all the people around the world can communicate well but how will you improve your skills more and what aspects that is needed to make your English good?

There are many different students from around the world who wants to Improve their English and some of them need help. In our country, about 88% percent of students are poor in English.

MY STORY

English is my second language and my first language is called “Visayans” and you can found that language in Mindanao, Philippines. I learned how to speak and write English in the school and by watching American movies, I improve my English more. I bought lots of English books and reading them every night and now, I can speak freely to all the things that I want to express using the English language. One reason why I want to improve my English is because I want to be a good songwriter. I am writing all my works in English and few in my own language and This language is really useful when I am talking to foreigners.

EXPANDING YOUR VOCABULARY

By expanding our vocabulary, It will be easy for us to understand a sentence. One way to expand your vocabulary is the Dictionary. This vocabulary book is really useful on how to understand the words that you’ve never encountered.

For Example:

OZONE is a what form? Answer: Form of useful oxygen

By the use of the dictionary, you can easily read and understand the meaning of the particular word that is given to you and with this, you can easily create a sentence. Learning different kinds of word is a very good way to expand your English so keep reading dictionaries and understand the meaning of every word. This will also help you to improve your spelling errors so keep reading and reading.

DEVELOP YOUR READING SKILLS

Reading is important and by reading everyday in every words that you encounter will develop your skills in English and understand them clearly. If your reading then you can easily follow instructions that is given to you and that is really important in our various tasks in life like in school, solving problems, instruction for enrolling, taking entrance examination or board exam, performing some complicated experiments, doing lessons and writing compositions.

MASTER THE LANGUAGE STRUCTURE

What are the language structure? these are the “simple past tense”, “the past continuous Tense”, Present tense, “Future Time”.

Past Perfect Tense- When we say past perfect tense, it is formed with the helping verb had and the past participle form of the verb. It’s usually describes the action that took the place at some time earlier in any other action or another action.

Past continuous tense- it is formed with the past form of the be and the ing of the main verb.

Simple present tense - it expresses action that is taking place or a state that exist at that good moment.

Future Time- The concept of future time is expressed in many ways like using Will, next year, soon and more.

EXERCISES:

Some examples to master your vocabulary:

Coal oil, club house, clothes, cobbler, coast

End, energy, English, enmesh, enough, entertain

Geisha, gasket, gargle, garment, garland, garnish

Improve, impress, impotent, impostor,

Look for the meaning of every word and try to build a sentence on your own. Keep reading the words and scan some books so that you will familiarize them and then it will be easier for you.

This article is for those who have accepted the challenge of doing something they have never done before – deliver a sermon to a group or congregation.

Many of you who have accepted this challenge never dreamed you would – but here you are, nervously anticipating the big moment. On behalf of all of our brothers and sisters in Christ, I thank you for answering this very sacred and important call.

Nervous you should be. Indeed, no matter how experienced you may become at preaching the Word, you should never feel entirely comfortable in the pulpit. It is a calling and privilege to perform God’s work in this way and one should never forget or take it for granted.

So, now you are wondering what you will speak about and how to prepare. First, let us address your sermon topic.

The Golden Rule of public speaking, especially when delivering a sermon, is the same as writing. Only speak about what you know. So, for your first sermon, pick a favorite story or topic that you are knowledgeable about and feel comfortable with. Keep in mind what sort of group you will be preaching to. Will it be a group of older persons in a retirement center, a group of young people in a youth group, or will it be in your home church for Sunday services? Is your church conservative or liberal in its spiritual beliefs? These are just a few examples of the considerations you may consider when deciding upon what to speak about.

After you have decided upon your topic and sermon title, now the real preparation begins. My belief is that your initial draft should read like an essay paper. This has a couple of advantages. 1. You document key components and phrases of your sermon so that you will not forget them and, 2. You are organizing your message in the sequence you wish to deliver it.

Preaching classes teach that one hour of preparation is necessary for each minute of spoken word when preaching. Do not let this alarm you. This is good textbook advice but, as you may have already suspected, may not always be practical. If you are planning on speaking for 20 minutes on Sunday morning, you may not have half a work week to dedicate to preparing your message. However, your first effort probably will take this much preparation. Again, the best thing to do is, write your message down in essay form, then begin to memorize the key points of each paragraph.

The more you read your draft, the more familiar you become with what you have written. Practice delivering your sermon alone, perhaps in front of a mirror. Practicing 30 minutes to an hour for 4-5 evenings will prepare you for delivery much more than you may believe now. The key is becoming comfortable and confident of what you will convey to your congregation. You probably do not need for me to remind that you will need all the confidence and comfort you can muster on the day of your first sermon!

