 Noticing Newbies: November 07, 2018 Issue [#9209] |
This week: Communication as a pillar of society Edited by: ~Minja~  
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1. About this Newsletter
2. A Word from our Sponsor
3. Letter from the Editor
4. Editor's Picks
5. A Word from Writing.Com
6. Ask & Answer
7. Removal instructions
"I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university." ~ Albert Einstein
"Be sincere; be brief; be seated." ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
"To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others." ~ Tony Robbins
"Precision of communication is important, more important than ever, in our era of hair-trigger balances, when a false or misunderstood word may create as much disaster as a sudden thoughtless act." ~ James Thurber
"Communicate unto the other person that which you would want him to communicate unto you if your positions were reversed." ~ Aaron Goldman |
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I'm sure that all of you went through a phase in life when you questioned some decisions you previously made and acted upon. Whether those decisions were hard or easy ones to make, you and no one else brought yourself to a situation you're currently in. One of those easier decisions all of us here made, I guess, was joining Writing.Com— community for writers of all ages, interest, and background. Before you made this decision, filled up your basic info and clicked sign up button, what were your expectations from the site itself? More important, what did you expect from your own self when that little button opened the door of possibilities? Since this is a huge writing community, with thousands and thousands of active members, one needs to understand and embrace a diversity of its members in the same manner you understand and embrace the differences of people in your real life surrounding which I sincerely hope you do so by the way. What is the meaning of all this I just said? This means that one needs to approach a brave new world with a certain dose of carefulness, desire, understanding, and thoughtfulness. If you can do this then you will have nothing but a pleasant experience on this site.
Carefulness, desire, understanding, and thoughtfulness can be applied in everyday life where people face different kind of obstacles, when they find themselves in challenging situations, etc. Writing.Com is a situation on its own so here is what exactly I meant when I said you need a certain dosage of each so that you can have a pleasant experience in this place:
Carefulness: As I mentioned above, this is a community of writers of all ages, interests, and background. You will for certainly run into teenagers, professors, war veterans, mathematicians, housewives, people with mental health issues, writers who love to be on a dark side of writing as well as those who only choose lighter themes. Writing.Com nor its members don't support nor encourage bullying of any kind which is the reason why so many of us feel like home here. I'm sure you will feel like home too after a while. But, like any other place on the internet, carefulness is a necessity. Sometimes you will read and review writing without looking into a writer's portfolio. Sometimes you will check out his/her portfolio but won't find personal information about the writer. As I said, we have members from every aspect in life here so choose your words carefully when getting in touch with any of them, especially for the first time.
Desire: If you are new to the site you probably didn't read anyone's public rant about awful reviews and low ratings. If you're oldie then you definitely run into these rants before if not writing one yourself. All of us love to think we're the best in what we're doing and perhaps some of us really are. It doesn't hurt, though, to listen to what someone else has to say about your writing. If nothing else it could be an interesting experience. When I mentioned desire I wanted to encourage you to keep wanting to learn new things, to have an open mind to someone else's constructive criticism, to accept someone else's opinions with the understanding that not everyone sees the world through the same lenses. This is the most wonderful thing; to be different is to be unique and to contribute that uniqueness so that the world becomes picturesque. For this, you should never stop wanting to learn and explore what you didn't know before or what wasn't there when you left. It is a human's obligation to contribute the best to society, to be valuable, inspiring. No one in the world knows everything so if you loosen your rope a little you might see a different kind of beauty you weren't able to see before.
Understanding: Understand that you are the one who chooses how certain things affect you and in which manner. To be sad, angry, annoyed is human so as to be happy, joyful, pleased. Choose to feel something that will benefit you and those around you. Also, understand that Writing.Com members can only know as much about you and your writing, especially if both of you are incomplete and reserved. They can be really helpful but only if you allow them to help you.
