Friday, November 8, 2019

Finding an Editor Whos Right For You †By Stacey Dyer

Finding an Editor Whos Right For You – By Stacey Dyer Finding an editor who is right for you – by Stacey Dyer Check out all the newest Reedsy success stories right here!‘Punch Wedding Planning in the Face’ is what we are told to do by Stacey Dyer in one of the most outlandish books to have been seen on Reedsy. We thought it would be great to showcase the first gender-neutral, LGBTQ-wedding planning book ever in the universe (that we know of!) created on our very own Reedsy platform. Stacey Dyer talks us through her thoughts and experiences of working with one of our editors and how it helped bring a fresh perspective to her work and really bring it to life.For authors new and experienced, an editor helps to polish and sculpt your work into a final, sparkling piece of written art. New to publishing and working on my first book, I hit a wall after a few rounds of self-editing. I knew it wasn’t ready for the printed page but I didn’t know how to make it better, at least by myself. Maybe it's time to find an editor... But how?Finding an editor on ReedsyThanks to Reedsy , I was able to peruse and choose from their extensive list of editors. While I didn’t know what the average cost was, how much to budget, or truly what to look for in an editor, I knew what mattered most to me:Finding an editor who understood my brazen voice and wouldn’t try to sterilize itFinding an editor who was comfortable working with a gender-neutral, LGBT-friendly bookFinding an editor who might be able to embody a product manager, helping me to apply the purpose of the book throughout each chapterThe best part about Reedsy’s quoting process is the encouraged messaging between vendors and authors. I asked for a sample pass from those who responded to my query and shared a bit more about the vision of my book. From just this little bit of back and forth, I was able to gain a sense of how these editors might work with me. Rachel Small was one who caught my eye right away. The best part about Reedsy is the encouraged messaging between vendors and authors. When Rachel and I started to discuss AstroWed, she got it, immediately. There was energy and a collaborative nature to our exchange that got me excited about the future of the book. She was also laughing (very important for AstroWed!) and understood my voice as well as my goals. Rachel was indeed THE ONE.After that lively exchange, she sent a quote for editing AstroWed in all its 27,000-word glory. (The concept of asking for quotes based on number of words was new to me. It’s my first time working with an editor and writing a book for that matter, but Reedsy made it easy to understand.) Our Editing ProcessWe did a quick Skype call to chat about the following aspects of the editing process:How Rachel likes to workHow I like to workHow do we attack this book together?Common turnaround times when delivering the chaptersHow many chapters will/should get delivered?We settled on doing two chapters at a time and to let Chapters 1 and 2 shine a brighter light on our process together.Three fantastic tactics emerged:Rachel often makes the comment "OK?" to bring attention to a change she’s suggesting (usually because she’s changed the wording). I respond to many of these to give her extra context around the subject matter and either accept or suggest additional changes.I comment to these comments and other questions/suggestions throughout the doc like it’s a chat room from 1998. This makes it feel less like work and more like collaboration!I send my version back to her for further conversation. Usually a couple of overarching questions or ideas pop up and we flesh them out to shape future chapters.But enough with the words! Here’s what our process looks like in action:Day one1 -   Upon first receipt, the docs look like this: 2 -   Usually in the morning, I take a first pass to read through all comments, suggestions, and changes. I do this to also clear the clutter in the sidebar (it feels so overwhelming at first!) because when things look like progress, it usually means it IS progress.3 -   I highlight anything I need to write to, take a design note of, or chew on for a bit longer 5 -   I close the doc and move on to other things, allowing my idle mind to roll around in the suggestions and tasks ahead of me.Day twoI respond and write to all the suggestions I can.If there’s anything that stumps me, I leave it alone and tackle the things I can write to with ease.Day threeI address anything I couldn’t write to yesterday and just muster up the guts to get it done. (Often it’s just that I needed a day to think about the task in the back of my mind. These things come to me usually when I’m about to fall asleep, and therefore I end up with a lot of emails in my inbox from yours truly.)I turn off the â€Å"review view† and put myself in the reader’s shoes. I read through everything with fresh eyes, free of comments and sidebar clutter. After making a handful of small tweaks, I hit save and send the chapters back on their merry way to Rachel, who adds them to the master document.What’s left?To date, Rachel and I have c ompleted our initial passes on all the chapters. Since AstroWed is the universe’s most kickass wedding planning workbook, designed with a gender-neutral space theme, the final steps toward publishing are no small feat!Now it’s time to throw on my illustrator and designer hats, followed by Rachel taking one final pass across the whole doc for polish, grammar, and word choice. This will culminate into an epic pour of wine with Space-Odyssey-2001-like music in the background as I apply her changes in the final design doc, make one final proofread pass, and then prep all things for KDP Print. No big deal though†¦ I got this...I hope this helps you and other authors out there, and, at the very least, makes the path to publishing more tangible. I didn’t know what to expect, but I found Reedsy, and then Rachel, and then this funky 1998-chat-inspired method to keep a positive mindset on a boatload of work. I thought I was going crazy towards the end of my self-edit s, but having a fresh-eyed outsider is worth all the time and money in the world.Bottom line: Whatever motivates you to keep the momentum going, embrace it with a bear hug. Finding the right editor for you is one of the most fruitful decisions you’ll make in the journey of writing. "Finding the right editor for you is one of the most fruitful decisions you’ll make." How do you work with your editor? What keeps you motivated when going through the revisions? Share your experiences with us, or ask Stacey any question, in the comments below!

