Category: Daily Fix

Humorless? No. Humor more!

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[found on writersdigest.com]

“Humor is an integral part of our everyday interactions, whether we’re trying to navigate a bookstore, make conversation with the barista at our favorite coffee shop, or talk a police officer out of a ticket. Our inherent desire to laugh motivates us to share funny YouTube videos and respond to text messages with an LOL or the iconic smiley face. Many of us even choose to get our daily news with a heaping side order of comedy from outlets like “The Daily Show,” “The Colbert Report” or The Onion. When push comes to punch, we’d rather laugh than lie facedown, weeping into the carpet.

You may think that when it comes to writing, humor is best used only in fiction or satire. But while we think of comedy in terms of exaggeration or fabrication, effective humor can be just as much about creative misdirection—engaging readers by taking them someplace they don’t expect to go—and subtly choosing metaphors and words that make readers giggle without even knowing why. And a smiling reader is one who’s paying attention and eager to read on.

Sociologists, linguists and biologists say that our ability to laugh and desire to do so isn’t all fun and games, but actually serves two essential life functions: to bond with members of our “tribe,” and to lessen tension and anxiety. Both of these are also excellent reasons to incorporate humor in your nonfiction. As a communication tool, effective use of humor can humanize you, cementing your bond with readers. It can also help your work stand out in a crowded market. And as advertising studies have shown, humor enhances how much we like what we’re reading and how well we remember it afterward.

I’ve been teaching humor writing for 16 years, and have used my funny bone in writing everything from self-help books to feature articles to essays to cookbook content. I’m convinced that learning to effectively use humor can not only enhance your work, but can make the act of writing more enjoyable, too. Trying to find the funnier side of things reduces the loneliness, rejection and stress of the writing life—and it boosts your creativity by challenging you to approach your craft in new ways.

Even if your subject is a serious one, the subtle use of humor can both ease tension and provide a respite from difficult moments. I was recently hired to provide freelance assistance on a book about pornography-related problems. The authors felt I could make the subject less uncomfortable for readers by lightening things up here and there. As Eric Idle once wisely said, “Levity is the opposite of gravity.”

So how can you use humor to write better? Read on to find out.

Learning the Basics of Subtle Humor

Let’s be clear: The goal in adding some humor to your nonfiction project is not about becoming the next Erma Bombeck or David Sedaris (unless that’s your dream). The goal is to improve your writing by using all the tools available to you, including comedy. Imagine where the original authors of the For Dummies book franchise would be today if they hadn’t decided to take a lighthearted approach.

Whether or not you consider yourself a funny person, it’s not as difficult as youmight think to put humor to work for you. I’ve found that the easiest and best ways of doing so boil down to five simple comedic tools.

1. THE K RULE

It may sound strange, but it’s true: Words with the k sound (Cadillac, quintuplet, sex) are perceived as the funniest, and words with a hard g (guacamole, gargantuan, Yugo) create almost as many grins. This may be because much of what makes Americans laugh today has roots in Yiddish humor, the language of which includes many guttural sounds—and the k and hard g are as close as English comes. The K Rule is so widely used by comedy writers that Matt Groening’s team once referenced it in an episode of “The Simpsons” when Sideshow Mel explained that Krusty (note spelling) the Clown had laryngitis from “trying to cram too many k sounds into a punch line.”

The K Rule is a good convention for naming things and making word choices that will subconsciously or subtly amuse your readers. This tool is especially handy in crafting attention-grabbing titles or subheads. Consider this memorable section heading in the book You Staying Young: The Owner’s Manual for Extending Your Warrantyby Michael F. Roizen and Mehmet C. Oz: “Your Memory: Don’t Fuggedaboudit.”

2. THE RULE OF THREE

Writing comedically usually requires establishing a pattern (with the setup) and then misdirecting the reader (with the punch line). One simple way of doing this is to pair two like ideas in a list and then add a third, incongruent, idea. The reason we use a list of three, and not five or 27, is that three is the number of things we can most easily remember (two if we haven’t yet had our coffee or been tasered awake by our boss). Here’s an example of a sentence using the Rule of Three: Losing weight is simple: Eat less, exercise more and pay NASA to let you live in an anti-gravity chamber.

This is one of the most flexible ways to naturally incorporate humor into your narrative. It’s particularly useful in crafting catchy article ledes, like this opening paragraph from Jean Chatzky’s “Interest Rates Are Going Up. Now What?” in More:

Let me predict a few things that will happen in the next year. Brad and Angelina will add another baby to their brood. The day you spend $175 getting your hair done is the day it will rain. And the variable-interest rates—on your savings account, mortgage and credit card—will go up.

Here she uses two amusing, less important ideas as the pattern and throws in her point at the end, as the “punch.”

3. THE COMPARISON JOKE

As writers, we’re comfortable with metaphors, so think of comparison jokes as simply metaphors chosen specifically for comedic effect. Here’s an example from the late Robert Schimmel’s memoir Cancer on $5 a Day* (*Chemo Not Included):

… this stupid hospital gown is riding up my ass. I try to pull it down and it snaps right back up like a window shade. I cross my legs and suddenly I’m Sharon Stone.

To craft a comparison joke, simply brainstorm metaphors and then choose the one that is funniest and makes the point well. For example, if you want to convey that quitting smoking is difficult, you might first mentally list things that are tough, such as reading without your glasses, flossing a cat’s teeth, getting a teen to tell you about his day, getting a cat to tell you about its day while flossing its teeth, etc. Then, simply choose the comparison that makes you laugh. In comedy writing, we’re always our first audience.

4. THE CLICHÉ JOKE

If comedy relies on misdirection, what better way to achieve it than with a phrase your readers already know? If you write, “You can lead a horse to water …” every reader will assume you’re going to finish with “… but you can’t make him drink.” Taking the cliché elsewhere can be both attention-grabbing and amusing. Take the title of Sarah Snell Cooke’s Credit Union Times article about a credit union initiative dubbed THINK: “You Can Lead a Horse to Water But You Can’t Make Him THINK.”

Don’t limit yourself to old idioms: Cliché jokes can work with any widely known catchphrase, title, lyric or piece of literature (say, Dr. Seuss). Lyla Blake Ward’s book How to Succeed at Aging Without Really Dying, for example, is titled with a play on the well-known musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. You also don’t need to confine your creativity to just replacing a word or two. Taking a cliché and expanding upon it is another useful approach. For example, on Lauren Kessler’s companion blog to her latest book, My Teenage Werewolf, she writes:

I will always, always have your back. That’s the one message above all other messages (even the I love you message) that I want Lizzie and my two sons to hear. … How do I manage to send that message and not simultaneously send this one: I am available, at your beck and call, 24/7. Don’t even think about what else I might have on my plate or who I am as a person in addition to being your mother. I have no life other than to serve you.

