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  You’re going to spend about a third of your life at work, so you’re probably going to be miserable if you don’t find a job you really enjoy. How can you find a job where you have meaningful work, enjoy enriching relationships, and your contributions are rewarded? Follow these 9 steps to find the perfect job and career opportunities for you. 1. Be a Dream Employee It all starts with understanding your interests, passions, strengths, and weaknesses. The better you know yourself the easier it’ll be for you to find a job you truly love. That’s why the first step to finding (and keeping) your dream job is to make sure you’re the dream employee for the job. A good analogy for this is a romantic relationship. To find your ideal life partner, you must become the person who would be the best fit for that partner. If you want someone who is athletic, funny, and hardworking, you should make sure you’re athletic, funny, and hardworking. Unfortunately, many people overlook this crucial f

  If you work for 40 years, you’ll spend over 10,000 days of your life at work. Since this is such a large part of your life, you might as well do your best while you’re there. By striving to become the best employee you can be, you’ll earn many rewards, including: Raises and promotions that will enable you to have a better lifestyle and support your family A more stable career that will reduce your chances of being unemployed Better work relationships—your bosses and coworkers will enjoy working with you Better self-esteem because you’re contributing to your work and the world in a meaningful way So if you’re ready to become a better employee and improve your life, start with these seven simple steps. 1. Show Up Ready to Win 80% of success, as they say, is showing up. That means showing up to work on time every day, ready to get stuff done. But it’s also about  how you show up. Successful employees show up awake and well-rested — not hungover. They schedule their daily

  We all have habits, things we do repeatedly and automatically, usually without thinking. We buy the same clothes in the same colors. We order the same dish at a restaurant. We watch the same TV programs. Writers have habits too. Dedicating time to write each day is a good habit. Reading great works of literature is a good habit. But unthinking overuse of certain words is a bad habit. This lack of creativity often shows up as repetitive “dialogue tags” (verbs that indicate who is speaking)—usually the word “said.” “A reader’s emotions can be sparked with few words. That’s the power of dialogue.” —Sol Stein, author, editor, and publisher Dialogue Attribution Here are some examples of the most common way to attribute dialogue to a certain character using he said or she said. “I told you: I don’t want to go,” she said. “It’s not a choice. We have to go,” he said. “I don’t care. I’m not going,” she said. “But it’s my mother’s birthday!” he said. How to Avoid Repeating He Sai

If you’re not sure you know the difference between “it’s” and “its” you have plenty of company. After all, they’re nearly identical and sound exactly the same—just like “your” and “you’re,” two other problematic homophones. How can anyone remember which is which? Read on, and we’ll clear up the mystery. Its The word “its” is a possessive third-person-singular pronoun like “his” and “hers.” We use these kinds of pronouns to show ownership. His and hers refer to people: I found his shoes in the living room. She was overjoyed to learn that the dog was hers. Its refers to inanimate or impersonal objects: The radio station has lost its license. You can tell if food is fresh by its smell. Notice that possessive nouns need an apostrophe. Possessive pronouns do not. Those shoes are Sarah’s. Those shoes are hers. The cake is Bob’s. The cake is his. It’s It’s always means “it is” or “it has.” “It’s” is a contraction of “it,” a third-person singular pronoun, and a verb: “i

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  Placing commas correctly in sentences is tricky for most writers, as we don’t want our sentences to be very long with no pauses for our readers to take. But when we learn when and where to place commas, especially when using commas with conjunctions like but , and , because , so , if , and although , it makes our writing a bit easier. When Do You Place a Comma Before But? We place a comma before but when we are connecting two independent clauses. For example: The dog is very old, but he’s still very active. What are independent clauses? Let’s take a look at the words that appear before and after the word but. We’ll come up with two different sentences: “The dog is very old” and “he’s still very active”. If these words or phrases can stand on their own as sentences and do not lose meaning, then they are independent clauses. All independent clauses have a noun (subject) and a verb (action), although sometimes the subject can be implied, like in the sentence “Run!” The subj

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The English language contains more than 500,000 words, many of them borrowed from other languages. Its closest competitor in the language sweepstakes is German, with just under 200,000 words. Because of these verbal riches, English is more semantically complex than any other language. One indication of this complexity are homophones:  words that have the same or similar pronunciations, but different meanings and functions. Here are some examples: accept, except bare, bear hear, here meat, meet, mete raise, raze right, rite, write their, there, they’re to, too, two Affect vs. Effect Affect and effect are a particularly tricky pair of homonyms, since each can function as a noun and a verb. The definitions listed below are those most frequently used, but if you consult a dictionary you’ll see that there are others, as well. Both of these words came from the Latin word  facere,  which means “to do” or “to make.” The words “effective” and “feckless” share the same root. Let

