December 28, 2008

Keeping Calm On CCNA / CCNP Exam Day

When you wake up on exam day, one of two things is going to happen. Well, yes, you’re going to pass or fail. But what I’m thinking of comes before that, and has a lot to do with how you perform on exam day.

You’re either going to have a tremendous feeling of anticipation or the dreaded feeling of being nervous about it.

Anticipation is a great thing to feel on exam day. You’re driving to the exam center, excited about the exam. You’re much like a football player, slapping another player on the helmet or the shoulder pads before the game starts. (Warning: Don’t try this on the exam proctor.) You know there’s a challenge ahead, but you’re looking forward to it. In your mind, you’re already victorious you’re at the testing center only to make it official.

Conversely, there’s nothing worse than being nervous or feeling unprepared before the exam. I’ve driven up to an exam center and seen exam candidates doing some last-minute cramming in their car. Sadly for them, if there’s something you were unprepared for at 8 AM on exam day, you’re still going to be unprepared when you go into the test center, no matter what you read in the car at the last minute. You don’t see football players studying their playbook on the sideline before the game starts.

It’s all about preparation. I regularly tell my students and customers that you don’t pass a Cisco exam (or any other vendor exam) the day you take it. You pass when you turn the TV off for weeks before the exam to study you pass when you spend time and money to attend a class or buy a book or training video you pass when you give up a weekend to get some hands-on experience. That’s when you pass. The exam score you get is simply feedback on your exam preparation.

There’s a great saying “Prior Preparation Prevents Poor Performance”. That describes to a “T” what your strategy to pass the exam must include. Put the time in well before exam day and you’ll reap the rewards on the big day. If you’re just planting the seeds of knowledge in your car the morning of the exam, don’t expect much of a harvest.

Chris Bryant

CCIE #12933

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage (www.thebryantadvantage.com), home of free CCNA and CCNP tutorials, The Ultimate CCNA Study Package, and Ultimate CCNP Study Packages. Video courses and training, binary and subnetting help, and corporate training are also available.

For a FREE copy of his latest e-books, “How To Pass The CCNA” or “How To Pass The CCNP”, send a request to chris@thebryantadvantage.com today !

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Aspiring Webmasters Want To Know, What Makes A Website Grow?

It appears that most webmasters have come from the world of advertising. Their website content emphasizes “marketing and promotion”. Just to prove my point, do a Google search on “marketing promotion”. As I write, Google comes up with “about 5,910,000″ entries. Gosh imagine the good fortune of a listing on page one! Of course, the number of entries for “marketing promotion” gets shadowed by “sex” which provides you with “about 192,000,000″. It’s not money and sex; it’s sex and money.

Prominent webmasters like Jim Daniels, Cory Rudll,and Kevin Bidwell(one of my favorites) et.al teach you Internet success strategies. Of course, they all started way back in ‘96 (that’s 1996) or so when teaching such concepts made them successful because aspiring webmasters wanted the information. Someone asked me recently if Cory Rudll’s two volume manual collects dust on my desk. Chagrined, I acknowledge, “sitting just to the right of my keyboard” (been there for two years). Then I think of all the other manuals, ebooks purchased to vault my Internet marketing skills.

What then gets you the income so many claim to make? You’ve read the ads, “so and so made $55,000 in one month” and this was their slowest month. Or, affiliate maven makes $463,000 a year marketing affiliate programs. Each of these testimonials appear attached to some alluring ebook which you must have to succeed. Well, hold off. Maybe you just don’t need to enter that credit card number.

Here are 5 considerations to ponder before thinking about income from your website.

Purpose: Never gave much credence to business plans; however, you can’t get from my house to Boston without a map. Whether you write it down (which is best) or create pictures in your mind, there must be a map. A strategy which defines what steps you take. Strategies begin with brainstorming. Sit down, put a blank paper on your desk, grasp your pen, and write. Write anything that comes to mind relevant to your purpose. Write the not so relevant ideas too; who knows they might turn out to be the most important expression of your brainstorming. A number of routes will get you to Boston from my house: some direct and boring, some scenic and slow. Who cares what way you get there. Herman Drost’s article, http://www.echievements.com/articles/2507, “8 Steps to Creating a Simple Business Plan….” provides a “how to” outline.