5. FUNNY ANECDOTES AND STORIES

Most of the things we laugh at in real life are true stories, sometimes exaggerated for effect. In fact, experts say we laugh far more at these types of everyday happenings than at “jokes.” It makes sense, then, to use them to help illustrate your points as you write. When Your Money or Your Life authors Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin wanted to demonstrate the importance of changing the way we think about money, they did so by telling the story of a young girl watching her mother prepare a ham to bake for dinner. As the mother cut both ends off the ham, the daughter asked why. Mom replied that her mother had always done it that way. When the daughter still insisted on knowing why, a quick call to grandma revealed the reason: “Because the pan was too small.”

Putting It Into Practice

Now you’ve got five basic comedic tools in your arsenal, and you’re ready to put them to use in your work. As with trying anything new, you don’t want to overdo it and come on too strong, but you don’t want to stifle your creativity, either. Here are five ways to effectively apply what you’ve learned to any kind of nonfiction work:

1.    BE STRATEGIC. Don’t scatter jokes willy-nilly; instead, think of humor as parenthetical information. Many nonfiction writers find the best places to integrate humor are in titles, sidebars, visual illustrations or cartoons, and anecdotes to illustrate their points. For a great example of the use of visual humor, see Roizen and Oz’sYou Staying Young.

2.    USE IT SPARINGLY. Unless you’re writing about an inherently funny topic, you should limit the humor you use to selective references. Its purpose is to grab the reader’s attention and help you make points in creative ways. Don’t confuse the reader by coming across as a comedian.

3.    KEEP YOUR FOCUS IN MIND. Be sure your use of humor doesn’t distract from or demean the true purpose of your project. Have someone read your manuscript and then give you a candid critique with this in mind.

4.    LET YOUR READERS KNOW YOU’RE LAUGHING. When using humor in writing about a difficult subject—your own illness, for example—your first responsibility is to give your readers permission to laugh. Find subtle ways to let them know that not only is it OK to laugh, but you want them to.

5.    STEER CLEAR OF SARCASM. This humor style may work in some arenas, but many readers find it hurtful and mean, and because it often relies on tone, it can be especially hard to pull off in writing. Sarcasm is a tool most of us pick up at a young age as a way of feeling better about ourselves by putting others down. I recommend leaving it there.

As writers, it’s up to us to use everything we can to make sure we lasso our readers and keep them in the corral. Don’t let fear of being funny on the page hold you back. After all, I wasn’t class clown in high school. In fact, had there been such a category, I would have been voted Most Likely to Depress People (Sylvia Plath and Edgar Allan Poe were my role models). But I’ve learned that an old saying is true: “If you can get them to open their mouths to laugh, you can get them to open their hearts to learn.” And that makes for effective writing.”

[found on http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/how-to-mix-humor-into-your-writing]

Romance in the Air?

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[found on pbs.org; by Sanderson]

“Roger Sanderson, who you may know as the Mills & Boon author Gill Sanderson, offers aspiring writers simple guidelines for finishing the first romance novel of many.

So you want to write a romance? You can feel it inside you but 50,000-120,000 words is a lot of words. Writing them needs a lot of time, a lot of heart-ache. All over America there are drawers crammed with manuscripts — just started, halfway through, nearly done. All collecting dust.

I should know, I had a drawer full myself. But now I’m working on manuscript number 49 and I’ll finish it.

After the excitement of writing the first few thousand words, you slow down, the end is so far away. You give up.

So try writing your romance this way:

    • Write a hundred-word outline of your story. You can think about it for a week, but writing it will only take an afternoon. Establish hero and heroine, names (important!), jobs, characters. Set the time and place. Are you going to write sweet, passionate, mysterious, religious, supernatural? Decide. Last and most important, what is the problem that is keeping your hero and heroine apart?
    • Recognize what you’ve written. It’s a blurb, the pitch on the back of a book that makes readers want to read it. Or you to write it.
    • Start with notes if you like, but write it out as properly connected prose. This is the acorn that’s going to grow into a tree.
    • Next step, expand your blurb into an outline of your story, about 1,000 words long. Cover things like the first meeting, the first problem that develops into bigger problems, then the big climactic scene, and the happy ending. Don’t get carried away! Be concise. Your tree is still only a small shoot.
    • You should now know how long your story is to be. Do a third expansion — aim at a minimum of about a tenth of the ultimate length. 5,000 word for a 50,000 word book. Or you might prefer to try to write a fifth, 10,000 words for a 50,000 word book. Your choice.
    • This is where the real — and most enjoyable — work begins. Divide your story into chapters. And this time you can write in notes. There’s a great temptation to get carried away, to write at full length because ideas are coming so fast. Don’t. Finish the plan. You’re halfway there!
  • Now you can start the writing proper and with the detailed notes you have, you’ll find it will roll. No fear of writer’s block. You know where you are going. On a really good day you’ll manage 5,000 words or more. Before you know it, you will have written your first romance.”
[found on http://www.pbs.org/pov/guiltypleasures/how-to-write-a-romance-novel-gill-sanderson.php]

How to Write a Book Proposal

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[found on rachellegardner.com; by Rachelle Gardner]

“There are several great books available on writing book proposals. My favorites for non-fiction are:

A good book for fiction proposals is:

Here are bare-bones outlines of what a book proposal looks like.

For Non-Fiction

Title page: Title, authors’ names, phone numbers, email addresses.

One sentence summary: It captures your book. It should be more hook than description.

Brief overview: This should read similar to back-cover copy. It should be exciting, informative, and make someone want to read your book. It tells the publisher in a succinct form what the book is about and who the market is. Three to four paragraphs.

Felt need: What needs will your book fulfill that your audience is already aware of? What questions are they asking that your book will answer? What do they want that you can give them?

About the authors: Half page to a full page on each author. Why are you qualified to write this book? List any previously published books or articles along with sales figures. Make a good case for YOU as the best possible author for a book on this topic.

The market: Whom do you see as the audience for the book? Why would somebody buy this book? How is this audience reached? Do you have any special relationships to the market? What books and magazines does this audience already read? What radio and TV programs do they tune into? Demonstrate an understanding of exactly who will buy your book and why.

