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dad , i do n't know what to do . '' |
my pants were about to start on fire . |
there were presents next to them and a small , round cake . |
she sat with her elbow on the splintered sill and her chin in her hand , forehead pressed against the cool glass , enjoying the breeze blowing down her shirt . |
my drama was enough for our two-bedroom apartment . |
`` let 's call it a night . '' |
as is often the case , the terrific storm of the preceding evening had cleared the air , and rendered it deliciously invigorating and lifelike . |
her name was rachel stewart and she had some talent . |
even if shed wanted to awaken him and she didnt shed never be able to . |
i can tell you think this is a brush-off , but i 'm doing what i think is right . |
she 'd bribed rick to let her slip into my dream . |
i pressed her hard against the shower wall as i halted my pace and focused in those final moments of bliss . |
`` that 's ... '' i start . |
we had just crossed the living room , when we heard the back door slam . |
she took a bite of her toast and hannah waited for her to continue . |
`` he seemed so sure it was because of me . '' |
you partner up with me , but stay here with crawford for the time being as if nothing has changed . |
i relaxed my jaw , but it was too late . |
by her reply , he knew she had finally suppressed her doubts and come around to agreement with his plan . |
`` call me after my last class ends , which is at four . '' |
we ran , made small talk , and joked around . |
without a word , he went over to nero and pulled the flask off his belt . |
his eyes were wide , and filled with surprise , hate , fear , and terror . |
if i tell you , i need to trust you . |
wiles turned around and grabbed the first uniform to come within arms reach of him . |
he 'd served him for centuries with absolute loyalty . |
the big , goofy kind of smile that just ca n't be helped . |
the pack leader re-entered the cottage and rummaged through all the belongings until he had dna particles from two distinct scents . |
that 's when his train of thought jumped the track , wondering if that much time would pass again before amery approached him . |
'ooh , are those his little nut things ? ' |
lucy sat with her mouth open , edging forwards . |
can you grab the diaper bag out of the back seat ? '' |
`` i have n't really seen anything . |
so she stayed in bed resting for a day , putting up with helton 's fussing to make up for scaring the man so badly . |
also , i checked out your blog and i love your current thread , so i talked it up in my own show , let the wookie win . |
I hope you’ve been having a lovely week so far. Today I want to share with you why you really need to plan your written texts before you start writing them. Don’t worry! It doesn’t have to be a long process – even just planning for a few minutes before writing will help you easily get your message across to your clients, colleagues, or students.
Why you need to plan your texts
Remember in school how whenever you had to write a story there was always a process? First you had to sit down and plan your writing. Who are your characters? What are their names? What’s the story about? Then you’d submit it, the teacher would correct it, and only then were you allowed to start writing.
Well, there was a reason for that.
Planning your text gives you time to stop and think about what you’re actually writing and why you’re doing it. Do you think I just sat down at my laptop and started typing away at this email hoping it would make some logical sense to someone? That’s a big, fat NO!
I worked out who my audience was (that’s you, my friend!) and what I thought would be most helpful to them before I even set pen to paper. (You know, fingers to keyboard just doesn’t have the same ring to it! 😜)
There are 3 main benefits to planning your texts:
Your audience has all the information they need so they don’t waste time asking unnecessary questions or clarifying information
You get straight to the point and eliminate babbling, which saves you writing time and your audience reading time
Your text actually achieves its purpose, whether that’s telling your audience about an event, process, or service
Planning your text, even just for a few minutes, can make a huge impact! This is a really simple yet effective step that will have you achieving your plain English dreams in no time! (wait, am I the only language nerd that has plain English dreams. . . 😉)
How to plan your texts
When planning your texts, you need to consider three things:
Who your audience is
What information they need to know
How to present that information
If you were here last week, you’ll know all about working out who your audience is. If you missed the post or need a little refresher, here’s a recap: to work out who your audience is, think about who you’re creating your text for. Is your text for students studying AMEP English classes? Or is it for native English students in a Certificate I in Disability course? Or is it for parents at a primary school who all have different language backgrounds? Remember that your audience is hands down the most important thing in determining what sort of language you use.
Once you’ve worked out who your audience is, you’ll need to work out exactly what information they need to know. Now, it’s very tempting to work out what information you want them to know, but I urge you to pause for a second and actually put their needs above your own. But how do you do that? Well, it’s super simple! Use words like who, what, where, when, why, and how to come up with questions your audience might ask you about the topic you’re informing them about. When you’re writing your text, make sure you answer all of these questions.