Persistence: No matter what the hype reads, this takes persistence. Perhaps the only emotion that separates the successful from the no so successful comes down to persistence. Calvin Coolidge’s (1872 - 1933) viewpoint may be worth memorizing. “Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race. Kevin Sinclair’s article, http://www.echievements.com/articles/2508, “Persistence - The Magic Key To Success” inspires you to continue. Also, if you’ve never read Russell Conwell’s “Acres of Diamonds”, it’s a classic worth reading.

Preparation: “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure,” says Colin Powell. Well, historians will assess the current geopolitical “learning from failure”. However, every endeavor requires preparation. Ever watch a chef work? Every summer I work a weekend at a camp which serves 250 men seven meals. Doesn’t sound like much until I observed the chef arrives to work at 3AM. I would get there at 4:15AM in order to dice, chop, stir, and pour in preparation for the next meal. When meals get served, few understand the amount of “prep work” that preceded the meal. No one sees you doing it; it just has to be done. Judy Collins provides clear guidelines on “Ten Steps To Prepare Yourself for Online Marketing” http://www.echievements.com/articles/2509.

Probabilities: As this article is written, the banter of presidential poll interpretation continues. Everyone has an opinion, and every pole a changing nuance. However, reading polls provides some lessons on reading the probabilities of website traffic. Most of us read the primary poll results rather than referring to the “internal tracking polls”. Same may hold true when reading website traffic: we look at the number of visits without reading the “internal tracking”. Travis Reeder provides detailed explanations and reasons for digging deeper into the numbers in his article, http://entrepreneurs.about.com/cs/marketing/a/visitortracking.htm “How (and Why) to Read Your Web Statistics and Analytics” If you do not track visitors, I recommend http://awstats.sourceforge.net/ AWstats. “AWStats is a free powerful and featureful (sic) tool that generates advanced web, ftp or mail server statistics, graphically.” “A reasonable probability is the only certainty,” writes E.W. Howe. So what probabilities do you have for succeeding and how do you measure them?

Personality: Ever converse with someone knowing that person was not “there”? Many websites give the same impression. What does this webmaster think? What matters to them? What message do they want conveyed? One source of information for news and other resources is Yahoo. Yahoo allows you to personalize your page using my.yahoo.com. I think it takes more effort to insert your personality into your work, to evidence your opinions and world view on a website. Every website page represents you implicitly or explicitly. What matters to you should be evident on your website, and your website should represent your values. Little seems to be written about this subject. Terri Seymour’s article, http://www.echievements.com/articles/1296 “The Power of Personality” provides some further insights. Bob Baker’s book, Poor Richard’s Branding Yourself Online provides substantive help. Oscar Wilde’s observation that “Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation” deserves a webmaster’s attention.

As with all enterprise, Internet endeavors involve you with something that does not happen overnight. As with all worthy efforts, it requires a purpose clearly defined, a persistence resolutely affirmed, and a daily preparation involving your complete personality. You must remain passionately focused on the belief that you add value to this incredible enterprise known as the Internet.

A Raymond Randall - EzineArticles Expert Author

About The Author

Ray Randall serves clients as a registered investment advisor with his firm, Ethos Advisory Services, Essex, Massachusetts http://www.ethosadvisory.com. He has wide experience within the financial services industry, writes a weekly newsletter for Ethos Advisory Services, and coordinates the developments at Echievements . Ray holds a Masters Degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Hamilton, MA. You may email him or call (877-895-3756).

rayrandall@echievements.com

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Internet Gambling Keeps Betting Devotees Playing

Many modern gamers have seen the slogan “offshore sports betting”, but many may not be completely confident of what that stands for exactly. A foreign gambling internet site inherently operates exterior to the control of a distinct country instead it can mean an on-line sports betting website that has the bulk of their main servers in a state in which internet based sports gambling is not presently outlawed. So the brief story is then, it is a betting internet site which runs extraneous of the power of the area of the gambler. Computer accessible betting web sites are now modulated through the agency of 3 administrations. These are OSGA (the Offshore Gaming Association), IGC (Interactive Gaming Council) and finally the Fidelity Trust Gaming Association (the FTGA).

