November 6, 2010
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Writing articles with so many required words and phrases is a challenge.
It wouldn’t be so bad if the requester didn’t also demand the article be well written.
Look, folk, you can have a 600-700 word piece be well written, or you can have it with eight multiple word phrases used six or seven times each, but you cannot have both. There is no way an article can have that much repetition and be well written.
It would also be nice were the standard rule be followed that single digit numbers, especially, are written in word form, not numeric. Putting “service for 6″ (ditto 4 and 8) six times in a 700 word article made me grit my teeth. Fortunately, if the article actually shows up somewhere it won’t have my name on it.
So far I’ve written very little that I’d be willing to claim. Presumably the idea is to get hits for Google and other search engines, but it still bugs me.
At about a penny per word, it doesn’t pay much, either. OTOH, something is better than nothing.
On a cheerful note, I GOT A JOB THIS MORNING!!! I’m going to work the counter (including operating the expresso machine) at the soon-to-be-opened Black Rooster Bakery.
It’s closed on Sundays and Mondays, and I’ve Wednesdays off (I’m part-time), so I can still go to my Women’s Club meetings, Van Cliburn concerts, church, and so on. I fear the choir will have to go, as I’d prefer to attend the Women in the Word on Thursday nights. Starting in January the study will be on Isaiah, one of my very favorite books of the bible. 
And one of the perks of the job is being able to take home the breads and goodies that don’t get sold during the day. Oh my.
TCU v. Utah is starting, though on a channel AT&T doesn’t carry (along with the FOOD NETWORK, which had better get mended f-a-s-t). The Oregon game is on ABC, however, so I may tune into that and pray for what would almost qualify as a miracle, i.e. for them to get beaten by Washington.
Dad always said any team can beat any other team on any given day, so you never know. Upsets do happen, and while the Oregon fans would be upset, indeed, I would be tickled pink!
