How to Get Expert Writing Feedback: A Special Offer
Here's what I'm offering to get you started and to see if you should become a part of my program. Send me up to 3,000 words of your writing and an introductory paragraph about what the writing sample is, whether it is a complete work or part of a larger one, why you chose the subject and form and what your aspirations are as a writer (and if the text is a speech I'd like to know for what occasion). I'll conduct a six-point evaluation that I'll present to you during an hour-long phone discussion to see if you should become part of my workshop training program. And I'll do this for $95. Call me at 845-613-7144 or email me your work at richard@confidentwriter.com
Six-Step Evaluation
Sentences and paragraphs
This is a look at how you are using the building blocks of language and grammar. I want to find out if you are using active verbs, energetic topic sentences, development sentences that neatly follow one another and seal-the-deal sentences to finish paragraphs. I also want to see if you are varying sentence structure effectively.
Story-telling prowess
For this part of the evaluation I will read your writing more quickly to follow the flow and logic. My main interest is to see if you are directing my attention from place to place in an orderly way and if you are moving me through your writing gracefully from beginning to end. I'll look for any foreshadowing or surprises in your material.
Language
The words you choose will be determined by what you are writing. So I'll want to see language used appropriate to the writing form. It makes no difference whether you are aiming for playfulness or precision.
Style and voice
These are marks of more sophisticated writers but any piece of writing is a chance to explore style for present purposes or for use later. Arid, academic tones are appropriate in many places. But it's also useful to know how you would write in a letter or a memoir because you can tap some of those expressions to enliven almost any other form of writing.
Fact, feeling and expressive power
This is my estimate of the intangible value of what you write beyond the individual elements. Are you presenting factual information in a fresh way? Is there an endearing or identifiable tone? What aren't you doing that could amp the power of your words?
Opportunities to submit for publication
My thoughts always turn toward how someone can place their words in print or on the web. In this there's a kind of validation but also potential sources of feedback, new mentors and paychecks.