The Offshore Gaming Association are a self-controlling institution which regulates the modern overseas sports gaming industry, they strive to also afford sports gamblers the means to easily identify trust-worthy websites to play games of chance on, without stress. It labors to look after consumer’s rights, also they don’t levy any particaption expenses.

The association is a professional and impartial third party company who give non-biased impressions, advised by customer feedback, nonpartisan research, phone discussions, insider advice and to impart inside news.

The IGC are a not-for-profit administration. The council was set up to provide a forum for interested individuals to address pertinent issues also to improve mutual matters in the worldwide online gambling profession, in an effort to establish scrupulous not to mention sound trade codes and practises that raise consumer certainty in world wide web based wagering merchandise and utilities, and to function as the offshore gaming trade’s global procedure advocate and it also offers an info base of operations.

The IGC have developed a name for promoting reliability, good behavior and also plausibility via its tough code of conduct, also its appeal to honorable businesses. The IGC regularises offshore gaming by means of using a particular 10-point set of standards and in addition bills sports gambling business enterprises a license fee to feature the council’s logo. Unfulfilled gamblers may, should they wish, recount their conflicts to the IGC.

The Fidelity Trust Gaming Association has been founded in an attempt to create a standard which will upgrade the procedures of web based gaming internet sites. The IGC trust that by affiliating with partners of honorable reputation, they are able to perfect a union of the most sportsmanlike and professional overseas gambling operations internationally.

These are governing bodies who oversee the transactions of on-line sports gambling and which should through time function to ease a lot of the trepidation experienced by skeptics. Web based sports gaming internet sites are absolutely secure, now that private details shouldn’t be needed and in addition the payouts and the gaming odds should be equivalent to your usual Vegas-style sports wager. They lower traveling, but nonetheless keep the spirit of a Vegas-style betting site, only now you are enabled to gamble in your home.

online sport betting tip

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December 26, 2008

Six Easy Changes with Big Fitness Impacts

Fitness can be tough to achieve, and many people think that you must make drastic changes in order to see results from your fitness program.

The truth is that you don’t have to radically alter your lifestyle to see a change in your weight or health; sometimes a simple change can have a big impact! Here are some simple tips that can make a big difference in your own health!

1. Can the soda.

This one is tough for me personally, but its results can be amazing! Eliminating (or at least reducing) the amount of soda or pop you drink can make an enormous difference in your waistline in just a week! Sodas are full of sugar and calories, and are practically worthless nutritionally. Drinking more than one a day adds some serious calories to your daily intake, and can result in multiple pounds on your body. Cutting out your daily soda saves you more than 87,000 calories over a year’s time - that’s equal to over twenty-five pounds! Try a simple experiment: do not drink soda for one week (7 days) and weigh yourself at the beginning and end of the week. You’ll be surprised at the change you can see and feel.

2. Add more fiber to your diet.

Fiber in your diet fills you up faster and actually expands in your stomach to literally fill the empty space far better than other kinds of food. Eating plenty of fiber will keep your appetite under control as well as maintaining a healthy GI tract at the same time. A variety of vegetables and breads are good sources of fiber, so there are many options to choose from.

3. Get more sleep.

Despite eight hours remaining the gold standard for sleeping hours, few adults actually sleep that much during the night; most average around five or six hours. The lack of sleep doesn’t just make you drowsy during the day; it can also make you prone to cravings, irritable, and even cause you to gain weight. Studies have shown that failure to get adequate sleep suppresses the production of leptin, a peptide that tells the body to burn calories. Getting just another hour of sleep helps correct sleep debt and can make you feel better almost instantly.