OK, so you have prepared your message on paper, practiced in front of a mirror and now as ready as you can be without actually having yet been in the pulpit. From the time you accepted this challenge until now, you have spent several afternoons and evenings working on your message. Perhaps you have indeed dedicated one hour, or more, to each minute you will speak. Your main drawbacks at this point are inexperience and fear of the unknown. Make no mistake about it, these are huge obstacles every first time preacher needs to overcome, so do not feel you are inadequate or unique in any way. Recall, nobody, no matter how many sermons he or she has delivered, should feel entirely comfortable with what he/she is doing.

So now, the big moment has arrived. To say you are apprehensive and nervous would be an understatement. If you are as I was, you may feel sick to your stomach and fear losing your breakfast in front of the congregation. As the singing stops and you step to the pulpit, you may feel a wave of panic. You may even stammer a bit at first but, if you are in front of people that know you, they will understand what you are going through. If you are in front of people you do not know, (it is not a good idea to preach in front of strangers on your first attempt for this reason), you will have to steel yourself to overcome the initial nervousness.

The good news is, once you get a few statements into your message, you will begin to focus on that and the nervousness will ebb. Have a draft of the message with you, but do not use it more than you have to. If you have prepared properly, you should know your message pretty much by heart. Speak clearly, make eye contact with the audience and do not worry about being a polished orator. Speaking from the heart overcomes a lot of shortcomings when preaching God’s word. Making the emotional link with your listeners is your goal and the more you try to be a “preacher,” the more difficult this will be.

Even veteran pastors forget what they wish to say occasionally. When this happens, refer to your draft. Do not be hesitant or overly obvious with this and do not let losing your train of thought rattle you. If you are uncomfortable in the pulpit, it will rub off on your listeners and the focus will be on you, not your message.

For the first timer, practice and preparation are essential. The second one will be much easier simply because you now know what you have to do to prepare and deliver a quality message. You now have some experience and preparation time should decrease as your confidence and ability to preach improves.

You may find that, after your first preaching attempt, speaking God’s word is not for you. This is OK. You did it once and broadened your horizons and Christian experience. You now have a better understanding and appreciation of what your pastor or priest does every week, in addition to his or her many other duties within your congregation.

But, you may also find that preaching is a gift you did not realize you possess. You may move on to greater service as a lay preacher, or may even find yourself soon enrolled in seminary. Our Lord works in mysterious ways and His timing is far different from ours. If you can preach His word from the pulpit, there is no telling how He may use you in times to come.

You will read a lot of articles about flirting and how to be a good flirt, but don’t underestimate flirt’s cousin - Banter.

Banter is not flirting but it is a good step towards flirting and also involved in skillful flirting. I like to call Banter -  Ms. Flirt’s cousin. . Banter according to American Heritage dictionary is simply good-humored, playful conversation. So bantering is not quite flirting, not totally joking, but not  serious conversation. People need to make sure that they aren’t confusing the flirting and bantering  so that they can participate in this wonderful, lively conversation without remorse.

If you picture a badminton game, the birdie flies over the net, first one side then the other. That is the picture of bantering. It is back and forth and around the people in a group. The words flying and both cause and receive reactions. Good bantering can be seen at parties where people are talking together in groups. One person monopolizing the conversation kills bantering.

Bantering takes little effort but there are some key elements. Looking at the person, smiling and laughing, being involved. You don’t have to be necessarily witty but you do need to be willing to talk. After all, most of us only use 16,000 words per day. Preparing ahead of time might seem silly but if you pay attention you might be able to have some standard quips to remarks you get often.

Once my dad asked me “who died and left you boss? I quickly quipped, “My mom”. From now on that is a joking line that I can use for similar situations. My dad is like the king of comebacks. He says, “I always have an answer.” Or “Wasn’t that a good one?”. He takes pride in the ability to banter around with people. Maybe that is a part of why he has so many lifelong friends.

Most banter is between friends and a lot of it is almost like a celebrity roast. So watch a few roasts or sitcoms and get some practice in. One show that has a lot of edgy bantering is King of Queens. One warning be careful with teasing you need respect balanced in there. It is never appropriate to tease someone that has no sense of humor (publicly) or to tease someone about something they cannot change. They can get away with it in sitcoms but in real life feelings get hurt.

If you are shy before you get to bantering you may need to simply start a conversation with friends or make friends. Try complimenting on something about the person. Comment on what’s happening around you. Ask questions, about their job, or hobbies but not like an interviewer. Your goal is to get THEM to talk and then progress to the point where you can converse with some banter.

Look for your opportunities: AT the office, or while standing in the driveway talking with friends. You can banter in online forums. I’ve seen lots of bantering on Twitter.com Practice and then start going to those office parties and class reunions.