Author marketing: This is where you’ll talk about your platform. How are YOU able to reach your target audience to market your book? This is NOT the place for expressing your “willingness” to participate in marketing, or your “great ideas” for marketing. This is the place to tell what you’ve already done, what contacts you already have, and what plans you’ve already made to help market your book. A list of speaking engagements already booked is great; radio or television programs you’re scheduled to appear on or have in the past; a newsletter you’re already sending out regularly; a blog that gets an impressive number of daily hits. This is NOT the place to say that your book would be terrific on Oprah, unless you have documented proof that Oprah’s people have already contacted you.

The competition: What other books are in print on the same subject? How is your book different and better? (There is always competition.) First, give a general discussion of the state of the marketplace as regards books of this topic. Then do a list of 4 to 8 books that could be considered most comparable to yours. List the title, author, year of publication. (Only books in the last five years are relevant, unless they’re still bestsellers.) Then write a couple of sentences explaining what that book is about, and how yours is different, better, and/or a good complement to it.

Details: How many words will your book be? (Words, not pages.) How long after the signing of a contract will it take you to complete the book? (This is usually 2 to 6 months.)

Chapter outline: This is where it becomes crucial that your book is well organized and completely thought-through. You will need chapter titles, and a couple of sentences capturing each chapter’s theme.

Sample chapters: This is usually the Introduction, plus one or two chapters. Make sure they’re polished and perfect!

Those are the basics, but I highly recommend you get a good book on proposals before writing yours. Mary DeMuth has a 50-page book proposal tutorial available for $10. Click here to go to her website and order it. (Mary writes incredible book proposals and she knows what she’s talking about.)

What about fiction?

If you’ve written a novel, you still need a book proposal but it will look slightly different. The most important thing with fiction is the writing itself, so your sample chapters must truly shine to capture an agent or editor’s attention.

However, just like with non-fiction, the author’s involvement in marketing is of utmost importance. So, much of your proposal will look similar to a non-fiction proposal because it’s about YOU and how you can help market your own book.

In a fiction proposal, you’ll be most successful at capturing attention if your first page includes a killer “hook” and a concise synopsis that doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story, but intrigues the reader enough that they feel they MUST read your book.

Jeff Gerke has a great post on writing a fiction proposal here.

Here’s a rundown of a great fiction proposal:

Title page: Title, authors’ names, phone numbers, email addresses.

One sentence hook: This is more of a tagline, one sentence that creates interest in the book.

Brief overview: This should read similar to back-cover copy. It should be exciting and make someone want to read your book. It tells the publisher in a succinct form what the book is about. Two to four paragraphs.

The market: Whom do you see as the audience for the book? Why would somebody buy this book? How is this audience reached? Do you have any special relationships to the market? What books and magazines does this audience already read? What radio and TV programs do they tune into? Demonstrate an understanding of exactly who will buy your book and why.

About the authors: Half page to a full page on yourself. Why are you qualified to write this book? List any previously published books or articles along with sales figures. Any awards or special degrees or certificates in creative writing? Anything that helps establish you as a novelist goes in this section.

Author marketing: This is where you’ll talk about your platform. How are YOU able to reach your target audience to market your book? This is NOT the place for expressing your “willingness” to participate in marketing, or your “great ideas” for marketing. This is the place to tell what you’ve already done, what contacts you already have, and what plans you’ve already made to help market your book. A list of speaking engagements already booked is great; radio or television programs you’re scheduled to appear on or have in the past; a newsletter you’re already sending out regularly; a blog that gets an impressive number of daily hits. This is NOT the place to say that your book would be terrific on Oprah, unless you have documented proof that Oprah’s people have already contacted you.

Comparable books: Instead of a “competition” section, you’ll want to include four to five novels that you see as similar to yours in some way. It helps the editor develop a big-picture understanding of your book. It’s best not to include blockbuster bestsellers (The DaVinci Code, Left Behind) but do include well-known books with solid sales. Include title, author, release year, and a couple of sentences about the book and how yours is similar and would appeal to the same audience.

Details: How many words will your book be? (Words, not pages.) How many chapters? Have you included book club discussion questions? Is your manuscript complete? (Note: Unless you’re a multi-published novelist, you must have a completed novel before approaching agents and editors.)

Longer synopsis: In several pages (2 to 6 is a good guideline) describe the story. In this part, don’t worry about preserving the “surprise” factor. This is where you have to explain the story, start to finish.

Sample chapters: Include the first 40 to 50 pages of your manuscript (ending at a natural chapter break). Don’t include random chapters – you need the FIRST few chapters. Make sure they’re polished and perfect! THIS is what will determine whether you get a request for a full manuscript or not.

*Please note that you normally only send a full proposal if requested by an agent or editor based on your written query or a face-to-face meeting at a conference.”

[found on http://www.rachellegardner.com/how-to-write-a-book-proposal]

Want to Write a Sonnet?

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[found on livingapex.com; by Josh Rueff] 

“Less is not less but more, more is not more but is less – unless less becomes less by becoming more. That being said, this is the formula for a sonnet:

The Shakespearean Sonnet

3 Quatrains + a Couplet = Sonnet.

Quick definition:

A quatrain is a set of 4 lines.

A couplet is a set of 2 lines.

It’s almost that simple. The sonnet is composed of nothing more, however, there are two more rules to follow while composing the sonnet:

Iambic Pentameter and

Sonnet rhyming pattern.

Each line of the sonnet contains 5 sets of “iambs”.

The Iamb

Quick definition:

One unstressed syllable, one stressed syllable.

Don’t get hung up on strange words – an iamb is simple – it sounds like this: baBOOM.

And looks like this: the CLOCK, or com PARE.

Iambic Pentameter

Quick definition:

Iambic Pentameter is 5 sets of iambs.

Iambic Pentameter looks and sounds like this: baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM.

Example: When I / do COUNT / the CLOCK / that TELLS / the TIME

Sonnet rhyming pattern

Quick definition:

ABAB/CDCD/EFEF/GG.

Example:

First quatrain

Shall I compare thee to a Summer’s day? A
Thou art more lovely and more temperate: B
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, A
And Summer’s lease hath all too short a date: B

Second quatrain
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, C
And oft’ is his gold complexion dimm’d; D
And every fair from fair sometime declines, C
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d: D

Third quatrain
But thy eternal Summer shall not fade E
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; F
Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade, E
When in eternal lines to time thou growest: F

Couplet
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, G
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. G

So a sonnet consists of 3 quatrains and a couplet, following the sonnet rhyming pattern and iambic pentameter.”