4. Drink plenty of water…

Your body is more than half water, so replenish it! Water is one of the most powerful allies in the battle against excess weight. When you are dehydrated, your body sends signals to the brain that get misinterpreted as hunger pangs. Drinking enough water throughout the day keeps you satisfied and can ward off unpleasant issues like decreased energy, constipation and slowed mental reactions. A good general guideline is to drink eight 8-oz. glasses of water throughout the day, but pay attention to your body’s needs. Drink more water if you feel your body needs it.

5. …Eat your calories.

Don’t allow yourself to be fooled into drinking your daily calories through soda, beer and wine. These beverages rack up the calories in a fast and furious way, and are full of sugars that make you crave even more. Satisfy your hunger and the emotional need to eat by choosing nutrient-rich food with a minimum of preservatives and you’ll save yourself from empty calories.

6. Take 10,000 steps every day.

Recent studies show that most people estimate their number of steps per day to be ten thousand or more. In actuality, that number is more likely in the 3,000 - 4,000 range. Challenge yourself by buying a pedometer and wearing during an average day. Check the total number of steps at the end of the day - anything less than 5,000 needs improvement! Ten thousand steps are roughly equal to four miles of walking. Make it your goal to take ten thousand steps every day and keep working until you get there. This simple change can help you burn calories and fat as you take care of everyday chores, so keep stepping and watch your pedometer count up those steps! Consider taking the stairs instead of the elevator, or walking to lunch instead of driving to add more steps to your day.

Trying these very basic changes that won’t cost you a lot of time, effort or money, but they can give you noticeable results in a short period of time. Incorporate these changes with your daily exercise program and give the new you a smile in the mirror!

—————————————————————– —-

Copyright 2005, easyfitnessinfo.com. All rights reserved. Always consult your physician before beginning any exercise or fitness program. This article may be freely distributed as long as it is not edited in any way.

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Get Women’s Swimwear on the Internet

Nowadays very many people prefer to purchase their swimwear online; shopping online is an easy & fitting way to shop in the freedom of your own sitting room. Find designer lingerie and swimwear brands from around the world at Becheeky, visit the website.

It’s imperative to ensure whilst procuring swimwear on the World Wide Web that it defiantly fits you right. When you acquire swimwear on the Internet always make certain that the shop supplies a helpful quality sizing diagram that provides all of the measurements you need. With the assistance of a sizing chart one can make sure to obtain a swimsuit or bikini that fits precisely, as a result reducing the need to swap for another size. By and large most of the swimwear stores do not allow an exchange of goods so it is typically always better to pick a retail store where exchanges are permitted. Many retail shops will allow the returns of swimwear if the tags and the original packaging are also returned along with it.

Swimwear is an expected part of the summertime; despite this a vast majority of full-figured females feel intimidated at the thought of shopping for swimsuits & bikinis that fit right. These women even contemplate about wearing caftans by the swimming pool or at the beach instead of looking unattractive. Designers and shopkeepers have recognized the fashion problems of the overweight woman, and are at last featuring a wide mixture of stylish bathing suit designs in XL sizes, and the best place to find such swimwear is to buy swimwear on the Internet.

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December 25, 2008

Screenwriting Tips from a Screenplay Contest Judge

After cracking hundreds of screenplays sent into the BlueCat Screenplay Competition, the same problems in the execution of the story and script continue to emerge. Here is a general overview of these persistent issues.

Do you realize what you’re saying?? In the theatre, they read plays aloud over and over in the process of script development, and one of the reasons they do this is to hear the dialogue. When I hear dialogue in my head, it might sound very good, but then when I hear a person actually speak it, I often have an impulse to jump in front of a bus. And over and over and over and over, when I read screenplay entries to BlueCat, I am immediately dismayed when the characters start speaking. Excellent everything else, awful dialogue. And I often wonder if the writer has actually heard the lines they have written for their characters out loud. Either read the whole thing aloud to yourself, or even better, get a group of your friends to read it. You do not need professional actors to evaluate dialogue. Just people excited to help. Videotape it. I have videotaped readings, and then sat down and worked out an entire rewrite off the tape, addressing every single line that bothered me. Which leads me to another thing.

