You may have had one or more of your articles rejected for use of the first person point-of-view (POV), and you may be wondering in what cases the “I” voice is unacceptable. I’ll explain.

Author Intrusion

In most cases, the “I” slips into articles even if the article begins by addressing the reader as “you.” When the reader is suddenly hit with the author’s opinion or experience, this is uncomfortable and is known as “author intrusion.” When a reader has been set up to absorb information directed at them, it can be awkward to suddenly hear the voice of the author. Voice or POV should stay consistent throughout a piece, whether it is first-, second-, or third-person.

Web Writing

However, for web writing, “I” should rarely be used. Constant Content will, of course, accept articles that are submitted for requests that require the inclusion of personal experience, narratives, or anecdotes. For other writing, “I” is hardly ideal. Why? Because readers want to know what is true for them if they are seeking information. The experience of the writer is usually irrelevant, as the writer is only one person. Authors of articles at Constant Content should seek to explain what is generally true in a broad sense. This will not only make your article more useful to readers, but it will make it more useful to the customer who buys it.

Ex. You write an article about poison ivy. However, you happen to be immune to poison ivy’s toxins. Instead of saying, “Poison ivy will make you itch, but I am immune to it,” it would be better to say, “Poison ivy will make most people itch, however, there are a few people who happen to be immune to this plant’s toxins.”

Goals of Articles Submitted to Constant Content

Articles submitted to Constant Content should, above all, offer something to the reader. Personal narratives rarely do this. Most people reading web writing are seeking information. A personal narrative that does not connect to the reader does not offer the reader anything. Articles that fall into this category may be perceived as a waste of the reader’s time. In addition, a reader who does not suspect that the article will provide them what they are looking for after the first few sentences will cease to keep reading.

Blogs

Even blog authors are straying from the use of the word “I.” Personal blogs are still in the styles of diaries. However, blogs more often offer information that is up-to-date and informative. In this case, the first-person POV is once again rendered irrelevant.

Credibility and Professionalism

In addition, because writers for Constant Content rarely have connections with the publications in which their work is featured, the “I” can become even more problematic. The reader is not familiar with the writer or the writer’s work. The “I” is a stranger, and the stranger may not be able to be trusted in the reader’s eyes. Removing the “I” from articles submitted to Constant Content will lend more credibility and professionalism to the information.

Final Note

The reader doesn’t care about the process it takes to write an article. If you give them a step-by-step about what you went through to gather the information you present, they will quickly grow bored and stop reading. Present the result of your research, not the process. Cite credible sources (”The FDA reports . . . ” not “My mother says . . . “) that inspire confidence in the information.

When an article is approved or rejected, an author will receive an e-mail from Constant Content. Rejection e-mails contain suggestions or reasons for why the article was rejected. Please read these e-mails before posting to the forums to ask why your article was rejected.

We try to give you as much help as we can, but we’ve been very busy lately with a lot of submissions and cannot take the time to enumerate every error. Once an article has been rejected, it is purged from our system.

Authors are responsible for revising, proofreading, and checking grammar, punctuation and spelling.

The decision has been made. We are no longer accepting fiction.

Why? Fiction doesn’t have a great record here at Constant-Content. Customers are generally looking for well-written, informational articles. Fiction doesn’t sell their products, draw readers to their websites or print publications, or provide useful information for the majority of readers.

While we recognize that fiction has its place, that place is not on Constant-Content. There are outlets for fiction elsewhere, on the web or in print. Publications that accept work but do not pay are the best outlets for writers who want to try their hand at fiction . . . from there, they can move up as their writing matures and hopefully gets recognized by someone with clout. Most respected sources will reiterate how difficult fiction – especially short fiction – is to sell.

In addition, Constant-Content’s editors simply do not have time to process fiction submissions. There is a lot more to editing a fiction piece than there is an informational piece. Not only do editors have to take into consideration technical ability, we also have to look at plot, character development, and how the separate elements of the story (scene, voice, creative use of time) fit together to form a complete piece.

Finally, we would prefer that fiction pieces find homes where they will have better opportunities to be seen. At Constant-Content, if a writer has effectively “published” a story by having their work accepted, it may render the story unable to be accepted elsewhere. As it is unlikely that the piece will be seen here at Constant-Content and that it will not get the attention it deserves, either from editors or from potential buyers, we feel it is better that fiction writers market their work in outlets specifically designed for the fiction arena.

This is rehashed from a forum post from a few months back, but I thought I’d repost it here for anyone who hasn’t seen it.

Semicolons. Their misuse is one of my biggest peeves, simply because they are so easy to use.

There are only two situations in which you would use a semicolon.

The first is to separate two sentences that are related.

“I love my dog; she’s small and quiet.”
“Teenagers often drink without their parents’ knowledge; parents should monitor their children more closely.”

The second is to separate clauses after a colon when the use of only commas will cause confusion.