[found on http://www.livingapex.com/how-to-write-a-sonnet-like-shakespeare]

Twain’s Rules

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[found on mamohanraj.com]

“(from Mark Twain’s scathing essay on the Literary Offenses of James Fenimore Cooper)

1. A tale shall accomplish something and arrive somewhere.

2. The episodes of a tale shall be necessary parts of the tale, and shall help develop it.

3. The personages in a tale shall be alive, except in the case of corpses, and that always the reader shall be able to tell the corpses from the others.

4. The personages in a tale, both dead and alive, shall exhibit a sufficient excuse for being there.

5. When the personages of a tale deal in conversation, the talk shall sound like human talk, and be talk such as human beings would be likely to talk in the given circumstances, and have a discoverable meaning, also a discoverable purpose, and a show of relevancy, and remain in the neighborhood of the subject in hand, and be interesting to the reader, and help out the tale, and stop when the people cannot think of anything more to say.

6. When the author describes the character of a personage in his tale, the conduct and conversation of that personage shall justify said description.

7. When a personage talks like an illustrated, gilt-edged, tree-calf, hand-tooled, seven-dollar Friendship’s Offering in the beginning of a paragraph, he shall not talk like a Negro minstrel at the end of it.

8. Crass stupidities shall not be played upon the reader by either the author or the people in the tale.

9. The personages of a tale shall confine themselves to possibilities and let miracles alone; or, if they venture a miracle, the author must so plausably set it forth as to make it look possible and reasonable.

10. The author shall make the reader feel a deep interest in the personages of his tale and their fate; and that he shall make the reader love the good people in the tale and hate the bad ones.

11. The characters in tale be so clearly defined that the reader can tell beforehand what each will do in a given emergency.

An author should

12. Say what he is proposing to say, not merely come near it.
13. Use the right word, not its second cousin.
14. Eschew surplusage.
15. Not omit necessary details.
16. Avoid slovenliness of form.
17. Use good grammar.
18. Employ a simple, straightforward style.”

[found on http://www.mamohanraj.com/Writing/twain.html]

11 Composition Principles

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[found on writingclasses.com]

“E. B. White holds the rare distinction of being admired both by adults, for such breathtaking essays as “Here is New York” and “Once More to the Lake,” and by children, for such wondrous stories as “Charlotte’s Web” and “Trumpet of the Swan.” White is also revered by writers for bringing us The Elements of Style, a classic on the art of writing good prose, in any form. White actually just tweaked and arranged publication of the book, which was originally a privately printed text by one of his professors, William Strunk Jr.

Though a slender book, it contains such priceless wisdom as these 11 Elementary Principles of Composition:

[From The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White]

    1. Choose a suitable design and stick to it.
    2. Make the paragraph the unit of composition.
    3. Use the active voice.
    4. Put statements in positive form.
    5. Use definite, specific, concrete language.
    6. Omit needless words.
    7. Avoid a succession of loose sentences.
    8. Express coordinate ideas in similar form.
    9. Keep related words together.
    10. In summaries, keep to one tense.
    11. Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end.”
[found on http://www.writingclasses.com/InformationPages/index.php/PageID/305]

5 Creative Flaws Exposing Lack of Storytelling Experience

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[found on storyfix.com; by Larry Brooks]

“There are a million ways to cripple a story.  Here are five of them.

 There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being inexperienced (we’ve all been there).  Unless it shows up in your story in a way that detracts from it.

Or kills it.

Pop quiz: which is the more unforgiving audience: agents, editors, or readers?

Used to be that the only answers that mattered were the first two, because you’d never get your work in front of the latter if your story was guilty of and of these five deal killers.  They were grounds for rejection.

Nowadays, though, you can skip the grouchy agents and rejection-happy acquisitions editors and go digitally direct to the marketplace.  And if for a moment you think that this brave new world lowers the craft bar, that digital readers won’t care about the small stuff in the same way that agents and editors do, think again.

This is actually good news. 

Because when you finally conquer these five demons, you’ll stand out as a professional storyteller worthy of publication – even if you’re self-publishing – amidst a sea of competition that, quite frankly, isn’t.Without word-of-mouth buzz, your digital story is going nowhere beyond your circle of loyal family and friends.  And with these five flaws crippling your pages, a wider readership isn’t likely.

Not just because of the technical impropriety of it.  But because the writer who doesn’t recognize the folly of these things isn’t likely to spin a story that competes with those of writers who do.

Here they are, in no particular order of toxicity.

1. Proper Names Within Dialogue

Which equates to bad dialogue.

Listen closely to conversations in your life.  Count the number of times somebody uses your name in those audible exchanges.  Better yet, how often you use the name of the person you are talking to, either face to face or on the phone.

It’ll be a low number.   It is likely to be zero.

And yet, some writers seem to think this sounds cool when written into dialogue.  To wit:

Hey, Bob, good to see you.

You too, Joe.  Been well?

Bob, you have no idea.

Well Joe, times are tough.

Tell me about it, Bob.  I hear you, man.

Only a bit of an exaggeration here.  I see this all the time in the manuscripts I’m hired to critique and coach.  If it only happened once it might fly under the radar – because it does happen, once in a blue moon, in real life, and it sounds odd then, too – but usually when it appears it pops up throughout the entire manuscript like a skin rash.

Rule of thumb: never do this in your dialogue.  Never.

With experience comes an ear for dialogue.  But you can shorten that learning curve dramatically by simply axing out the use of proper names.

Unless someone is calling on the phone and opens with, “Is Mary there?”, don’t make this mistake.

2. Chit-Chat

William Goldman, the senior statesman of screenwriting who is also an accomplished novelist, advises us to begin our scenes at the last possible moment.

This is huge.  Some of the best advice ever, even for novelists.  Because implicit within its genius is the assumption – the prerequisite – that the writer completely knows the mission of each and every scene.

Read that again, it can change your entire storytelling experience.

Skip the pleasantries when two people meet.  Avoid the weather talk.  The how-have-you-beens.  Instead, opt for something like this:

After a few minutes of catching up Laura popped the question she’d come for.

“Are you having an affair with my husband?” she asked.

The first of those two lines can replace many paragraphs of useless chit-chat.  Even when said chit-chat demonstrates characterization, without expositional value it’s a useless distraction that eats away at pace.  And pace is always important.

Characterization when it counts trumps characterization when it doesn’t, every time.

I’ve read pages upon pages of chit-chat before a scene finally kicks in.  I’ve seen entire scenes full of it without the scene ever arriving at a point. And I have to remind myself that I’m getting paid to read it.

But never in the story of an accomplished pro.

It’s a judgment call, and with experience comes an evolved sense of pace and reader tolerance.

