Shari Dorantes Hatch

Pressing family responsibilities have led me to realize that I cannot continue publishing this web log each week for the time being. I plan to resume publishing it monthly (each second Sunday of each month), starting in June. I apologize for any inconvenience I may have caused you, and I appreciate both your understanding and your interest.

As always, I look forward to hearing from you.

White space is the absence of content. White space does not hold content in the way that a photograph or text holds meaning . . . and yet it gives meaning, through context, to both image and text. In fact, white space can make or break the effective transmission of image and text. — Keith Robertson (“On White Space in Graphic Design”)

When you write nonfiction, you need (more…)

I quote others only the better to express myself.
— Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

Unless you are composing a quotation book, you will write your draft chiefly with your own original words and ideas. Nonetheless, as a nonfiction writer, you will almost certainly (more…)

No one can write decently who is distrustful of the reader’s intelligence, or whose attitude is patronizing. — E. B. White

Just who, exactly, will be reading what you write? You’ll need to answer this question at least tentatively if you are going to be able to (more…)

Seize the subject, and the words will follow. — Cato the Elder ^*

You’re at your desk, you’ve thought deeply about your topic, you’ve written and organized your notes, and you’re ready to write. Now what? (more…)

This web page shows only the most recent blog posts. Earlier posts include the following:

• Web logs on how to edit your writing
• Consistency: Hobgoblin or Helper? (October 25, 2009)
• Editing Your Semifinal Draft: Some Tricks of the Trade (November 1, 2009)
• Editing Your Semifinal Draft: Tools of the Trade (November 8, 2009)
• Word-Usage Tools (November 15, 2009)
• Grammar: Choosing Verbs for Tricky Subjects (November 22, 2009)
• Grammar: Which Pronouns Where — and How? (November 29, 2009)
• Modifiers Dangling, the Cliff Was Rapidly Reaching Grammar (December 6, 2009)
• Punch Up Your Punctuation!? (December 13, 2009)
• Web logs on how to choose a topic for writing
• What Topic Excites You? What Idea Earns Your Effort? (December 20, 2009)
• Entice a Topic to Capture You — And Your Readers (December 27, 2009)
• Create a Focus Statement for Your Writing (January 3, 2010)
• Web logs on “Researching Your Topic”:
  • Part I. A Case Study (January 10, 2010)
  • Part II. Primary and Secondary Sources (January 17, 2010)
  • Part III. Your Research Log (January 24, 2010)
  • Part IV. Taking Notes and Getting Started (January 31, 2010)
  • Part V. Going to the Online Library (February 7, 2010)
  • Part VI. Finding Information in Books and on the Internet (February 14, 2010)
  • Part VII. Search Directories and Search/Meta-search Engines (February 21, 2010)
  • Part VIII. Where to Find Information, Online and Offline (February 28, 2010)

I enthusiastically welcome any comments or suggestions you may have for improving this blog or for addressing issues that you believe would interest your fellow writers. Please contact me at this link. I look forward to hearing from you.

Good essays are born or die during the stage in which notes are organized. — Susan R. Horton (1982, p. 167)

Last week’s web log guided you to (more…)

The absolute first thing to do when you launch a writing project is to resist the impulse to start writing. You need to relax, to settle down, and above all YOU NEED TO THINK. — Herbert and Jill Meyer (quoted in Hart, 2006, p. 33)

Once you have completed most of your research and gathered your notes, you may feel eager to leap into writing your first draft. Don’t. (more…)

I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read. — Samuel Johnson

This final blog on “Researching Your Topic” includes (more…)

As educated people, as librarians [and other researchers], we know that we don’t know everything, yet we are armed with tools to find out about anything. — Irene E. McDermott¹

Some librarians and other professionals have identified three techniques for searching when seeking printed information (more…)