Thoughtfulness: When you begin to explore the site and its members, when you encounter some of them, be thoughtful. If you received a rather negative review consider rereading what is being said inside instead of keep building anger in your chest, thinking how the person from the other side knows nothing about you, your life and struggles because the truth is just that— a person who sent you review knows nothing about you and your life and is more likely to be uninterested to find out. He/she only knows what is presented to her through these words you typed for everyone to read and reviewer's comments are ALWAYS made on a writer's writing, not on writer's personal life. Then reverse position and imagine yourself as a reviewer, coming across someone else's writing. Remember the anger you felt (if you felt it) and be considerate enough to not put anyone else through the same thing. However, if a review was nothing but a bunch of negative nonsense thrown your way, words like Thank you for taking your time to read and share your opinion do wonders. Trust me on this.
Communication plays a vital role in human life. And not just human life but also animal life and everything that is alive in this world. It not only helps to facilitate the process of sharing information and knowledge but also helps people to develop relationships with others. Without it, this world would be such a lonely place, don't you think? Therefore, the importance of communication cannot be underestimated.
During my stay on this site, I came across all kind of people; some of which knew how to communicate effectively while the others weren't so crazy about exchanging good words. I'm not saying that they weren't interested in any communication, they just weren't interested in a good communication. I have to admit that this annoyed me so much when I was a newbie. Back then my English was very poor (not that I don't make grammar mistakes now  ), my writing was horrible (again, I don't have high hopes for it at this point either) so I guess this made me an easy target to those rather experienced writers. A few years ago I was a real waste when it comes about expressing myself even in everyday conversations with some friends I acquired, not to mention creative expressions. However, little by little, and with carefulness I had while choosing the right people to hang around with, desire to learn everything I already knew as well as what I didn't know, understanding that all the people on the site deal with the same thing as I— real life, and thoughtfulness when I run into those who were different than me in every aspect of life, I came to a place that made me feel like there is some hope for my poor creative expressions and myself as a human being alone. I have to tell you that I am not fully content at this point because, right now, I'm going through the most horrible illness called "writer's block" for which I'm sure you're familiar with. But, I am really content with myself and what I was able to achieve during only my stay on this site. And, in the end, I am sure I'll meet you in that same place if you take into consideration these things I talked about and start applying them in your everyday life as well.
Until next time, be kind to each other!
~Minja~
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Excerpt I always speak with clarity,
Upon a written page.
Yet I fail to voice my thoughts,
Upon a public stage.
Excerpt: See the old mothers and fathers
questing for a crust of bread,
for a bit of human kindness
that rarely comes their way.
Excerpt: I kept wondering why things like this always happened to me and not to others, or maybe it did happen to others but they got along with it quite well or maybe they had a solution to every problem they faced or even, to my greatest disappointment, they never 'did' face problems like I did.
One of the most popular reviewing groups on the site is always happy to take new members in. Scroll down the group page today, apply, and start communicating with other people on the site through your constructive reviews.
One of the most popular contests on Writing.Com opened its doors again just recently. Sign up in the next round and through a set of interesting challenges get to learn something new either about the site, its members, or offsite findings. If you are eager to learn something new, this challenge is for you. |
Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
https://www.Writing.Com/go/nl_form
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| ASIN: B01MQP5740 |
Product Type: Kindle Store
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Amazon's Price: $ 4.99
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Responses from the previous Newbies Newsletter
Norman  says: Thanks for including my poem here as an Editor's Pick.
You're welcome! Keep up the good work!
Write_Mikey_Write!  says: Very clever use of reverse psychology, there, Minja As you can see, I'm not exactly a Newbie, but I had to click-in and read this anyway.  I found this newsletter to be quite informative. I never considered the use of a poll for titles, probably because I can usually come up with something better than "No Title", but it's something to keep in mind. I should also take a look at Sitewide stats once in awhile, too.
Thanks for putting this out there for us!
You're welcome! The site is your playground when it comes about coming up with the ideas for User Polls .
🌻 thankful pwheeler nano  says: Great newsletter, Minja! 
Thank you kindly ! |
| ASIN: B07N36MHWD |
Product Type: Kindle Store
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Amazon's Price: $ 7.99
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