3. Too Much Description of Food

This is more common than you can imagine among newer writers.  Meals are described with exquisite detail.  Course after course, drenched with spicy, worshipful adjectives.

Delicious. Steaming hot.  Slathered in a sweet sauce.

The only justification for doing this is when the meal is laced with arsenic.  Because – and I’m serious about that analogy – because in such a case it would relate to the story.

If it doesn’t relate, skip it.

Nobody cares what your hero has for breakfast.  It’s not important to know the menu of a meal prepared with love.

Ever.  Unless, like I said, the meal matters.  Which it hardly ever does.

4. Overwritten Sequential Time Fillers

Your hero has had a tough day at work.  She comes home to shower and have a glass of wine before driving to the rendezvous point for her blind date that evening, which she’d been unable to stop thinking about all day.

As a writer, you now face a decision: cut to the date, or take us home with her for the shower and the wine and some lengthy pondering of her lonely life.  Or better yet, cut straight to the date and cover any prior ground (her bad day at work, the shower and wine) with a short introductory sentence.

Inexperienced writers tend to take us home with her.  Have us take a shower with her and ooh and ahh about how good the hot water feels.  About the taste of the wine, a hint of cherry, a nice finish.

The more experienced writer cuts straight to the date.

This pitfall is similar to the chit-chat and food and transitional red flags described elsewhere in this article.  The same standard applies: if it doesn’t deliver salient expositional information, if it doesn’tmatter, if it just moves the character forward in time (as if the writer is obliged to show us each and every moment and hour of the hero’s day, which isn’t true), then skip it.

Know what matters, what counts, and why.  Then, like a chess piece, move the scenes from one square to the next.  Every time you hit the pause button to take a shower or reflect on the drive home, you’re killing your story’s pacing.

Mission-driven scene writing is the Holy Grail of long form storytelling. It is the context for almost every problem and solution you’ll face.

5. Invisible Scene Transitions

Less is more.  It really is.  Unless we’re talking foreplay, but that’s another blog.

This principle leads us to the best transitional device known to the modern storyteller.  The very best way to get from one scene to the next is… to do nothing.

Literally.

Two words: white space.

Just end a scene cleanly, then skip a couple of lines and jump into the next scene.  Which happens when either time or place or point of view changes.

Read that again, too.  It’s basic and critical.

If you’re jumping to a new chapter this takes care of itself.  But chapters are legitimately able to house an untold number of scenes, and if you want to make sure the reader is as aware of the transitions with them as you are, skip a line or two when time or place of POV changes.

Otherwise, your transition might look like this:

       The meeting dragged on for several hours, complete with boring Powerpoint presentations and the lengthy pontifications of the CEO, who had never been on a sales call in her life.  Tomorrow would be no exception.                                                                                                                                                              The sales call began at noon, with a rubber chicken catered lunch already on the table.  The client posse arrived together, as if they’d marshaled in the parking lot to finalize strategy and send off any last minute texts.

It’s not wrong, per se, it’s just that the transition from scene to scene (note, it’s now tomorrow, a different time and place) is not as clear and efficient as it could be.  A reader who skims is likely to miss it.

Now look at it this way.  A simple thing, with an empowering result:

         The meeting went on for several hours, complete with boring Powerpoint presentations and the lengthy pontifications of the CEO, who had never been on a sales call in her life. Tomorrow would be no exception.

         The sales call began at noon, with a rubber chicken catered lunch already on the table.  The client posse arrived together, as if they’d marshaled in the parking lot to finalize strategy and send off any last minute texts.

Such simplicity.  The power of the skipped line of white space is amazing.

These mid-chapter scenes – especially necessary transitional ones – can be as short as you want.  One paragraph exposition that gets us from one point to the next are wonderful, especially if they replace two-page space fillers that seek to accomplish the exact same thing.  The need to pad these scenes is the paradigm of the beginner… which, after being duly warned, you no longer are.

Such is the case with all five of these rookie mistakes.  Your radar for them is the most important part of your review and edit process.

And if you can’t wrap your head around it, I’m betting your significant manuscript-reader other can.  Because they’re readers, and readers are the victims when these things hit the page.”

[found on http://storyfix.com/5-creative-flaws-that-will-expose-your-lack-of-storytelling-experience]

100 Expressive Interjections

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[found on dailywritingtips.com by Mark Nichol]

“They often seem disreputable, like sullen idlers loitering in a public thoroughfare, but they actually do a lot of hard work and are usually persnickety about the tasks to which they are put. They are interjections — one class of them, anyway: those lacking etymological origins but packed with meaning.

But how do you know how to distinguish similar ones — or spell them, for that matter? Here’s an incomplete inventory of interjections (not including variations of actual words such as yeah for yes or onomatopoeic echoes of externally produced sounds like boom):

Ack communicates disgust or dismissal.

Ah can denote positive emotions like relief or delight (generally, pronounced with a long a).

Aha signals triumph or surprise, or perhaps derision.

Ahem is employed to gain attention.

Argh, often drawn out with additional h’s, is all about frustration.

Aw can be dismissive or indicative of disappointment, or, when drawn out, expressive of sympathy or adoration.

Aye denotes agreement.

Bah is dismissive.

Blah communicates boredom or disappointment.

Blech (or bleah or bleh) implies nausea.

Boo is an exclamation to provoke fright.

Boo-hoo is imitative of crying and is derisive.

Boo-ya (with several spelling variants) is a cry of triumph.

Bwah-hah-hah (variously spelled, including mwah-hah-hah) facetiously mimics the stereotypical archvillain’s triumphant laugh.

D’oh is the spelling for the muttering accompanying Homer Simpson’s trademark head-slapping self-abuse.

Duh derides someone who seems dense.

Eek indicates an unpleasant surprise.

Eh, with a question mark, is a request for repetition or confirmation of what was just said; without, it is dismissive.

Er (sometimes erm) plays for time.

Ew denotes disgust, intensified by the addition of one or more e’s and/or w’s.

Feh (and its cousin meh) is an indication of feeling underwhelmed or disappointed.

Gak is an expression of disgust or distaste.

Ha expresses joy or surprise, or perhaps triumph.

Ha-ha (with possible redoubling) communicates laughter or derision.

Hamana-hamana, variously spelled, and duplicated as needed, implies speechless embarrassment.

Hardy-har-har, or har-har repeated as needed, communicates mock amusement.

Hee-hee is a mischievous laugh, while its variants heh and heh-heh (and so on) can have a more derisive connotation.