Ha. It’s hard to pass a screenplay on to industry contacts if an unfunny joke is sitting in the middle of page two. It’s highly difficult if there’s twelve by page five. You might have a payoff in your third act that would break my heart, but if your jokes are poor, the heart of your audience will be shot, probably resentful, and your work will be recycled. Please try your humor out. If your beats aren’t funny to some people, rewrite. Trust a truly hilarious bit is coming. Think of the patience you need to muster through this writing process as courage, because it is.

If you find you are not funny, write a script that is not funny. Many, many great scripts are not funny, as we all know.

Mispellings. Do you think the development people in Los Angeles, basically the smartest people in the film industry, will not be annoyed and continue to read your script when you have misspelled three words in the first five pages? Perhaps. How do you feel when you’re reading something and you find misspelled words? How does your attitude shift towards the author? Exactly. If you don’t think many scripts have this problem, start a screenwriting competition.

OKAY, WE GOT IT! Try to limit your scene description. When a person opens your script, how many INCHES of action slug are they looking at on page one? Is there anyway you can convey what you want us to SEE with less words? I always go back and CUT CUT CUT to prevent my screenplay from fatiguing my reader with excess words as they try to listen for my story. Do we need to know what necklace someone is wearing? We all understand making motion pictures is collaborative. I strive to let the art department and the costumer and the prop master and so on DO THEIR JOB by not making their decisions in the screenplay, because I have little passion for it and don’t do it well. They will make their own choices, and most likely better ones, so why bother? Always use fewer words to say the same thing.

It’s not show and tell, it’s show not tell. I constantly find myself being told something by the screenplay the viewer of the film will not be aware of. Screenplays are not literature. They are words assembled to describe what motion pictures will play out on the screen. Telling us a character is a jealous person is passive and dull. Showing a character in an act of jealousy is more effective and essentially cinematic. Let the words and actions of your characters carry your story. This is not easy. You want the actor or director to understand what you want and what you mean. Allow the description of physical actions and the recording of spoken words reveal the narrative to the filmmakers. The script will read faster and offers the reader a richer opportunity to imagine and discover.

The Joy of Making Things Up. I really cherish the idea, that as a writer, I can make things up. If I want the guy to say something, all I have to do is type it. But I have to fight against creating characters and interactions amongst characters derived from movies I have watched and television I have seen. I often find myself writing a scene only to realize I’m not drawing from my imagination or my own life experience or my observations of people, I’m drawing from the millions of hours of observing actors play human beings on television and in movie theaters. And because I’m writing a “MOVIE,” it is even more difficult, because I’m fighting against a subconscious or unconscious observation that this is “how people act in movies.” Stop yourself and ask, would this happen on planet Earth? Do I know how people from Miami really speak? What would a person actually say if they had a gun in their face? Can you possibly imagine what could happen? This is your opportunity to be truly imaginative. Answer your own expectations of original work. A mature writer develops a strong capacity to recognize and reject the false.

Ouch. Forced exposition. This is when a brother tells a sister on page two that he will be attending a school which dad wouldn’t pay for because he bought a farm that the whole family will be moving to tomorrow because he found that the city was a really bad place to live in after mom was really scared because of that mugging thing that happened after they came back from the sister’s graduation from high school. When characters engage in an unbelievable conversation about matters in which they would be familiar with, or when they proclaim something completely out of nowhere simply to inform the audience of key facts crucial to their understanding of the movie, you have a problem. This awkward exposition will not be seen as genuine human behavior and will detach your audience from the emotional current of your story. Exposition is necessary and difficult to execute. Be careful how you offer information crucial to your story at the start of your screenplay. This is a common problem in early drafts. Exposition needs to be seamless and graceful.

