K I S S
KEEP IT SHORT
AND SIMPLE
And Make Writing Easy
Jacquie Ream
Book Publishers Network
P.O. Box 2256
Bothell • WA • 98041
PH•425-483-3040
Copyright © 2005 by Jacquie Ream
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
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LCCN 2005920863 ISBN 1-887542-21-3
Editing: Julie Scandora
Cover Design: Lonny Stevens
Interior Layout: Stephanie Martindale
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
BE YOUR OWN BEST FRIEND
THE KISS PRINCIPLE
THE BIRTH OF A PAPER
WRITE THE PAPER
REVIEW: CATCHING THOSE BLOOPERS
ELECTRONIC SUBMISSIONS OR E-SUB
GLOSSARY
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
INTRODUCTION
Your assignment is to write a paper.
Begin at “Once....”
You’re in the grip of the Beastly Assignment!! And there’s no deliverance from that blank piece of paper. What to do? Tame that beast with a KISS!
Keep It Short and Simple. Any monster—short story, novel, poetry, essay, term paper, report, lecture notes, and even personal journals, letters and diaries— can be given a KISS. Using the KISS principle, no assignment is too difficult.
Where to begin? At the beginning. Read a book for information, and it will make that paper easier to write. The secret to understanding a short story, poem or novel is your emotional reactions: what made you laugh, cry; feel angry or sad? Gather facts and data for the term paper from reference materials in your own home and outside sources, and take short, concise notes.
Writing is easy. Really. It is a way for us to share our ideas and opinions with others.
Got a block on that short story, book report, term paper? Write about what you know: tell about a personal experience as it happened or fictionalize it; review the book (“see” it in your mind, calling up the memorable scenes) then outline the facts.
With a few short and simple rules of writing management, you’ll be able to KISS that assignment good-bye.
Or maybe befriend a beast.
Chapter One
BE YOUR OWN
BEST FRIEND
The assignment looms large over little ole you, ready to eat you alive. Face it!
It’s not as big as you might have thought. Break it into parts and the assignment is only a matter of putting your thoughts into words. It is as simple as A B C.
You had to learn the alphabet before you could read the words. Writing is a lot like learning your ABC’s. You can learn simple skills that will make it easy to put your thoughts in order, to get from A to Z.
What makes it so hard to write down words and make sense out of an idea? Most often, it’s because we think we can’t do it right.
There are a few simple rules.
1st
Know your subject.
2nd
Trust yourself that you know what you know.
3rd
Organize, write and rewrite.
There are ways to make it easier, but you can’t take all the work out of writing. You need to know the basics of writing before you can take shortcuts.
For instance, you won’t always turn in an outline, but knowing how to do one, and do it well, will make it easier to organize and write your paper. To present that paper, you must know how to structure it: your ideas can be absolutely brilliant, but if the paper is a mess, you’ve lost your sparkle. If you’re talking grades, looks count more than you can imagine.
And you can imagine. Once you’ve learned how to read a book, take notes and organize the material, then shaping your ideas into a paper is the least difficult part.
“No way!” you say? Writing is painful and hard and frustrating?
Ha! Writing is easy. Trust yourself. If you can read, you can write.
Taken step by step, an assignment is completed: gather the facts, organize the ideas in an outline, do a rough draft. Sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, page by page, you finish the assignment.
The hardest part of writing the paper is the rewriting.
Not rewriting is the one shortcut that is often taken with regrettable consequences—misspelled words that are easily corrected; overlooked but important facts that are omitted; typos. If you look at rewriting as your ultimate line of defense, then the Beastly Assignment becomes a pet project.
And every pet needs a KISS.
Chapter Two
THE KISS
PRINCIPLE
Keep It Short and Simple. Why?
It saves time. It saves the fingers from cramping. It saves the brain from overload. It saves your ideas from drowning in a sea of words.
To keep it short and simple, you must know your subject. To know your subject, answer five basic questions:
who
what
why
how
where.
Keep statements short and clear. Use your “voice”; put it in your own words. Reduce your idea to its simplest terms. Example:
A perfect short story:
The cat came back.
A perfect history project:
The cat was a kitten.
A perfect science project:
The cat can see in the dark.
A perfect social studies project:
The cat makes a good pet.
Writing a paper requires time, but fifteen or twenty minutes for each step will turn out a whole paper. It’s really that simple.
Sometimes does it feel as if all your brains cells have dried up? The muscles in your hand have frozen stiff? Anxiety Attack! There is an antidote: PREPARATION.
Before you begin any project, be sure you understand what it is about. Ask questions of your teachers, librarians, parents, anyone who might help you understand the assignment. Give yourself plenty of time to do the assignment. Time can be your friend, not your enemy. If you have two weeks to turn in a book report, take ten minutes or so between other activities to read a chapter of the book, jot down notes or start outlining ideas during the first week. Don’t do this on the same day as you are going to write the report. Do your fact finding, outline and rough draft at least the day before you write the final paper. Then give that final paper two days to “cool off” so that you can do last minute corrections.
Now that the Beastly Assignment is on a leash, let’s walk through the steps of writing a paper from the beginning.
Chapter Three
THE BIRTH OF A
PAPER
First, UNDERSTAND the assignment. Have a clear idea what your teacher expects from you. What kind of writing project is it? Is it a book report, essay, short story or term paper? Will you need a bibliography and/or title page? Do you need to put the final paper into a report cover, or can it be stapled (one staple in the left-hand corner) with a title page? Is the paper to be typed, can it be handwritten, how many pages minimum, and what is the format?