I was the one who asked for your writing sample. I wanted to see if there was something fairly obvious in your writing that would cause a rejection. After looking at the links you provided, I'm sad to say that I agree with About.com.
Technical writing and knowledge are as distinct as analyzing and creating films. The latter is the more rigorous and (perhaps) rewarding activity, but it is best to not completely discount the fore as oftentimes this perspective can prove to be insightful. The Internet is fairly new, but successful entities adhere to the same quality requirements/standards of their in-print predecessors that have served them well in the past. In this paradigm, editors are typically responsible for sending out the horrid rejection letters you can receive. Oftentimes the standard can be to send out stock letters full of niceties and emotional fluff when what they meant to say was that your usage was poor, grammar questionable, and thinking appeared muddled. I found all three of these in your writing samples. Examples: - Usage: "Programming the Way You Would Love"..if I'm not mistaken this is an example of future perfect tense, generally a poor choice for a section title. -Usage #2: "Perl code is very succinct and can be written very quickly..." The use of the word 'very' should be avoided. You should even add a note in your draft revision process that asks if you really need ANY use of the word. Why? Because it tends to be VERY overused. - Grammar #1: "This is useful to automate such web sites..." Remove the 'such' and the meaning becomes clear. - Usage #3: "Perl was introduced in 1987 (4 years before Linux itself), when the author, Larry Wall, released version 1.000 of it..." The addition of 'of it' is needless and verbose. - Usage #4: "The reason for its creation was that Wall was unhappy by the functionality..." This is awkward and muddled. This can be better written as, "Mr. Wall, tired of the inefficiencies in many Unix utilities, sought to create a 'better mousetrap' sporting the very best features awk, sed, ..." Absent any other evidence the reader is typically correct in assuming that muddled writing is a sign of muddled thinking. In the Perl community we know better -- you may be simply bad at writing, but the average reader will not be armed with this knowledge. There are many more examples but I've made my point. Every time you write for any form of publication you should be cognizant that the reader is simultaneously analyzing the writing and reading it as well. They are reading the content, but their minds are also analyzing the piece for veracity, succinctness, structure, brevity, and other aspects. You can summarize these in questions: 'is this person telling me the truth?'; 'did the author use the right word for that?'; 'is this person going to waste my time?'; 'am I going to have to reread this ten times to understand it?'; 'where in the hell is the point?'; etc. A good writer asks these questions during a draft; the best writers ask them before even sitting down to write. My recommendation is that you sit down and write a piece specifically for publication in a print magazine (they are better about providing examples of what they expect to see) and use that as a writing sample instead. Revise your piece at least three times before submitting it to anyone. I do not suggest that you find someone else to write these pieces for you. I think you should do this and then try again. On Tue, May 31, 2011 at 6:29 AM, Shlomi Fish <shlo...@iglu.org.il> wrote: > Hi all, > > On Tuesday 24 May 2011 22:57:27 Shlomi Fish wrote: > > Hi all, > > > > Can anyone here volunteer to write about Perl for http://perl.about.com/? > > It's been suffering from a lot of neglect, and my application for a > writer > > there was rejected (see below). > > > > Someone asked me (in private - :-( ) what my writing sample looked like, > and > since this was a form submission and it was a long time ago, I don't recall > exactly, but I think they were these: > > * http://www.shlomifish.org/lecture/Perl/Newbies/ > > * http://perl-begin.org/ > > Regards, > > Shlomi Fish > > > Regards, > > > > Shlomi Fish > > > > ---------- Forwarded Message ---------- > > > > Subject: RE: Guide Application for [Perl] > > Date: Tuesday 24 May 2011, 18:01:03 > > From: jm...@about.com > > To: shlo...@shlomifish.org, shlo...@gmail.com > > > > > > Shlomi, > > > > While we thank you for taking the time to apply to be an About.com Guide, > > we have decided not to accept your application for entry into Prep. A few > > common reasons why your application was not accepted include: > > > > * We are looking for someone with more professional writing experience. > > * We are looking for someone with more writing experience in the topic. > > * We are looking for someone with different qualifications. > > * The writing in the writing sample was not up to our standards or had > > typographical errors. > > > > If you feel that you did not represent yourself to your best advantage in > > your application and you wish to apply again, you are more than welcome > to > > do so at http://beaguide.about.com. In addition, you may also be > > interested in applying to be a writer for ConsumerSearch, a member of the > > About, Inc. group of companies looking for writers to join their teams. > > If so, we encourage you to apply via the following link: > > > > * Consumer Search: http://www.consumersearch.com/www/jobs.html. > > > > Thanks again for your application, > > > > About.com Recruitment and Training Team > > > > ----------------------------------------- > > -- > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > Shlomi Fish http://www.shlomifish.org/ > First stop for Perl beginners - http://perl-begin.org/ > > In Soviet Russia, XSLT codes you. Badly! > > Please reply to list if it's a mailing list post - http://shlom.in/reply . > -- Sincerely, Joel Limardo Chief Software Engineer ForwardPhase Technologies, LLC 401 N. Michigan Avenue Suite 1200-10 Chicago, IL 60611 www.forwardphase.com joel.lima...@forwardphase.com LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/joellimardo Twitter: http://twitter.com/joellimardo Ph : 312-985-7777
