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OuterNotes Newsletter
Vol. 2, Issue 9
February 13, 2001
Kournikova Virus, More Unforced Errors and Low-Cost WPs Aside from certain other attributes, Anna Kournikova is notorious for double-faulting 31 times at the 1999 Australian Open -- and her namesake e-mail virus is playing similar havoc with mailservers all over the Net. If you're a Microsoft Outlook user, don't make the unforced error of opening any attachments with the subject "Here you have, ;o)" or the attachment "AnnaKournikova.jpg.vbs." As for other net stars, we've got a Wooden (not Trojan) Horse site that's an great source of market news, seven Swedish students' stellar guide to researching the Internet, and a former Harvard Law professor's primer on clear writing. A few old style guides -- the archives of the Copyediting-l mailing list and a Washington State University professor's Common Errors in English will make you as correct as you are clear. On the gadget/software front, we've got two more low-cost word processors that are optimized for working writers, and a picture-perfect site that explains how to buy and use digital cameras. If you have a site, article or gadget you'd like to review -- or would like to send any feedback at all -- the address is gtrotta@outerforce.com; you can read our back issues at http://www.trottamedia.com/outernotes/. And if you really wish to safely learn more about Miss Kournikova, check the MSNBC Special on her game at http://www.msnbc.com/news/spt/tennis/anna/default.asp.--Gian Trotta, OuterNotes Editor In This Issue:
http://www.woodenhorsepub.com/ You can't beat this wooden horse for fast facts and strong insights on the latest market news. Veteran high-tech marketer Meg Weaver's well-designed site delivers articles such as "Writers to use personal experience to successfully pitch Mademoiselle," "FringeGolf targets young golfing hipsters," and "Will Magazine Writers Become Promo Writers?" Shorter news dispatches in the Fast News and Content Watch sections can also help writers seeking new markets and editors tracking their competitors. Their free searchable Periodicals Data Marketbase offers content and contacts on over 2000 magazines, but will soon switch to a subscription basis of $1.99 for 24 hours or $149.00 year. So you may want to quickly put the site through its paces before deciding whether to pony up in the future. --Michael O'Brien [Editor's OuterNote: In a similar vein, http://www.writenews.com/ is worth a visit for breaking news that can help you find new markets -- or stay a step ahead of your competitors.] 2. ...And USUS Serves Up Useful Net Research Tipshttp://www.usus.org/ Seven Stockholm University School of Journalism graduates from six different countries have created USUS, or The Usually Useful Internet Guide for Journalists. Despite its hokey layout (these are journalists not designers, after all), you'll find well-written techniques to locate people online, conduct virtual interviews, fact-check stories and manage research time. The detailed descriptions of how search engines differ according to indices (spiders), catalogs (created by humans), hybrids (Excite, Infoseek, Lycos, and Northern Light) and meta search engines and the easy explanation of how to use FTP to maintain a Web site are especially valuable. --Peggy LeTrent A Harvard Grad Takes a Bat to Jargon... http://www.clearwriting.net Harvard Law graduate Ken Bresler's experience with legal writing -- at his first job, he was criticized for writing too clearly -- spawned this site dedicated to eradicating excessive jargon. His crystal-clear critiques of sample legal documents, Alexander Cartwright's Rules of Baseball and product labels -- and a split-screen "Sample" section that highlight examples of good and bad writing -- are an invaluable aid to Web writers seeking to communicate but not obfuscate. --Jennis S. Bev 4. ...As Another Site Targets Common Errors http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html Dr. Paul Brians' award-winning "Common Errors in English" site has been updated only sporadically since its inception in 1997, but its well-presented content has stood the test of time. It's idiosyncratic and does not pretend to be totally comprehensive; rather, he focuses on pet peeves in usage. An easy-access A-Z list of Common Errors that assists you in improving your American English usage; he also provides other good resources for UK English, English as a second-language (ESL), grammar and writing. All are available as a single ASCII text file for offline reference. --Mariateresa Thiery 5. The Copyediting-l Mailing Is Out, But Votes Are In www.telp.com/editing/sfindex.htm Tom Tadfor Little