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Role of education Essays

Role of education Essays Role of education Essay Role of education Essay The role education plays in the development of a nation is very important but not compared to the contribution is makes to the lives of the family from where the person comes form. This is with the understanding that family is the unit of a nation as a nation is the collection of families.The joy of every parent is to see their children acquire quality education and become important people in the society. But many factors affect the desire of acquiring quality education in today’s world.The most important factor that hinders this desire is lack of funds either from the person or from parents and guardians of the intending student. This is why people are turning to associations, churches and the schools where they graduated from seeking scholarship for their children.In where we find ourselves in position that we can’t help our selves, it is important we reach out for help.   I an alumni of this great institution which has affected my life posit ively and believe it cold do the same to my son.The world had put me in a helpless situation of being a single parent and like the proverbial prodigal son, I return home to the school that taught me to be a great man. This status has really affected me and a scholarship for my son to study at this same noble institution will be a legacy and an unending happiness in our lives.A research that was completed showed that 76.8 % of youth’s involve in violence and drugs are products of a broken home. This violence menace has been a problem to our society an i believe your assistance in granting a full year scholarship to my son will keep off the street while i concentrate on taking care of all other aspect of his life. This could be a seed sown into the future of America’s greater development and your contribution in reducing violence.Also as an alumnus of this citadel of knowledge, i sincerely hope my son can enjoy the quality of education and expertise I enjoyed as a studen t.Thank you.Reference: ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Alumnus Articles. ( 1997, April ) Portsmouth College. ISBN 230981.

