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About
These days everyone is a writer. We all have access to free online publishing tools that allow us to promote and preserve our interests, opinions and lives on a daily – and even minute-by-minute – basis.
With this type of writing authors can be excused for mixing their tenses, dropping an apostrophe or splitting the infinitive.
“Splitting the what?” Relax … that’s what professional writers are for. We are here to ensure your published work is getting noticed for its amazing content, rather than poor grammar and spelling mistakes.
I have been in the business of writing for more than 25 years. I’ve worked as a journalist, proofreader and editor across newspapers, magazines and websites for the media, individuals, business and government.
I now work with journalism students, passing on the age-old lessons in good grammar with a contemporary approach, while embracing the exciting opportunities of new technologies, such as digital and social media.
I look forward to helping you with your writing needs.
Fiona West
“There is no substitute
for quality writing”
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Think before you tweet: social media tips
Be careful what you post on social media or you might end up in jail!
These days many people use social media to comment on current affairs and people in the news. But most of them do not realise the potential implications.
A 21-year-old Swansea University student learned this the hard way when he was jailed for 56 days for posting racially offensive comments on Twitter about Bolton Wanderers football player Fabrice Muamba. Liam Stacey’s comments, posted after the player suffered an on-field cardiac arrest, were “vile and abhorrent”, according to the judge.
Journalists have long been aware of the laws of defamation, racial vilification and privacy. They know these rules apply to all published material, from newspapers and mainstream media through to the newer mediums of social networks, blogs and websites.
But the general public, who via social media have become the new “citizen journalists”, aren’t often aware of these publishing laws and their exposure to potential litigation.
Considering Australia’s history of six-figure defamation payouts and this recent court case, people should now realise their online comments are not beyond the law. And they need to arm themselves with the publishing knowledge once reserved for professional writers, editors and media lawyers.
After all, you may have only a dozen “followers” or “friends” but it only takes one of those people with a much larger network to forward or “retweet” your post and, with a domino effect, suddenly more people are reading your comments than those who read a metropolitan newspaper!
Eight essential tips on using social media (and staying out of jail):
- Don’t tweet when you are drunk. You may regret it in the morning.
- Use appropriate language. Social media may be edgy and colloquial but obscene, racist or offensive language is usually unnecessary.
- Do not plagiarise: Never lift quotes or video from the internet and claim them as your own.
- Respect copyright and intellectual property laws.
- Take your time and check your facts. Before you rush into a RT check out the validity of the information and the source.
- Correct mistakes as soon as possible.
- Never put anything online that you would not want to see published in print.
- Finally, use common sense: think carefully about the comments you post, considering how they’ll be interpreted and how they will affect yourself or others.
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