And finally, you need to work out the best way to present this information. There are so many different ways you can present a text. It could be a flyer, poster, email, SMS, video, audio recording, letter, booklet, blog post, PDF doc, or any other type of text. The options are endless. To work out what’s best for your audience, you really need to understand them and their capabilities. It may sound obvious, but there’s no point creating an audio recording for someone who’s deaf! Likewise, a non-native English speaker with low English literacy will probably not be able to understand a dense letter with lots of text. Perhaps a visual document with short sentences and pictures would be better.
This Week’s Challenge
So my friend, my challenge for you this week is to start planning your texts. Ask yourself who your audience is, what information they actually need to know, and what text type would best suit their needs.
I encourage you to follow this process for most if not all of the texts you create. For short texts, it may just be a quick 10 or 20 second check-in with yourself in your head. For longer texts, it could be a one-hour meeting with your team where you actually write out each step. |
you feel strongest when you 're on the right path , when you 're doing what you 're supposed to be doing here . |
to her surprise , noah reached for her , turning her over onto her belly . |
your dad and i had plenty of it when we first got together . '' |
chapter thirty-seven most of the rest of the universe fears sentinels . |
`` wait , '' said morrison . |
the mans helmet hit the concrete as he yanked it off in his hurry to get off the bike , and the camera zoomed in on a badge hooked onto his waistband before panning to the right to follow him as he ran . |
i had student loans piling so high i might asphyxiate beneath them at any time . |
brian ca n't help tensing . |
when a ship passed before another in the wind , it created a wind shadow , which completely robbed the downwind ship of momentum and effectively made them sit like a duck in the watera dead duck and the windward ship could take complete advantage of the engagement . |
what if the greater powers he spoke off were actually true ? |
why , why , why could she now be seen and heard but still not felt ? |
`` did you see anyone else ? '' |
they could see a large , hooded and cloaked creature that was probably eight to nine feet tall . |
if a new attack came , he would be prepared and he could alert the others . |
roger : i really need stanford to hit . |
and i raged at him for hiding himself so well , for tricking me , trapping me , crushing me . |
she could almost imagine that they were a couple in truth , sharing this space as bonded mates . |
we owed nothing to anyone but ourselves and we paid each other in what coin we had . |
`` i 've had my doubts , '' stacy mumbles . |
the characters were rich as was the story line . |
i feigned open mouthed surprise at carla ; crimeen was after all supposed to be in europe , not talking to stephen in south africa . |
instead , it rebounded back into its prior shape and launched her in slow motion toward the ceiling of her cabin . |
i 'm not getting much sleep as it is . '' |
why , i was always engulfed with panic just before the opening lines of any show i was in . '' |
one by one , they began to snap . |
it was a bottomless pit , and he just kept falling with no end in sight . |
the first boy went to each member and paused as the chosen pebble was dropped in the box . |
if i didn't-and i was n't at all sure whether i did or not-would he take that as evidence that i did n't care ? |
they both moved in on me , knowing i 'd be an easy target for their combined strength , and then they could go after christian . |
i 'm just supposed to stand here and watch you work ? '' |
jake , will you , tilly , and jimbo escort the children back to their parents.over in that direction ? |
finally she said with an attempt at lightness , `` or would you grieve at all ? |
`` ellie , that 's ... quite enough , '' dr. z said , looking uncomfortable . |
chapter four i was sitting in my van and studying the outside of a bar in belmont shores . |
`` i 'm irish . '' |
with the blanket the emt gave her draped over her shoulders , seraphina continued with a severe limp , down the dark sidewalk heading deeper into the outskirts of the city . |
his eyes flashed to red as he parted her thighs . |
`` and we heard bill was on a diet of synthetic blood only , '' said the tattooed vampire . |
becca had only mentioned her brother anthony a time or two , and janet had wondered aloud one time why the apartments had been left to becca . |
`` once she was sweet poison . '' |
millie looked at rob , play nice but know you have a strong hand . |
the words spilled from will 's lips ; there seemed no reason to keep them back . |
Christian Djoos hit the ice at Kettler Capitals Iceplex on Friday morning, joining about a dozen veterans and prospects for the team’s informal practices.
Although training camp doesn’t begin until Sept. 15, players have been trickling back into town in recent weeks for a variety of reasons. Djoos’ reason for showing up early isn’t a hard one to figure out: The opportunity of lifetime is in front of him, and he wants to make sure he’s as prepared as possible.
