Writing skills

With reference to the article “Steps to Good Writing” I’d like to add a few pointers to those who aspire to contribute, freelance to different magazines and newspapers:

1) It is always advisable to discuss your ideas with the editor of the publication first. It may happen that you do extensive research and write a really good article only to find out that it isn’t really the type of stuff that that particular publication publishes. So unless a publication specifies that it will never reply personally to emails, you can send in a brief outline of your article and start working only if the editor approves it.

2) Make sure that you read various magazines/newspapers before submitting anything to them — this will give you a very good idea as to the kind of stuff they publish, the different sections they have, their guidelines and most importantly, the address/email address to which you have to send in your work. Some publications have different email addresses for different sections and if that is messed up, your contribution will never be read.

3) When you are sending your article as an attachment it is always a good idea to specify in the body of the email: the title of your article, and the section of the publication for which you think that article is suitable. An editor once pointed out to me that they are a bit wary of opening attachments so if you take care of these little details there is more of a chance that your attachment will be opened and read.