| ARTICLE INFORMATION: Author: Dr. Adrian Lawler Title: Writing Articles Summary: Dr.Lawler shares his wisdom on the art of writing aquarium articles - and ends with a request that the editor of Aquarticles certainly supports! Contact for editing purposes:theo@aquarticles.com email: Adrian Lawler <alawler@hotmail.com> Date first published: March 2007 Publication: Reprinted from Aquarticles: |
ARTICLE USE: Internet publication (club or non-profit web site): 1. Credit author, original publication, and Aquarticles. 2. Link to http://www.aquarticles.com and original website if applicable. 3. Advise Aquarticles Printed publication: Mail one printed copy to each of: Dr. Adrian Lawler, P.O. Box 48, Ocean Springs. MS 39566 U.S.A. Aquarticles |
Writing Articles We can probably all write articles to share our experiences with fish, plants, tanks, ponds, diseases, etc. with people around the world. Such article writing should be encouraged because different people look at things differently and think differently and may have an observation or knowledge that we do not have. It has been by word of mouth, and then by word of pen, and now by computer that human knowledge has been passed on to others in our human history. We cannot know everything about a subject and convey that in a short article to our readers. We may leave something important out, but we should try the best we can and maybe the next person will pick up on something we might have missed. He should not be overly critical of the previous author, because we cannot list everything, we think differently, and he opens himself up for criticism for things he forgot. No matter how many times (one article I revised 224 times) I go over an article, I usually find something that should be changed to make the article clearer or more correct. Do the best you can in your writing. A true seeker of knowledge will read your article, think about it, apply what he learned new to his needs, and go on. A nasty person will find fault anywhere and everywhere he can, citing errors of commission and omission, and even twisting around what you said to make untrue statements. You usually find this type of person in various fish or aquarium forums, seeking attention, and maybe even jealous you are getting attention. In essence he is a troll, attacking others and their works, but unwilling to put his ideas on the line (for inspection and possible criticism) and publishing them. None of us is perfect; we all make mistakes. In fact, making a mistake can prompt others to thoroughly think about something to arrive at good answers. Mistakes, then updates, are constantly being made in scientific work, in computer programming, in space shuttles, etc., etc., ….. and our base of knowledge becomes larger and larger, and better and better. So, exercise your brain. Tell (or show) us what you observed, or found out, or think about the natural or artificial aquatic habitats around you. Send in your article to Theo. |