“It’s a good chance for us,” he said, referring to all of the youngsters who'll be angling for an NHL job later this month. “We just got to make the best of it and take the chance. This year there's a bigger chance for us to play. We're happy about that.”
RELATED: WHO WOULD MAKE THE CAPS ALL-TIME ROSTER?
When Djoos arrived a year ago, the Caps did not have an opening on the blue line. This year there’s a couple of ‘Help Wanted’ signs, if you count the spare, and Djoos has as good a chance as any prospect of earning a full-time job.
“I’m going to come ready to camp and see what happens,” the soft spoken Swede said after the 75-minute session, which included Braden Holtby, John Carlson, Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Dmitry Orlov, Jonas Siegenthaler, Connor Hobbs, Lucas Johansen, Vitek Vanecek and Devils’ forward Marcus Johansson.
No one questions Djoos’ skill or ability to produce points from the backend. In fact, he ranked third in the AHL in points by a defenseman last season, racking up 58 (13 goals, 45 assists) in just 66 games.
What no one knows about Djoos, however, is whether his body can stand up to the rigors of the NHL.
Djoos was listed by the Caps last season at 6-0, 164 pounds. He told reporters on Friday that he’s bulked up to 168 pounds and hopes to continue to add weight in the coming weeks. To put that into perspective, consider this: Even if he got up to 170, that would still leave him as the lightest defenseman on the roster…by a lot. Taylor Chorney was the lightest last year at 191.
“For sure, I need to get bigger,” he said. “We’re working on it every day here in the gym and back home over the summer. It feels good, getting bigger and stronger.”
The Capitals have him on a high calorie diet that requires him to eat much more than other players.
“You just got to eat everything almost,” he said. “Not the bad stuff but you gotta eat all the time. Just trying to do that every day.”
He then cracked: “I just got to keep eating, keep eating, work out, then maybe one day just explode and gain some pounds.”
Djoos said he’s learned to compensate for his slight build while playing in Hershey the past two years.
“You kind of have to, especially over here with the smaller rink,” he said dodging big hits. “It’s faster. You got to move your head, look over your shoulder all the time. Of course, you get hit sometimes [but] that’s part of the game.”
Where exactly Djoos fits into the Caps’ plans is TBD. But considering the season he had last year, the team’s need to replace a puck-moving defenseman and the fact that he’d need to clear waivers in order to return to Hershey, there’s a good chance he’ll at least start the season in Washington.
“They want to see me keep playing the game as I did in Hershey,” Djoos said, asked what the coaching staff has told him. “Move the puck good. Good first pass. And still do what we’re going to do in the defensive zone, too. Just got to do the same things and step up a little bit, be a little bit better.” |
there was a shout and a huge splash and , to her horror , he disappeared beneath the surface . |
`` but is n't he your leader ? '' |
the not-russian guy is looking at tarin and nodding slightly . |
the collision hurt more than she 'd hoped , but she heard something crunch and it did n't belong to her . |
`` are you going to kill him ? '' |
`` i can see that , '' aunt nell snapped , chasing after her . |
annabelle and ryan had gone in to see the baby , and when they were leaving , shelby , looking sleepy and relaxed , had pulled him aside and said , `` she 's a keeper . '' |
`` otay , papa . '' |
`` has your dad had a chance to tell you about- '' `` the father-daughter dance ? '' |
the crew circled around in order to better hear what was said . |
today , however , a good five minutes passed before she realized she was still mixing red and orange , the colors having gone an ugly brown . |
millie took one more deep breath and prepared to walk through the door . |
extreme effort was spent focusing on my food and not the constant jokes christian made , lizzie 's laughter infectious as she giggled over the sil iness exuded by her father . |
aidan kept shooting glances in my direction , his expression increasingly grim . |
`` i can sense the path of the prophet and her were , '' she explained , returning to stand at the entrance of the cell even as she waved a hand toward the hidden doorway where salvatore and his goon had made their appearance . |
millie felt a little sympathy , what will you do ? |
bearing a sword and a torch , ferrin advanced beside the half giant in the direction nedwin had indicated . |
cassidy jerked upward instinctively , then gritted her teeth and sank down before her collar could go off again . |
`` i believe you have something i want . '' |
she clenched her teeth on a panicked , furious cry . |
nolan realized that wren was gripping his hand as tightly as nolan was holding wrens . |
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