Format. You know what? Go get a script and copy what you think it looks like and you’ll be fine. Trust me. Spec scripts are sitting on desks all over Hollywood and their format is not consistent at all. Getting crazy about format sells screenwriting software. I use two tab settings and copied stuff from a book and not one person in the film industry has ever said a thing to me in ten years. But if your script looks like a book, or a poem, or a magazine article, your screenplay format is wrong. Just make it look a little like a movie script, and if it kicks ass, guess what.

So do you.

Article URL address: www.bluecatscreenplay.com/About/advice.php

About the Author Winner of the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance Film Festival for LOVE LIZA, Gordy Hoffman has wrote and directed three digital shorts for Fox Searchlight. Made his feature directorial debut with his script, A COAT OF SNOW,world premiering at 2005 Locarno Intl Film Festival. Also founder of BlueCat Screenplay Competition, which provides written screenplay analysis on every entry.Gordy acts as a script consultant for screenwriters, offering personalized feedback, www.screenplaynotes.com.

Copyright © 2006 BlueCat Screenplay Competition

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December 24, 2008

Discover the Magic of the Most Beautiful Words in the English Language

‘Summer afternoon - summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.’ Henry James.

What are the most beautiful words in the English language? The answer to this subjective question will obviously vary from person to person depending, as it does, on the meaning, the sound, the context, and the connotation of the word or words in question.

‘Words strain,

Crack and sometimes break, under the burden,

Under the tension, slip, slide, perish,

Decay with imprecision, will not stay in place,

Will not stay still.’

T.S. Eliot, ‘Four Quartets’

And yet if you scan the works of the most fastidious and discerning writers you will find certain words that are almost universally accepted as ‘beautiful’.

‘You can stroke people with words.’ F. Scott Fitzgerald, ‘The Crack-Up’

Here is Part 1 of my list of ‘beautiful’ words. Are there any words you would remove from or add to this list? Let me know what you think.

autumn

beloved

blandishments

blossom

butterfly

cadence

caress

carol

champagne

chime

crimson

crystal

darling

dawn

delicious

delight

desolate

dream

dulcet

dusk

echo

eglantine

enchant

eternal

ethereal

glistening

goblet

golden

gossamer

harmony

harvest

idyllic

languid

languorous

laughter

love

lullaby

lustrous

magic

Email your suggestions for ‘The Most Beautiful Words in The English Language’ to: assignmentsplus1@aol.com

Gerard McLoughlin is the author of ‘15 hours To A Powerful English Vocabulary’.

To view this course, please visit http://www.assignmentsplus.com/vocabularycourse1.html

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Expending client base in interpretation and translation services: Have you ever thought of working w

Networking with another professionals and companies is the key to grow freelance translation or interpretation business sector. It is also very challenging to develop steady cooperation with perspective clients since the market is overwhelmed with any type of translation services. However, if one possesses creativity, and knows which domains are demanding, and less competitive, he or she may find networking and self-promotion easier to conduct. By brainstorming an interpreter or a translator may discover, for instance that a Speech- Language Pathologist will need his or her services.