Monday, November 4, 2019

Career Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Career Management - Essay Example The present scenario has been defined as a â€Å"do-it-yourself career management† (Patton & McMahon, p.26) where the individuals are faced with the challenge of constructing their career in the changing environment. It is seen that the choice of occupation is not a onetime decision. Rather it can be considered to a process of development which occurs through a number of stages and sub stages. Young children start believing that they can do almost everything. While the adults’ decision or the career choice is based on factors like skill sets, economic factors or their education and training requirements. John Holland (1960) was one of the major contributors in the field of career development. His contribution to the field was the creation of a hexagonal model that is based on the perspectives put forward by Parsons. According to Holland, the workplace was divided into six work environments and the populace was comprised of six types of personalities, namely â€Å"reali stic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising and conventional† (Virtual Habitats, p.1). The hexagon has been presented in the figure below. Figure 1: Holland's six environment/personalities (Source: Virtual Habitats, p.2) The ideas which are included in the theory are as follow: Most of the people can be assigned one of the categories of the six types of personalities. The work environments are also of six types, namely â€Å"realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising and conventional† (Virtual Habitats, p.2). The work environments that people search for depends on their skills and abilities, expression of values and attitudes, and their views on different roles and problems. The behaviour of an individual is an outcome of the interaction of his personality with the environmental characteristics (Virtual Habitats, p.2). The more close a person comes towards a work environment that he finds compatible to his abilities, the greater will be his satisfa ction. The recent scholars have been increasingly focusing on the process of decision making and its relationship with career development. The cognitive information process (CIP) as put forward by â€Å"Peterson, Sampson, Reardon and Lenz† (Virtual Habitats, p.4) are the three domains based on which the choice of career is made. The decision making skills domain comprises of the five information processing skills which are communication, analysis, synthesis, valuing and executing (Virtual Habitats, p.4). The CIP model is illustrated the figure below. Figure 2: The CIP model (Source: Virtual Habitats, p.2) The base comprises of self knowledge and knowledge of the occupations. The nature of information with people regarding themselves and the work usually differs from one another. Scholars claim that this self knowledge is more based on the perceptions than in facts. It involves analyzing ones interests, abilities and skills. The individuals’ needs require thorough analy sis though the decision making phase which should be suited for his unique personality (Wasylow, Mellott & Martin, p.1). It also involves analysis of the occupation itself like places where the occupation exist, the payments they make or their outlook. It requires thorough analysis of the labour market. Answer to Question No: 2 Primary Research The primary research was conducted on three

Friday, November 1, 2019

Planning Commission Meeting Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Planning Commission Meeting - Assignment Example The issues at hand included pollution due to poor disposal of wastes, carbon gas emissions due to transportation and use of fossil fuel. Protection of water catchment areas from industrial pollution was also a major concern which prompted the constitution of the commission. The agenda for the meeting was set by Rebecca Devooght as the chairperson of the commission. It appears the issue on environmental sustainability through reducing pollution has been a concern and a point of discussion for the last 10 years or so since it emanated from the late 90’s, though major escalating factors arose in 2007 leading to the formation the commission to look into the green-house gas process (Birch and Wachter, 60). Planning Commission members: The planning commission on environmental sustainability was composed of women and men in a manner to put into consideration gender balance. It had four males and four females. The males were Fred Bauries, Paul Cervenak, Bill Hartwig and Stephen Wooden while the females were Rebecca Devooght, Emily Fleury- vice Chair, Lynsey Clayton and Julie Jones-Fisk During the meeting every member contributed where others raised the contentious questions while the others provided the responses. Suggestions provided were discussed with the opinion of the members well incorporated and therefore it was an all inclusive participation for all the members of the commission. This implies that the findings of the commission are a genuine representation of the views of all members representing the different groups. During the meeting, various aspects of planning were considered in reviewing the possibility of coming up with a practical plan for sustainable environment in the city. Questions came up on the comparison of how the recycling facilities were being applied in other citities. This included practicability and efficiency of using such recycling facilities. The modalities and methods of making the recycling system more practical and applicable w ere explored and finally, it was concluded that it was better to use cans in collecting garbage and the cans should be colored differently to give the users an easy time in identifying which type of garbage should go in each can. This would make the cans easy to use and would provide room for easy recycling of the garbage as the materials will be sorted according to classes and the ability to be recycled or not. The aspect of cost of such a system also came up as to whether it was possible to develop other means which were more efficient in terms of providing energy but at lower cost. The other challenge the commission encountered was in trying to establish who was responsible for what kind of planning among the various interest groups. It was difficult to establish this because the recycling of materials such as furniture and garbage was done at different times of the year by different groups (Birch and Wachter, 152). Even if a recycling center was established, it was difficult to engage a constant and efficient recycling staff who could do this regularly without being underutilized. The students could be disposing their furniture or garbage at a particular time while businessmen and women would tend to dispose garbage on a regular basis. This is an activism commission which is trying to put checks on the city council of management. The issue of environmental sustainability is an issue that

