Working Up

Working Up in Project Management, Systems Engineering, Technology, and Writing

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A Smashwords Update

September 26th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I’ve sold a few short stories on Smashwords. I’m thrilled. Back in February 2011, I declared that I was posting my short stories on Smashwords. To date, I have sold about $65 worth of stories. I am pleasantly surprised. The key to selling as many stories as I have is the Smashwords Premium […]

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Tags: Fun · Writing

Penman$hip

September 8th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Sloppy handwriting costs MONEY! I was happy when I moved from 6th grade to 7th grade. The reason was simple – there would be no more penmanship classes. I would get all A s in school and no more C s. Penmanship was, anyways, a made up subject so that girls could […]

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Tags: Work · Writing

Finding Stories

September 1st, 2011 · No Comments

By Dwayne Phillips A source of story ideas is the words of other writers. Anything written by anyone will do. Just copy their words until your own start to flow. I’ve started writing short stories again. They are good writing practice, and what’s more, I like writing short stories. In 2008, I wrote a short […]

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Tags: Writing

Express a Story in One Sentence (or Two)

August 29th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Here is a technique to express a story (short story or full novel) in one sentence (or two). It is from Dwight V. Swain. I have been reviewing some of the books on writing that I have read in the past decade. Good books are like that – you can review them […]

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Tags: Writing

Success Breeds Suspicion

June 30th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Success leads to different things. One disturbing trend is that it leads to suspicion. Google is a rather successful business. The Federal Trade Commission is investigating Google. Why is it that (2) often follows (1)? Google offers a free service to Internet users. Come to our site and search the Internet. I […]

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Tags: Government · Success · Writing

Tutoring Writing – Part 3 – Internet References

June 27th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Writing students at George Mason University teach me how to cite Internet references using APA Style. I continue to work with students at George Mason University on their writing. And they continue to teach me. A recent student had questions about citing references from Internet sources according to the APA Style Guidelines […]

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Tags: Learning · Wikipedia · Writing

Tutoring Writing – Part 2 – Smaller Concepts

June 2nd, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Here are some items I see often when working with college engineering and science students – part 2. For the past couple of years, I have been working with engineering and science students at George Mason University on their writing. I found myself spending the vast majority of the time discussing a […]

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Tags: Writing

Tutoring Writing – Part 1 – Big Concepts

May 30th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Here are some items I see often when working with college engineering and science students – part 1. For the past couple of years, I have been working with engineering and science students at George Mason University on their writing. I found myself spending the vast majority of the time discussing a […]

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Tags: Writing

The Curse of the First Draft

May 16th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Avoid asking an engineer or some other non-writer to write a complete first draft of a document. The result will be bad, but the non-writer will love it more than himself. There are few anguishes known to man as that experienced when a manager tells an engineer or some other professional who […]

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Tags: Management · Writing

Writing Just Because

April 14th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I like to write. I am rarely paid for writing, but that doesn’t stop me. There has been some chatter on the Internet recently about people churning out content for big web sites for zero pay. The post linked here is part of that chatter. Guess what? A lot of people write […]

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Tags: Writing