Hey can express surprise or exultation, or can be used to request repetition or call for attention.

Hist signals the desire for silence.

Hm, extended as needed, suggests curiosity, confusion, consternation, or skepticism.

Hmph (also hrmph or humph) indicates displeasure or indignation.

Ho-ho is expressive of mirth, or (along with its variant oh-ho) can indicate triumph of discovery.

Ho-hum signals indifference or boredom.

Hubba-hubba is the vocal equivalent of a leer.

Huh (or hunh) is a sign of disbelief, confusion, or surprise, or, with a question mark, is a request for repetition.

Hup, from the sound-off a military cadence chant, signals beginning an exerting task.

Hurrah (also hoorah, hooray, and hurray, and even huzzah) is an exclamation of triumph or happiness.

Ick signals disgust.

Lah-de-dah denotes nonchalance or dismissal, or derision about pretension.

Mm-hmm, variously spelled, is an affirmative or corroborating response.

Mmm, extended as needed, conveys palatable or palpable pleasure.

Mwah is suggestive of a kiss, often implying unctuous or exaggerated affection.

Neener-neener, often uttered in a series of three repetitions, is a taunt.

Now (often repeated “Now, now”) is uttered as an admonition.

Oh is among the most versatile of interjections. Use it to indicate comprehension or acknowledgment (or, with a question mark, a request for verification), to preface direct address (“Oh, sir!”), as a sign of approximation or example (“Oh, about three days”), or to express emotion or serves as a response to a pain or pleasure. (Ooh is a variant useful for the last two purposes.)

Oh-oh (or alternatives in which oh is followed by various words) is a warning response to something that will have negative repercussions.

Olé, with an accent mark over the e, is borrowed from Spanish and is a vocal flourish to celebrate a deft or adroit maneuver.

Ooh, with o’s repeated as needed, conveys interest or admiration, or, alternatively, disdain.

Ooh-la-la is a response to an attempt to impress or gently mocks pretension or finery.

Oops (and the jocular diminutive variation oopsie or oopsy and the variant whoops) calls attention to an error or fault.

Ouch (or ow, extended as needed) signals pain or is a response to a harsh word or action.

Oy, part of Yiddish expressions such as oy gevalt (equivalent to “Uh-oh”), is a lament of frustration, concern, or self-pity.

Pff, extended as needed, expresses disappointment, disdain, or annoyance.

Pfft, or phfft, communicates abrupt ending or departure or is a sardonic dismissal akin to pff.

Phew, or pew, communicates disgust, fatigue, or relief. (Phooey, also spelled pfui, is a signal for disgust, too, and can denote dismissal as well. PU and P.U. are also variants.)

Poof is imitative of a sudden disappearance, as if by magic.

Pooh is a contemptuous exclamation.

Pshaw denotes disbelief, disapproval, or irritation or, alternatively, communicates facetious self-consciousness.

Psst calls for quiet.

Rah, perhaps repeated, signals triumph.

Shh (extended as necessary) is an imperative for silence.

Sis boom bah is an outdated encouraging cry, most likely to be used mockingly now.

Tchah communicates annoyance.

Tsk-tsk and its even snootier variant tut-tut are condemnations or scoldings; the related sound tch is the teeth-and-tongue click of disapproval.

Ugh is an exclamation of disgust.

Uh is an expression of skepticism or a delaying tactic.

Uh-huh indicates affirmation or agreement.

Uh-oh signals concern or dismay.

Uh-uh is the sound of negation or refusal.

Um is a placeholder for a pause but also denotes skepticism.

Va-va-voom is an old-fashioned exclamation denoting admiration of physical attractiveness.

Whee is an exclamation of excitement or delight.

Whew is a variant of phew but can also express amazement.

Whoa is a call to halt or an exclamation of surprise or relief.

Whoop-de-doo and its many variants convey mocking reaction to something meant to impress.

Woo and woo-hoo (and variations like yahoo, yee-haw, and yippee) indicate excitement. (Woot, also spelled w00t among an online in-crowd, is a probably ephemeral variant.)

Wow expresses surprise.

Yay is a congratulatory exclamation. (Not to be confused with yeah, a variant of yes.)

Yikes is an expression of fear or concern, often used facetiously.

Yo-ho-ho is the traditional pirates’ refrain.

Yoo-hoo attracts attention.

Yow, or yowza, is an exclamation of surprise or conveys being impressed.

Yuck (also spelled yech or yecch) signals disgust. (Not to be confused with yuk, a laugh.)

Yum, or yummy, is a response to the taste of something delicious and, by extension, the sight of an attractive person.

Zoinks is an expression of surprise or amazement popularized by the cartoon character Shaggy, of Scooby Doo fame.

Zowie, often in combination following wowie, a variant of wow, expresses admiration or astonishment.”

[found on http://www.dailywritingtips.com/100-mostly-small-but-expressive-interjections]

7 Habits of Highly Successful Authors

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[found on archetypewriting.com by Suzanne Harrison]

“The more I read how the successful authors do it, the more I realize that, like successful people in all walks of life, they all do things in common that contribute enormously to their success. So how can we learn from successful authors to ensure our own success in 2008 and beyond?

We can start by adopting what I call “The 7 Habits of Highly Successful Authors”. Adopt these 7 habits and you just may find that 2008 is the year you break through your own writing barriers!

1. Write about something you care about.

Whether you are writing fiction or non fiction, it is imperative you write about something you care about. The successful authors have some emotional connection to their content or story. If you are writing fiction, then write from a place of emotional familiarity. Your genuine experience will come through in your writing and your readers will connect with that. If you are writing a non fiction piece, choose a topic you are passionate or enthusiastic about. After all, if you are going to invest your precious time in what you are writing, you owe it to yourself to write with passion, feeling and enthusiasm.

2. Take risks

Don’t be afraid to put your head, or your hands, on the chopping block when you write. In the world of fiction, you will have no doubt heard about creating characters that are “larger than life”. That doesn’t mean they are giants, it means they go above and beyond and take risks and make decisions that we would not have the courage to take in our own lives. After all, it’s not about what we would do when we are tethered by the restrictions of polite behavior, it’s what we would do in our wildest imaginations that make our readers sit up and take notice.

For the non fiction writer, it’s time for you to take a stand. Take a view and stick with it, presenting your case with conviction and vigor. No one listens to someone who writes meekly, or with a wishy washy hand. Stick your neck out, and don’t be afraid to get it chopped off. All the greatest journalists are the ones who are not afraid to speak their minds. Get into that habit and you’re well on your way to being that next great journalist.

