Angling Journalism

[poledark]

But, chevin, i often start my sentences with But!!. I know, or have been told, that it is grammatically wrong. But I still keep on doing it

It really is a lovely little word to use!

 

Den. But then aren't all words wonderful(l)

 

May your rods be permanently bent.

[Liamsm]

Gilbertron,

I would not go that root if I was you mate.

You are responding to criticism from only two posters.

What about all the rest of the posters that do not agree with the criticism?.

You are totally right not to try to prove your self to anyone else.

I had no difficulty at all in understanding the point that you were trying to make, as it was writen.

There are a lot of ”sad” things in this life and it is usually used to express how the writer feels about something, personal to themselves.

I do not think that it was used as a personal view of your self.

It may appear as if this post has gone off the track of helping the original poster, but in fact in my opinion, it is the best lesson that this youngster could have learned, if he is about to embark on a writing career.

What people write is often not always interpreted as they meant it to be, when it was writen.

Surly this is one of the most important things to achieve when writing?.

.....Liam

[Barnese]

Right ok I'll start by saying that i didn't start this thread so that anybody could patronise anybody else about something as petti as the way that they type. I myself spell in abbreviations and what is known as "texter's language." This has nothing to do with writing about fishing...or anything else to do with fishing to that matter. I didn't start this thread in the non-angling related section so can we stick to the topic, and stop the petti arguments

[Peter Sharpe]

I was going to apologise to Gilbertron, but he just kept digging himself deeper and deeper into a hole of his own making. If I received a piece of exceptionally knowledgeable or talented writing from an enthusiastic amateur, then I would probably be prepared to take the time to correct it. If, however, I received it from someone claiming to be a professional writer, who was expecting professional rates of pay, then it would probably go straight in the bin. It costs time and money to turn a badly written piece into acceptable English, and without the correct punctuation, it can often be very difficult to be sure of the correct interpretation.

 

As a free tip, sentences always begin with a capital letter and end in a full stop, and the letter "I", when used in isolation (as the first person singular), is always capitalised. If somebody can't be bothered to follow those most basic rules, then I can't be bothered to read what they have written.

[chesters1]

quote:

---

Three Men in a Boat

---

not forgetting montmorency (sp?) i hope

on the topic any thoughts on book writing? i am getting so much information that this book will be huge (i am trying to make it a Intrepid bible) i know its the more pages more money and colour is more expensive than b&W etc but if the book is a complete history then it WILL be huge ,would there be a market for it ,or should i do what i loath to ,make it smaller , how could i get a publisher interested?.As you can tell i`m an angler NOT an authour but its my ambition to get this book done (although not for some time) but what ARE the pitfalls

 

[ 23. July 2003, 08:36 PM: Message edited by: chesters1 ]

[Wordbender]

Barnese:

Right ok I'll start by saying that i didn't start this thread so that anybody could patronise anybody else about something as petti as the way that they type. I myself spell in abbreviations and what is known as "texter's language."

Two tips, Barnese.

 

1. Most editors appreciate correctly punctuated work. They appreciate it because it displays professionalism on behalf of the writer, and it makes the editor's job easier. Both factors are to your advantage when submitting work for consideration.

 

2. Text-speak and its hideous force-feeding of abbreviations is certainly one of the worst writing habits you could possibly develop. When used in any medium other than the text message, it displays laziness and a complete lack of regard for your reader, it doesn't 'flow' when read and exists only to reduce the effort of the writer.

 

Do yourself a huge favour and ditch the text-speak...er...m8.

 

Terry

 

[ 23. July 2003, 08:37 PM: Message edited by: Wordbender ]

[Wordbender]

Peter Sharpe:

If somebody can't be bothered to follow those most basic rules, then I can't be bothered to read what they have written.

Yor 1 ov them Littry-Fashists, yu r!

 

Terry

[poledark]

An illiterate joke.....

 

the scene angler fishing river outside lunatic asylum lunatic caught anything angler no lunatic how long have you been here angler about 6 hours

lunatic best come inside then

 

Den

[Steve Burke]

I was lucky in that my first articles appeared in Chevin, the Chub Study Group magazine, whose editor at the time was Bruce Vaughan. Bruce's day job was Features Editor of a monthly fishing magazine and he asked if he could use one of my pieces in it. Thanks to this flying start I've never looked back.

 

One bit of advice I can give is to find out what sort of article editors are looking for. The best way to discover this is to ask them! For instance, you may find that there are lots of carp articles in the pipeline, and there's nothing on perhaps roach. If you've qualified to write about roach this could be your chance!

 

However, one vital point to remember. Never write on a subject you don't know a fair bit about, preferably more than the average reader. The only exception is when you're writing a story type article, although these are rarely popular with editors unless very well written.

 

Also ask such things as how long the magazine prefers articles to be, and in what format they prefer pictures.

 

It's best to double space your article - in other words to leave every other line blank. It's also best to leave a big space top and bottom and to leave wide margins. In fact, anything you can do to make the editor's job quicker and easier will increase your chances of having your work accepted.

 

Good luck in your writing career - we certainly need new talent and everyone has to start somewhere!

[Dick Dastardly]

For many years my angling mates had tried to encourage me to write articles.I refused having no faith in my ability to put pen to paper.One of them was a very prolific angling writer by the name of Vic Gillings who is sadly no longer with us.He even suggested a ghost writer.When I started trying to make a living out of the sport I loved my boss(Luke Moffatt) sugested that writing a few articles would be a good way of raising my profile and getting some publicity for our service.The first ever articles I ever wrote were published here on the Web at Graham Marsdens http://www.FISHINGmagic.com Much to my suprise people apeared to like them!Graham went on to encourage me to write a series of articles entitled "The Tackle Workshop" Whats more I really enjoyed putting them together.My writing and computer skills are still of a very poor standard but as long as your writting is either informative or entertaining it dosnt seem to matter.My advice? give it a go and see what response you get,try as allready mentioned putting a few articles on the Fishing sites on the Web.Above all do it now!I wish Vic could have seen that Ive at last given it a go,even though most of it is crap!

 

Remember there are two types of angling writers- Writers who go fishing and fishermen who write,