“Laura bought three dresses: the first was pink, grey and white; the second was green with horizontal yellow stripes; and the third was, for whatever reason, neon orange.”

Semicolons are not used

In place of colons
In place of commas
For any other situation except for the two mentioned above

Please — if you do not know how to properly use a semicolon, don’t use it. Semicolons don’t make an article appear more sophisticated if they are used incorrectly; they have the opposite effect.

On the other hand, a well-used semicolon is a beautiful thing. Don’t abuse it!

Most writers will eventually stumble upon a punctuation enigma: quotation marks. As per standard American usage, always use double quotation marks when setting off a single word, title, or phrase. The only time you use single quotation marks are when you are quoting within a quotation: The woman said, “I am what many people call a ‘foodie.’” Quotation marks are suitable for irony, titles of artistic works, nicknames, but not for emphasis. To create emphasis, italicize the word.

The other important thing to understand about quotation marks is how to punctuate. Periods and commas belong inside the end quotation mark. For example: Last night, I went to see “Ocean’s 13.” A question mark goes inside the end quotation mark if the subject being quoted is a question. For example: The man asked, “Why do I need to know about punctuation?” The question mark belongs outside the end quotation mark if the quoted material is part of a question. For example: What did you think of last night’s episode of “The Sopranos”?

Generally speaking, quotation mark usage in the UK is the opposite.

As you may have experienced, articles may be rejected if the short summary is not original. A short summary should not be cut-and-pasted from the article you have written – especially the first paragraph. You should strive to summarize your whole article in a new way in the short summary. The short summary is there to give customers a brief overview of the information contained within.

This is their first look at your article. Make it count!

If you simply paste your first paragraph into the short summary box, when they get to the long summary, they’ll have to read this information after they’ve already read it once. This is a waste of time for customers, who may pore over dozens of articles searching for those that fit the needs of their sites precisely. Not only that, but a first paragraph is often much lengthier than a short summary should be and doesn’t always convey the central idea of the article. One to three sentences is probably the ideal length for a short summary – this will allow the customer to quickly get an idea about the article’s pertinence to his or her needs.

A short summary is also where you would include any extra information that would be useful to the customer. For example, your article may include references or a table to illustrate your point, or be written to the customer’s specifications. Don’t, however, include any promotional language, as this is one practice that Constant-Content will not allow.

If you’ve got a special note to the editor – like “Article was previously submitted for a Private Request. The customer no longer needs this article, so I am submitting it for general purchase.” – you can put it in the short summary as well. Prefacing it with “Note to Editor:” will help grab our attention.

On Constant-Content, all titles must be capitalized correctly. What do we mean by that?

All words of your title, except for conjunctions and prepositions, should be capitalized. Obviously, you capitalize the first word of your title, even if it is included in one of these exceptions. Longer prepositions, like “around,” may also be capitalized.

If you’re having trouble, peruse recently uploaded articles to get an idea of what others are doing. If you’re stuck on whether or not to capitalize a word, just ask yourself if it is one of the two above-mentioned exceptions. If it isn’t, capitalize it!

Do not capitalize: a, an, the, in, at, to, etc.

Capitalize nouns, verbs, pronouns, possessive pronouns (even “your”), adverbs, etc.

Some examples:

• Walking Your Dog
• Into the Forest
• Making Mobiles out of Scrap Metal
• What Time Is It?
• Travel Around the World

The editors won’t reject an article if you capitalize every word except conjunctions. However, if you’ve got words that aren’t capitalized that don’t fall into either exception category, there’s a problem. Please be conscientious about your capitalization!

Some conversations in the forum as well as a couple of recent submissions have prompted me to answer the question to which every writer needs to know the answer:

What is grammar?

Merriam-Webster (m-w.com) defines it as:
1 a : the study of the classes of words, their inflections, and their functions and relations in the sentence
2 a : the characteristic system of inflections and syntax of a language b : a system of rules that defines the grammatical structure of a language

Grammar is, in essence, the way words relate to each other in order to create meaning.

Call me unimaginative, but I can’t think of any situation where grammar rules can be broken, except in dialogue.

It is true that grammar rules adapt to changing times–and some old rules may be best followed only in the stuffiest of publications. However, grammar is what enables us to communicate meaningfully to others who speak and read our language. If a writer neglects to follow grammar rules, their most important purpose–to convey an idea or message–has failed. If the reader can’t understand what is being said, then they will go elsewhere for their information. Not following grammar rules can also imply lack of integrity, care, or understanding to the reader, whether or not these perceived qualities were present at the time the article was written.

Grammar is different from punctuation, style, or format. Those are separate issues; the word “grammar” doesn’t encompass them.

To end this entry, I’m going to present a grammar challenge. What’s grammatically wrong with the following sentence and why? Also feel free to make suggestions about how this sentence can be better written.

The jobs employers said they had difficulty finding applicants for, in rank order, were service, skilled positions, laborers, sales, and health related positions.