3. Plan

This is definitely the most ignored but equally the most important phase of the writing process. Planning is essential to the success of any undertaking and writing is no different. J.K. Rowling spent 5 years planning the entire Harry Potter series before she put pen to paper on a single word that appeared in the books. If you are writing a short story, novel or screenplay, planning the story before you begin writing is as essential to your success as ink in your pen or power to your laptop. There are some writers who claim to just start with an image or a sentence and then the whole thing just unfolds before them, but the writers who can do this with any degree of success are few and far between. Take the time to plan out your story, at the very least know where your beginning, middle and end are. The more planning you do, the more enjoyable the writing process and the less rewriting and editing you will have to do. The same goes for non fiction pieces, where it’s always advisable to have an outline in place before you write your article or book.

4. Write every day

Joyce Carol Oates said that she would write, even when her soul felt as thin as a playing card, because somehow the act of writing would set it aright. There are going to be times when you just “don’t feel like it”, but like any other job or activity that is important to you, you must still, somehow, sit down every day and write. It has been said that it is by sitting down every day to write that one becomes a writer. Stephen King writes every day, including Christmas Day. Whether you are working on a book, story, article or nothing, still sit down and write something every single day. Even if you only write one page every day, that’s 365 pages in a year and that’s a whole book, isn’t it? When you are a writer, you cannot not write, and writing is like breathing. You have an urge to put things down in print, so to keep that fresh and alive, you need to turn that tap on every day. It’s more than practice. It’s life.

5. Be prepared to work hard

I read somewhere once that John Grisham worked for 4 hours per day and made $20 million per year. Whether that is true or not (about the hours worked or the money he makes) doesn’t matter. It is far more common to hear tales today of the world’s most popular commercial authors working their proverbial butts off to keep up with deadlines, promotional commitments and the ins and outs of their everyday lives. Janet Evanovich gets up and writes every morning at 5am so she can get a full day’s writing in before she has to answer mail, emails and deal with her other affairs of business, Jodi Picoult has a wonderful stay-at-home husband who allows her the luxury of writing through school pick ups and travelling for long periods to do research for her novels. J.K. Rowling also said she (misguidedly) thought that life as an author would be a Jane Austen-type of affair, sitting in a room overlooking a field and writing in anonymity. Of course her life is a whirlwind of book launches, movie premieres, media commitments, school commitments, and of course she has a family with three children. And while we all no doubt wish we had her “problems” it is very obvious that in the early part of the 21st century, the life of an author, successful or not, is a hard-working life. We are either working hard to get noticed, working hard to stay noticed, or working hard to avoid being noticed. Any way you look at it, if you have an aversion to hard work, you need to look elsewhere. Successful authors work hard. Period.

6. Persistence

It is said that persistence outstrips all other virtues. I have a card propped up on my desk that says, “Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go”. Almost every successful author I have studied has said that their success is due, at least in some part, to pure persistence and determination. If your manuscript or article is rejected, rewrite it and submit it again. Or submit it to someone else. The first Harry Potter novel was rejected by every major publishing house before Bloomsbury picked it up for a song. Even so called “overnight successes” have a story behind them about how many times they were rejected, or how many novels or articles they’ve written that have no value other than as fire kindling. The authors that succeed are the ones who don’t stop until they do. It’s that simple. Never give up. Winners never quit, and quitters never win.

7. Let it go

And finally when you have written your article, book or screenplay and have submitted it for publication or approval, let it go. If you’ve done the best you can with it, let it go and trust that it will make its way to where it needs to be. And start something else straight away. Regardless of whether what you have submitted is accepted or rejected, you are a writer and a writer writes. Once you finish one manuscript start immediately on another. If the one you’ve sent is picked up, they’ll be happy that you’ve got something new already, and if not you’re well on your way to finishing your next manuscript.”

[found on http://www.archetypewriting.com/articles/writing/7habits.htm]

Avoid Plagiarism…Like A Plague

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Although this article was written specifically for students, the professional world can gain great insights from the tools and tips suggested.

[found on writing.mit.edu]

“The best way to avoid plagiarism is to understand what it is. Then take steps to avoid committing either accidental or intentional plagiarism. Before we define plagiarism, however, there are three other terms that we need to define—quotation, paraphrase, andsummary.

Quotation: A quotation must use the exact words of the source. If the quotation is relatively short (usually fewer than 3 lines or 40 words), those words must be enclosed in quotation marks. For instance,

    • As Steven Strang points out, “Contrary to some popular notions, most writers do not have full-blown ideas popping out of their heads like Athena” (48).
    • Notice that the quotation is introduced (“As Steven Strang points out”), that the exact words are enclosed in quotation marks, and that the page number is given (using, in this case, the MLA style).
    • At the end of the paper, there would be a bibliographical entry that would give the author, the title of the source, the publisher, date of publication, etc.)

Longer quotations are given in block quotations (see the quotations from Ed White and john Edlund later on in this entry).

Paraphrase: To paraphrase is to put the ideas in a passage into our own words, usually following the order in which the ideas were presented in the original. All major ideas are included. Usually a paraphrase is a bit shorter than the original, but when terms or concepts have to be defined, a paraphrase might actually be longer. Any paraphrase requires the same kind of citation as an exact quotation.

There are only three good reasons for paraphrasing:

    1. Translating technical material into simpler language for a lay audience
    2. Paraphrasing because a professor has explicitly requested that you do so
    3. “Translating” a poem into simpler language so that we can understand where the ambiguities lie (and this type of paraphrase rarely makes it into our papers)

Summary: A summary puts the major idea(s) of a passage into our own words and significantly shortens it. Once again, you must attribute the ideas to the original source.

What is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is the use of someone else’s ideas or language without acknowledging that they were not created by you. This definition applies to ideas, words and unusual structures regardless of where you find them—in a book, on a webpage, in an email. Whenever you include another person’s information or wording in a document, you must acknowledge the source and include a citation that will tell your readers where you obtained it—otherwise you are guilty of plagiarism.

Plagiarism is sometimes seen as intellectual theft–plagiarism.