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Internal Control Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Internal Control - Case Study Example This paper will cover internal control requirements for a company, which decides to go public. The second concern to be addressed will be advice on the right things the company is doing and recommendation on a pending decision. Finally, the paper will address the things that the company is doing wrong and recommend ways of improvement. The action of taking a company public is considered as one of utmost importance. Remarkably, such an action has to be taken by the Chief Financial Officer in consultation with the Chief Executive Officer and the board. Going public comes with its own challenges and changes to the enterprise. The internal control requirements for LJB Company will change considerably with the decision to go public. As a small enterprise or a local distributor, senior management is involved in multiple responsibilities, which changes once the company goes public. One of the new internal controls will be separation/segregation of duties or assertions categorization (Whittington & Pany et al., 2004). Financial activity will have to be divided on clear boundaries to avoid overlapping duties. A single person will separate authorization of transactions, record keeping, and custody roles to prevent error or fraud. Another new control requirement will be the performance of internal audits verified by external auditors as stipulated under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. This is under the principle of independent review. LJB Company has an accountant, which is good for financial aspects of internal control. The accountant is tasked with retention of records by maintaining documents to substantiate transactions, which is being done at LJB as well. The accountant is also rightfully tasked with the duty of receiving checks and completing the monthly bank reconciliation. It would be advisable to buy the indelible ink machine to keep track of the pre-numbered invoices. This will result in accuracy in terms of the principle of record keeping. Numbering

