As the publisher of an online ezine, I seem to be losing my patience lately with the article submissions I receive. Maybe I'm more picky than some but I believe my subscribers deserve to have high quality articles. And, Friends, that covers a whole lot more than just content!

First of all, I often receive advertisements which are incorrectly - and blatantly - presented as "articles." Nothing will send a submission to the trash bin quicker on my computer.

I don't even read the submission until I scan through it to see if it contains URLs anyplace other than in the resource box where they belong. If I find one in the body of the "article," I look to see if it has relevance to the article - or if it's simply a self-serving link to a product/service of the author. Then I do one of two things. I read it - or I dump it.

Articles are meant to inform - not to sell. If you want to sell something in my ezine, pay for an ad like everyone else. Don't try to slide it past me by calling it an "article" - I don't care what kind of information it contains. You are more than welcome to put your links in the resource box. Don't attempt to waste my space trying to place a free solo-ad by calling it an "article." An ad by any other name is still an ad.

We now have e-books out there encouraging people to build their ezine subscriber lists by submitting articles to other ezines. Okay - that'll work. But, ONLY IF YOU CAN WRITE! If you don't know how to write, get someone who does to write your article - or don't submit it to me.

I've seen articles with great content that I have to completely edit before I'll put them in front of my readers - or I won't run them. And, frankly, I'm getting tired of doing the writer's work! If you don't want your article edited when you send it to me, you had better be sure it is correct.

Since I believe my readers are entitled to high quality content, I also see no point in offending them with poor grammar, incorrect spelling and punctuation or sloppy sentence structure. Good publishers say this all the time but maybe some online article "writers" don't know what we mean.

Allow me to give you a few tips on the more grievous of the errors I receive.

1) Quotation marks go outside the punctuation mark. I don't care how you think it looks - they go OUTSIDE the punctuation mark. Always! It is NOT (".) - it is (.") - it is NOT (",) - it is (,") - ALWAYS!

2) A quote within a sentence is NEVER followed by a period. It is ALWAYS followed by a comma, even though it may be a complete sentence by itself. That's the rule!

3) Cutsie characters before, after or within your sentences make you look like an amateur, or a 5th grader writing a valentine. Don't use them! I can accept the occasional :-) or but don't give me silly designs (^*~*^^*~*^) to muck up your text and make it unreadable. Spend your time creating a good article and save the art work for something appropriate.

4) When you use periods to leave a thought hanging or to connect to another thought, they are NOT connected to other words. They REPLACE words and therefore, stand alone with a space between them and the word before or after them. It is not, "Think about it....." It is, "Think about it ..."

This is a typographic symbol. It is a sequence of ONLY 3 periods and substitutes for an unlimited number of words.

5) Unless it is used as a header - a lead-in - or, is part of a quoted conversation - one sentence does not constitute a paragraph. Take that sentence with 40 words in it and break it into more than one sentence. The only other exception is when you need to use a very SHORT stand-alone sentence for emphasis.

6) Can you say, "preposition?" Don't end a sentence with one! Do you know what a preposition is? As far as I'm concerned, you don't even need to know the definition, although it's easy to figure out. With a preposition, you are pre-positioning something. Until you tell me what it is - you haven't finished your sentence.

I'll be happy though, if you will just learn know how to spot one. Here's how you can test for it ...

Put the last word of your sentence in front of the words, "... the box." If it makes sense - it's a preposition. Try these words: to - over - with - up - from - before. Get it? Add "the box" behind those words and you can clearly see that they are prepositions. If you find any one of hundreds of prepositions at the end of your sentence - you haven't finished your sentence. To what? Over what? From what? Finish it!

7) Don't give me passive sentences! They are boring and they don't DO anything! "There are millions of people on this planet," tells me nothing. "Millions of people live on this planet," gives me the action.

The clue? If you begin your sentence with "There are ..." you are about to write a passive sentence. Put the subject of your sentence at the beginning - then tell me what it is doing. If you begin your sentence with a qualifier, be sure it is also active!

8) Learn the difference in how to use the words "that" and "which." The word, "that" is an indicator, or locator. It points out something specific. The word, "which" is a describer. It is followed by a description.

"This is an article that helps aspiring writers," is INCORRECT! "This is an article WHICH helps aspiring writers," describes what the article does.

9) Learn the difference in how to use the words "that" and "who." The word "who" indicates a person. The word "that" indicates an object.

"He is the man that wrote the article," is INCORRECT. A man is a "who" - not a "that." The trick? Use common sense.

10) Why do I even have to say this? You have Spell-Check. Use it! Or, don't send the article!

Now, I don't mind the occasional mistake. I make them myself. And, I don't mind the deliberate "mistake" which is used to add emphasis or color. What I mind is having my email box jammed with the unusable articles of writers who either don't know how - or don't care enough - to write me a printable article.

Yes, I know - it's a lot of work. But, being a writer is more than creative output. You must also be a technician. Why do you believe that my readers would want to subscribe to your ezine if you won't take the time to give them quality material?

And yes, I know all about the exceptions to the rules. But, before we worry about the exceptions, let's learn the rules!

Now, here's the easiest trick of all. When in doubt - go look at a non-self-published printed book and see how it's done!

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* dr. jl scott is the Founder of the International Council of Online Professionals (iCop™) - and also the publisher of the Internet Marketing Trade Journal™ - the ezine that keeps you up to date on Internet marketing coming of age. For your FREE subscription: http://www.i-cop.org/trade-journal.htm

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