Accidental Plagiarism

 Accidental plagiarism usually occurs because we do not understand the cultural conventions of academic writing and citation. In most western countries, and certainly in the United States, there is a very real sense that writers own their ideas and the words they use to express those ideas. As John R. Edlund explains in “What Is ‘Plagiarism’ and Why Do People Do It?”:

There are two important factors that must be understood in order to understand American concepts of plagiarism. First, in the English-speaking world, people believe that ideas and written expressions of ideas can be owned. When an author writes down a particular set of words and phrases expressing a specific idea, this author in effect owns those words and that idea. Therefore to use these words without giving the author credit is to steal them. This is very different, for example, from the Chinese idea that words and ideas belong to the culture and the society and should be shared by all individuals (Myers 11). Second, Americans believe that writing is a visible, concrete demonstration of a writer’s knowledge, insight, and academic skill. Thus, to represent another person’s writing as your own is to misrepresent your own accomplishments. This is a type of fraud or deception.  [Italics and boldface added] http://www.calstatela.edu/centers/write_cn/plagiarism.htm (14 Jan. 2004).

Cultural Confusion: In other words, there are many cultural differences in the way people use the ideas and language of others. In the United States, plagiarism is a serious offense. So, in spite of what your own home culture says and feels about the use of others’ ideas, the old advice—“when in Rome, do as the Romans do”—applies to the use of sources—“when in the United States (and several other western countries), cite sources.”

And if you are in doubt, always ask your professor, your TAS, or the lecturers in the Writing and Communication Center for guidance.

Difficult Concepts: In addition to cultural confusion, at times we slide into plagiarism when we are dealing with concepts that we simply do not understand, and it seems that the best way to convey those ideas to our readers is simply to use the words of the original author. If we quote those words and cite the source, we have taken a significant step in avoiding plagiarism. But, unless we actively engage with the ideas themselves (e.g., paraphrasing them in our own words after the quotation, summarizing them, or, better still, arguing or supporting them with our own ideas and evidence), we have not successfully mastered those ideas (but at least we have not committed plagiarism).

Botched Paraphrasing:  Paraphrasing is the process of turning a source passage into our own words. It is another way that we can unintentionally slip into plagiarism because we end up using large chunks of phrasing from the original or using the ideas without proper citation.

In any event, even if the plagiarism is unintentional, the consequences can still be very painful.

Consequences of Plagiarizing

Plagiarism in the academic world can lead to everything from failure for the course to expulsion from the college or university.

Plagiarism in the professional world can lead to, at the very least, profound embarrassment and loss of reputation and, often, to loss of employment. Famous cases of plagiarism include the historian Stephen Ambrose (accusations about six of his books have been made, most famously about The Wild Blue) and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin (who ended up asking the publisher to destroy all unsold copies of The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys). Such plagiarism is often accidental, but its consequences are the same as for intentional plagiarism.

Avoid Plagiarizing by Citing Sources

There are five basic rules regarding the use of information in professional and in academic writing:

      1. If you use the language of your source, you must quote it exactly, enclose it in quotation marks, and cite the source.
      2. If you use ideas or information that are not common knowledge, you must cite the source.
      3. If you didn’t invent it, cite the source.
      4. Unless your professor explicitly tells you to paraphrase, don’t paraphrase.
      5. When in doubt, cite the source. Doing so can only enhance your readers sense of your honesty.

Reasons to Avoid Intentional Plagiarism

 There are numerous reasons why people plagiarize (e.g., not having enough time to think about and write the paper, wanting to get a better grade, feeling that the course is irrelevant to their career plans and hence not worth their time or effort, insecurity about their own writing ability, struggles with a second language).

But there are better reasons for not plagiarizing.

      1. If you do have writing problems, identifying them early will give you plenty of opportunity to improve your skills (e.g., working closely with the lecturers in the Writing and Communication Center).
      2. You will engage with the ideas and thus deepen your own critical thinking and writing skills.
      3. You will add authority to what you write by citing sources.
      4. You will learn to question all ideas. Simply using the ideas of others prevents us from questioning or judging ideas, and this approach can lead to a willingness to accept ideas without question (a profoundly dangerous thing to do in any profession or society).
      5. Without struggling to understand, interpret, and argue with ideas, your own ideas never develop fully, and you will tend to see issues superficially (again, a profoundly dangerous thing in any profession and in any society).
      6. You will learn to voice your own ideas.
      7. You will avoid the penalties of plagiarism if you get caught.

Advantages to Citing Sources

    1. You allow your readers to locate the sources of your information in case they want to pursue it in their own research. After all, in the academic and professional worlds, your research becomes part of the ongoing intellectual conversation about ideas. We all stand on the shoulders of earlier researchers, and we all hope that others will stand upon our shoulders in the future.
      1. An obvious illustration of this standing-on-the-shoulders-of-others is found in technical and scientific writing. Procedures and methods sections of technical and scientific articles and laboratory reports provide readers with information sufficient to replicate both the method and data described in the document. That information is provided not only so that our results can be verified but also so that others might refine our methods or build upon them to make even more discoveries.
      2. For documents in any field, quotations provide evidence for our assertions and ideas for us to argue against. Citations show our willingness to have our interpretations of those other works verified.
      3. For longer papers in other fields, literature reviews provide the intellectual context for understanding our contribution to that ongoing conversation about ideas.
    2. Your ethos (your credibility) is profoundly enhanced when you cite your sources. Doing so proves that you are well informed about the topic and that your work can be trusted to be accurate. Doing so also proves that you are honest.
    3. As pointed out by scholar Ed White,

“Every writer has his or her own intellectual identity, though most ideas inevitably come from outside sources. A responsible use of sources recognizes that identity and distinguishes clearly between what you think and what the sources think. It is no sin to accept another person’s idea…. But you must interpose yourself between the sources and your writing, thus making other peoples’ ideas your own through a process of critical scrutiny.”—Ed White and Lynn Bloom (qtd. in an email from Ed White, citing the book he and Bloom edited, Inquiry, Prentice Hall, 1993, p. 445).

Types of Plagiarism

    1. Turning in someone else’s work as your own—e.g., a friend’s paper, a paper from a fraternity collection, a paper copied from the Web, or a paper purchased from one of those online paper mills.
      1. It’s crucial to remember that having permission to use something or having purchased something does not make it your creation.
      2. For instance, I own my car. I bought it and it is now fully paid for. But I would be lying if I said I made my car. The same is true for a paper purchased or borrowed from someone.
    2. Creating the patch-quilt or “pastiche” paper—cobbling together paragraphs and ideas taken from different sources.
      1. Although “research” was required to find the paragraphs and ideas, our active engagement with those ideas is missing
      2. If sources are cited, then what we have is “research notes” rather than our own paper.
      3. If the sources are not cited, then plagiarism and fraud are in the writer’s claim that the words, phrasings, and ideas are his/her own.
      4. Ed White’s quotation above explains the difference between a research paper and a patch-quilt paper (although he does not use those terms).”
[found on http://writing.mit.edu/wcc/avoidingplagiarism]