Monday, October 28, 2019

Ratio Analysis of Hcl Tech Essay Example for Free

Ratio Analysis of Hcl Tech Essay It provides software-led IT solutions, remote infrastructure management and BPO services, focused mainly on transformational outsourcing. The company leverages its extensive offshore infrastructure and global network of offices in 31 countries to deliver solutions across selected verticals including financial services, retail and consumer, life sciences, aerospace, automotive, semiconductors, telecom, media publishing and entertainment. HCL takes pride in its philosophy of â€Å"Employees First, Customers Second† which empowers their 84,403 employees to create a real value for the customers. HCL Technologies, along with its subsidiaries, had consolidated revenues of US$ 4. 5 billion, as on 31st March 2013. HCL Leadership team 2. Objectives of Study Development of industries depends on several factors such as financial, personnel, technology, quality of product and marketing. Financial aspects assume a significant role in determining the growth of industries. All the company’s operations virtually affect its need for cash. Most of these data covering operations area are however outside the direct responsibility of the financial executives. The firm whose present operations are inherently difficult should try to makes its financial analysis to enable its management to stay on top of its working position. In this context I am undertaking financial ratio analysis of HCL Technologies to examine and understand financial performance of the company. Using ratio analysis this project will provide the insights of – * The growth and development of HCL Technologies for last 5 years (FY 08-12) * The behavior of liquidity and profitability of HCL Technologies * The factors determining the liquidity and profitability of HCL Technologies Scope The scope of the study is limited to financial data published in the annual reports of the company every year. The analysis is done to suggest possible solutions for financial growth of the organization. This study is carried out for 5 years (2008-2012). Also data provided by external agencies are used for analysis of future predication. 3. Concept of Financial Statement amp; Ratio Analysis 2 3. 2 Financial Statement To understand the information contained in financial statements with a view to know the strength or weaknesses of the organization, to make forecast about future prospects and thereby enabling the management and external parties to take different decisions regarding the operations. Fundamental analysis has a very broad scope. One aspect looks at the general (qualitative) factors of the company. The other side considers tangible and measurable factors (quantitative). This means crunching and analyzing numbers from the financial statements if used in conjunction with other methods, quantitative analysis can produce excellent results. Ratio Analysis Ratio analysis is the method or process by which relationship/group of items in the financial statement are computed, determined and presented. Ratio analysis is an attempt to derive quantitative measure or guides concerning the financial health and profitability of business enterprises. Ratio analysis can be used both in trend and static analysis. Purpose of several ratios depends on the objective of analysis. A financial ratio measures a company’s performance in a specific area. For example, you could use a ratio of a company’s debt to its equity to measure a company’s gearing. By comparing the gearing ratios of two companies, you can determine which company uses greater debt per equity. You can use this information to make a judgment as to which company is better investment risk. However, you must be careful not to place too much importance on one ratio. You obtain better indication of the direction in which a company is moving when several ratios are taken as a group. Ratios are worked out to analyze the following aspects of an enterprise: a. Solvency: i. Long term ii. Short term iii. Immediate b. Profitability c. Operational Efficiency d. Credit standing e. Effective utilization of resources f. Investment Analysis 3. 4 Significance of Ratio Analysis in Financial Statement Ratio analysis is very important in revealing the financial position and soundness of the business so used by various parties * Management: The group that has the most interest in financial statement analysis is management. Management needs to discover quickly any area of mismanagement so that corrective action can be quickly taken. It mainly helps in: * Decision making: Ratio analysis helps in making decision from the information provided in these financial Statements. Financial forecasting and planning: Planning is looking ahead and the ratios calculated for a number of years a work as a guide for the future. * Communicating: The financial strength and weakness of a firm are communicated in a more easy and understandable manner using ratios. * Co-ordination: Better communication of efficiency and weakness of an enterprise result in better co-ordination in the enterprise * Control: The weaknesses are otherwise, if any, come to the knowledge of the managerial, which helps, in effective control of the business. * Investors or Shareholders Investors are interested in financial statements to evaluate current earnings and to predict future earnings. Financial statements influence greatly the price at which stock is bought and sold. * Lenders: Bankers before granting loans usually require that financial statements be submitted. Whether or not a loan is made depends heavily on a company’s financial condition and its prospects for the future. * Employees: Employees are mainly concerned about the profitability. Their salaries and increments are dependent on the profit made by the company. * Government:

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Wave- book review :: essays research papers

A BOOK REVIEW of The Wave by Morton Rhue This story, based on a true incident that occurred in a high school in California, demonstrates how easily a group can lose its freedom without even realising it. It all began when their history teacher, Mr. Ben Ross, let them watch a movie on how the Nazis in World War 2 tortured the people who opposed them. To give them a clearer picture, he decided to them in the situation itself. He then introduced an organisation, The Wave, and its motto, â€Å"Strength through discipline, Strength through community and strength through action.† A salute was also introduced to make them feel like a unit, where everyone would be equal. This was most rewarding to their class’ loser, Robert Billings, as the other students often picked on him. As many as two hundred pupils in the school became part of it after Mr. Ross had encouraged his students to recruit more members. The sudden change from a bunch of unruly students to disciplined ones was remarkable. However, a Jewish boy was beaten up in school but Wave members for refusing to participate in its activities. This was followed by a letter by a junior student complaining of threats by his seniors, who were Wave members. Matters became more serious when Robert offered to be Mr. Ross’ bodyguard, and the school football team had incorporated the Wave to improve their team spirit and attitude. Despite their hard work, they still lost 42 to 6. These were printed in the school paper, ‘the Grapevine’, condemning the Wave as a dangerous and mindless movement that suppressed freedom of speech and thought and ran against everything the country was founded on. Mr. Ross finally decided to end this, after incessant persuasion from his wife and two of his students, ‘the Grapevine’ Editor-in-chief Laurie Saunders and her boyfriend David, an ex Wave member. Mr. Ross invited all the Wave members to a rally and gave a speech, at the same time, showing them the same movie the seniors had watched on their first History lesson. He reproached them by saying that they had turned their superiority over non-Wave members.