organized this collaborative effort from the now-defunct Copyediting-l mailing list's contributors into a style guide that includes votes and comments from hundreds of editors on some of the stickiest style points. You'll find guidance (and an entertaining mix dissenting opinions) on conundrums particular to Web writing such as acronyms, apostrophes, possessives, split infinitives and dangling participles. As an example, 60 editors voted to keep the hyphen in "e-mail"; 24 voted to trash the dash. On a less metaphysical level, the sections devoted to work rates and pay scales for editors are also worth a read for anyone pricing their services or staffing a department. --Mariateresa Thiery 6. Purdue's Online Writing Lab Shares More Resources http://owl.english.purdue.edu/internet/tools/research.html http://owl.english.purdue.edu/internet/resources/index.html Purdue University's Online Writing Lab, also known as OWL, has two sections of information that merit a quick tour to build your own bookmark collection. The Internet Research Starting Point has a small but choice list of links to valuable research information on topics ranging from Art History to Psychology; the engineering, government and history sections are especially well-chosen. The Online Resources directory points to a similarly selcet group of online writing, research/reference, scholarly writing and educational links. --Debbie Cissell 7. TextPad Offers a Good WP in a Small Package... http://www.textpad.com/ Writers find that Microsoft Word to have an excessive amount of bells and whistles; on the other end of the spectrum, Notepad is far to limited to be useful. TextPad may just assuage your needs. It is a small (approximately 2.5 megabytes) download with a variety of desirable features such as a spell checker, dictionaries in 10 languages, the use of Universal Naming Conventions, the capability of editing huge files, multiple language interfaces, the ability to simultaneous edit files, a keystroke macro recorder, and much more. The download is free, but the cost is $27.00 if you decide to keep the program. Hundreds of free add-ons, such as utilities, clip libraries, dictionaries, macros, and syntax definitions let you opt to keep it simple or customize Textpad to fit your specific needs. --Karin Call 8 ...And RoughDraft Does the Same for Free http://www.rsalsbury.co.uk/roughdraft/index.htm Like TextPad, it doesn't have Microsoft Word's extensive feature set, but if you never use the advanced functions (or can't afford Microsoft's opus), you'll like this free gem that occupies only 4 megabytes of hard disk space. The File, Find, Insert, and Pad tabs allow easy access to your files on your computer, let you find and replace items, count the instances a word appears in your document, and make side notes about your work in progress. A pop-up spell-checker that lets you insert special characters and links to reference materials (such as Dictionary.com and Online English Grammar) under the Help menu are other nice added touches. --Debbie Cissell 9. The Digital Camera Resource Page Puts It All In Focus http://www.dcresource.com/ The Digital Camera Resource Page is a gives you the answers you really want -- such as how to afford the champagne of digital cameras on a beer budget. Founded back in 1997 by 24-year-old Jeff Keller, the wunderkind behind such sites as PowerWatch and iMac2Day, it offers up-to-the minute news, in-depth reviews (which include where to find the lowest price on the Net), a message board for registered users (almost 40,000 of them at last count) and a photo-printing service. You'll also find a comprehensive list of links that include camera accessories and manufacturers, other price-tracking sites, photo sharing/printing sites, digital imaging software links, and even a list of other digital camera sites! In short, the DCRP is a snap to navigate, and this reviewer could not find any negatives. --Max Kovins 10. OuterPoll: Are You Ditching Your Dot-Com? We're continuing our OuterPoll of our readers' plans; we'd love to hear if you're going to (or from) a dot-com and traditional company, freelance and consult only, or leave the content business altogether. You can cast your vote -- and enter your always-welcome comments at http://www.outerforce.net/submit/illillyyisopppw.asp. --Gian Trotta OuterNotes is produced using the OuterForce Platform, which allows publishers to easily recruit and manage remote and freelance content creation and export it into their publishing platform of choice. For more information, see http://www.outerforce.com. Copyright 2001 by OuterNotes. All rights reserved. OuterNotes is a trademark of OuterForce Systems, Inc. Return to Main Archive Page |