Back to School/College/Uni and Need a Helping Hand?

I know the Internet is flooded with websites, blogs and how-to pages offering information on multiple subjects, but what percentage of this is reliable?  Most teachers warn students not to rely on the Internet if they want accurate information, but instead to use reputable books and journals written by experts in their fields.  However, most students would much rather turn to the Internet, because of its immediacy and ease of access.

The same goes for authors needing to research various topics – in fact, as an author myself, I wonder how any of us ever managed before we had the Internet.  I imagine many consulted encyclopaedias, thesauri, or made regular trips to their local library to spend hours browsing the shelves in search of the information they needed. 

http://clipartmag.com/google-clipart

I first began writing when I lived abroad in the pre-Internet age, and had to make frequent trips to the British Council Library, searching through outdated tomes to verify information I needed for my first story.  And when I was a student, I spent a great deal of time in the university library for every coursework essay assigned.  Now I click on Google and a world of information is presented to me in a second.  Talk about spoilt for choice.

However, there is a website packed with free resources that may not appear immediately in your Google search, unless you phrase your search in a particular way.  It is intrinsically a homework help site where students can seek help from professional tutors on virtually any subject that exists. But what this site also offers is a vast list of subject pages teeming with essays and articles all written by experts in their fields, so the information is unique and absolutely reliable, not to mention completely free.

The site is 24HourAnswers.com, and clicking on this link will take you to its huge list of subject pages.  Scroll down to find the subject that interests you and click on that to produce an extensive array of sub-categories.  For example, click on the subject Writing, followed by the sub-category Grammar and you will call up a page covering a wide range of issues from the correct use of apostrophes to split-infinitives and beyond.  There is a comprehensive Literature section offering analysis of a variety of literary texts and a huge alphabetical glossary of literary terminology giving you the meaning of every term from Abridgement to Zeugma.

If you have a question about Mineralogy, just click on the Earth Science section; if you are studying any aspect of Business there are at least 40 business subjects to choose from, while if you are preparing for exams, the Exam Prep section offers information and advice about all major exams and more.  And if you don’t find exactly what you want in any of these subject pages, each one offers links to other reliable sources on the Internet.  And it's all completely, absolutely FREE!

I think that's worth sharing, don’t you?

Welcome to my brand new blog

Writing my own blog is something I’ve wanted to do for many years, but that mundane thing called Life always seemed to get in the way. That and the fact that I’m an incurable technodope!

After giving up teaching (was Head of English at a Surrey comprehensive for many years) in order to focus on my writing, I thought that would be the ideal time, but soon found myself as busy as ever I was teaching. While completing my novel ‘Unworkers’, I found myself moving more and more into freelance writing and editing and now Life has had to take a back seat!

My novel ‘Unworkers’ is now complete and I have also recently ghost-written a reworking of a famous children’s epic saga as well as contributing articles to sites like Infobarrel.com and ManyUses.org. I have a regular client base for article writing in every possible genre and also undertake online and home tuition in English.

Spare time? Haven’t seen that for many years! If I can snatch any, I love relaxing with a good film or book or theatre-going with friends. I’m an adventurous cook, which is just as well as my son is a very adventurous eater. I am also trying (with a remarkable lack of success) to grow my own vegetables and herbs in the paltry and poor patch of land around my Victorian cottage.

Cats fascinate me and I’m striving to understand my son’s inscrutable and anthropophobic moggie (who dives under my duvet at the sound of the doorbell); but mog-psychology (psycatery?) takes second place to retail therapy whenever I need a quick fix.

I satisfied my wanderlust some years ago, though this bug is beginning to rear its demanding little head once again – exacerbated, no doubt, by all the travel writing I get asked to do these days.

Which brings me to the purpose of designing this blog. As a freelance writer, I am available for academic and article writing on a vast range of topics, proofreading and editing. I also offer tuition and help with all aspects of writing on www.24HourAnswers.com (just ask for LSofras) via email and/or Skype. Most of all, however, I would like to draw your attention to my novel ‘Unworkers’, and other writing projects and hopefully generate some interest in these.