What does a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) do? SLP evaluates, diagnoses and treats individuals who exhibit speech, language, voice, fluency, and swallowing disorders. Now, you may wonder why this professional needs your interpretation or translation services. SLP who works in culturally diverse areas such as Australia, Canada or United States (USA), he/she finds working face-to-face with an interpreter necessary. For instance, according to the U.S. Census Bureau there are approximately 50 million people in the USA who speak a language other then English at home. (American Community Survey, 2002). In Los Angeles, one of the most diverse cities in the USA there are 150 languages spoken in public schools, and many cultural communities such as: African American, Armenian, Chinese, Korean, Polish, Russian and other. When working in US public schools, SLP is required by the law (Special Education Legislation) to conduct assessment in student’s native language. That’s when an interpreter or a translator plays an important role. An interpreter can be involved in many different tasks such as participating in process of evaluation, diagnosis and treatment when collaborating with SLP. One of the responsibilities is to translate spoken words from one language to another when SLP performs the standardized or non-standardized testing, and gives instructions to a patient. In addition, an interpreter will be involved in some type of analysis that will help SLP to distinguish between language difference and language disorder. An interpreter therefore, will not only interpret words but also pay close attention to the production of sounds, language competence such as grammar, pragmatics of given culture and cognitive behavior of a patient. An interpreter will help SLP to determine if a mother tongue of a client is deviant, and if the “errors” that occur in second language are due to interference of first language. Moreover, an interpreter will be needed during an interview when SLP collects background information from a client such as medical, developmental history, speech/language acquisition history, and family and social history. Furthermore, an interpreter may be needed during treatment when SLP or a client decides that therapy in native language is necessary and beneficial. A translator may offer his/ her services to SLP since the questionnaire forms, consent forms, evaluation, diagnosis, treatment and progress reports should also be presented in native language of a client who may not be able to read in his second language. How can I network with those professionals? First of all find places that are cultural and linguistically diverse. Promote your services by contacting or even visiting public schools, private practices that offer speech/language therapy, hospitals, local clinics, rehabilitation centers, nursing care facilities, colleges and universities, state and local health departments, state and federal government agencies, home health agencies. Also, visit ASHA (American Speech Hearing Association) website.

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December 23, 2008

Proposal Writing Strategies

There are two main reasons to write a business proposal. Either someone has invited you to submit a RFP (Request for Proposal); or you are trying to gain support or funding from your employer or another organization.

When drafting a proposal the most important thing to keep in mind is that the reader is looking for benefits; they want to know how your product, service, or idea adds value to their operation. Therefore your proposal must be well-written and it also must clearly indicate how you can fulfill a current need.

Here are a few tips to help you improve your proposal:

1. Make the proposal about your customer. A proposal is not the time to tell about your mission, your locations, or how long you have been in business. Instead you should state how these (or any other) aspects benefit your client.

2. Show and don’t tell. Do not tell your prospect what you can do for them, but show them using clear examples. Avoid unsubstantiated hype like “best value”, “low risk”, and “cutting edge”; unless you are willing to prove it.

3. Be careful not to include irrelevant information. If you are making the proposal about the reader, and showing instead of telling, then you should have no problem with this.

4. If you are responding to a RFP, read the request more than once. You want to ensure that you completely grasp the requirements.

5. Show your creditability. Who have you worked with before? How did you help them and how does that relate to the company you are submitting this proposal to?

6. Watch your language. It is very important to make sure your proposal is politically correct. Additionally, you want to avoid jargon unless it is commonly known in the field you are targeting. Also, avoid writing in passive voice.

7. Include samples if it is appropriate. This is a great way to show that you are capable of handling the job.

8. Be specific. State your time frame for completing the project and your rates (if applicable). This will help eliminate differences in expectations.

9. Above all, if you are a poor writer, seek assistance. Proposal writing is time-consuming and it requires a certain amount of skill.

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All I See Is You

This is a great poem to check out. Let us know what you think by voting on www.originalpoetry.com Your input is greatly appreciated. Thank you!Your kiss is the deepest kiss I have ever felt before you touch ignites overwhelming passion within I am drawn in by your eyes light brown pools of delicious sincerity you stimulate me to the point of expulsion - intellectually I have never been in such a state in such a short period of time when you touch it is without possession when you kiss it is without jealously you have captured my heart and mind yet the prison door swings wide open you hold not own you love not control with you there are no complications with you there is a freedom I have never felt before you dove into my heart and sorted out the clutter you took a stroll within my mind stopping long to admire the landscape your smile tells me you are happy just knowing I exist in this world I longed for you before I ever knew you existed no longer is there a need for tears and bittersweet kisses the veil over my eyes has been lifted and all I see is you

www.originalpoetry.com

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