  Writers have used shortcuts and abbreviations for centuries. That’s not surprising, especially when you consider the manual effort involved in putting stylus, quill, brush, or pen to tablet, papyrus, vellum, silk, or paper. Several Latin abbreviations have remained in use over the centuries. Unlike et al. and etc., which can be part of everyday prose, i.e. and e.g. are most often used today in scholarly or formal writing. i.e. i.e.  is an abbreviation of the Latin id est (“it is” — often translated as “that is”). It restates, clarifies, or defines the preceding term. Murphy is a particularly adorable member of the species Canis familiaris (i.e., a dog). Only dogs are members of this species. Although he considered himself “vertically challenged” (i.e., short), Tim earned a spot on the school’s prestigious basketball team. “Vertically challenged” means “short.” The coroner found the poison he suspected (i.e., arsenic) in the autopsy results. The coroner suspected one poi

  What is the Oxford comma? The Oxford comma, also known as the serial comma, is the final comma you write when listing three or more items in a row. You can and should use an Oxford comma with any list of at least three nouns, verbs, or phrases. For example: I ate scrambled eggs, french toast , and milk. These are my sisters Anna, Jane , and Mary. She has a doll, a ball , and a kite. Not Using the Oxford Comma Some writing styles such as the AP style —which newspaper reporters often use—does not require the Oxford comma. Let’s take a look at how the sentences above will look written in AP style: I ate scrambled eggs, french toast and apple juice. These are my sisters, Anna, Jane and Mary. She has a doll, a ball and a kite.  Why Use Oxford Commas Unless you are writing for a newspaper or working on an essay for class, using the Oxford comma is entirely up to you. However, removing it may create some confusion. Let’s look at this sentence again: I ate scrambled eg

  The meaning of the term “weasel words” has nothing to do with the tendency of weasels to crawl about unnoticed and insinuate themselves into the sentences of innocent politicians; it has to do with a rather picturesque analogy for telling lies. ~ John Waters,  Irish Times,  July 8, 1997   Weasels are bold and ferocious predators, with an insidious reputation for deception. Folklore says they have a propensity to suck the contents out of eggs and leave the empty shell intact. Yes, weasels can be vicious, but weasel words can be even worse. What Are Weasel Words? Weasel words are vague, misleading statements that give authors an escape route while allowing them to plead innocent to any intentional dishonesty. Weasel words can be used deceptively, but they can also just be confusing for readers. As a writer or speaker, your job is to communicate as clearly as possible, so that’s why you should never use weasel words—because they do not communicate your ideas or intentions clearl

  It’s every author’s age-old question: What is the proper word count my book? It’s also one of those questions for which there’s no right answer. If your material is well-written and captivating, readers are more likely to stick around for 600-plus pages. If the material is poorly written, however, they might move on after just 30 pages. Word Count for Fiction In general, word counts for novels range from 70,000 to 120,000 words, depending on the genre—and the author. J.K. Rowling’s first book in the Harry Potter series came in at 76,000 words, the high end of average for young adult fiction. Each subsequent book in the series exceeded that total, with  Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, weighing in at a whopping 257,000 words. That is well over the normal range for novels, but it didn’t stop Harry Potter fans from reading every book in the series. As best-selling author Jerry Jenkins notes , “Some things are more important than word counts.” Crime and Thriller Novels

As a writer, you know that titles are distinguished from surrounding text with italics and quotation marks. What you may not know, however, is when to use which one. Let’s clear up the mystery. Italics Titles of large, stand-alone works such as books, plays, newspapers, magazines, movies, and epic poems are italicized. Have you watched the movie Shutter Island ? Homeless Bird won a National Book Award in 2000. Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet is a classic tragedy. “It must be true,” she said. “I read it in the New York Times .” I read Dante’s three-part poem The Divine Comedy in my medieval literature class. Books or movies that are part of a series are also italicized; the series title appears in roman type, however. My favorite book series is A Song of Ice and Fire. I’ve read A Game of Thrones many times but have yet to enjoy A Storm of Swords . My favorite movie in the Lord of the Rings series is Return of the King. Quotation marks Shorter works such as poem

  If you’ve written a children’s book and want to get it published, you have a few options. You can self-publish your book , hire a publishing services company or hybrid publisher , or find a legitimate children’s book publisher. Children’s Book Publishers Here’s our list of 75 publishers that publish children’s book. Please note that some of these publishers accept unsolicited and unagented submissions, while others only accept submissions from literary agents. If you need a literary agent, you can also check out our list of children’s book literary agents. 1. Holiday House Website: www.holidayhouse.com Submission Guidelines: www.holidayhouse.com/submission-guidelines 2. Arbordale Publishing Website: www.arbordalepublishing.com Submission Guidelines: www.arbordalepublishing.com/submission-guidelines 3. Immedium Website: www.immedium.com Submission Guidelines: www.immedium.com/submission-guidelines 4. Lee & Low Books Website: www.leeandlow.com Submission Guidelin