Stephanie Nolan
Editor
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Stephanie Nolan, an editor for Online Writing Jobs, is a graduate of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. Since college, she's both edited and written film scripts, press releases, fictional stories, and articles. After gaining professional experience with Public Relations, Human Resources, and Recruitment, she discovered OWJ. With her strong marketing background and love of the written word, she now found a great balance while working with online content.
Stephanie Nolan's Posts
“Brand Voice” Is a Myth (and Here’s Why)
I have come to believe quite firmly that the concept of “brand voice” is a myth.
Or at least, it’s a myth for about 90% of brands.
Here’s the thing: I’ve been listening to too much Brooks Landon. His discussions on words like “propositions,” “sentences,” and, most importantly, the frustratingly difficult-to-define word “style” have led me to consider more carefully what companies mean when they talk about their so-called “brand voice.”
And I came to the abrupt realization Read more [...]
Posted in Writing Tips
Where to Find Free Photos for Commercial Use
Online article-writing and blogging tends to become more and more a visual medium with each passing day. Very few people actually read your blog posts. Most just skim (some of you might have started to skim by now)! So because so many bloggers use or need quality photos, we’ve updated our old instructions to include the most current information on finding free photos you can use with your articles or blog posts.
This is the Internet, so I can use whatever photo I want, right?
Well, no.
Unlike Read more [...]
Flabby Phrases That Fluff Up Your Word Count
If you’re trying to bulk up the word count of a piece, it’s pretty obvious. It slows down the pace and makes a normally acceptable article suddenly TL;DR. The best articles tend to be concise. Eliminate these nonsense, redundant, and useless phrases in your writing to make it clearer and stronger.
If I put the word “fact” in there, it sounds factual, you see ...
Due to the fact that: This phrase can be replaced with “because.”
As a matter of fact: This adds nothing to your Read more [...]
Posted in Writing Tips
Do Rhetorical Questions Add Value to Your Content?
Do rhetorical questions add value to your content? Or are you doubting yourself about them? Do you not feel like the question belongs? Are you writing a piece where the rhetorical question would sound really odd? Are you being repetitious with them to pad out the word count rather than adding information to your piece? Are you coming off as degrading or terse, repeating the same information or obvious information in a new way to make it sound like you’re saying something entirely new?
Or Read more [...]
Posted in Writing Tips
Metaphors Be With You: Creating Apt Comparisons
The concept of the metaphor underpins all of literature and many other aspects of society in general. Pick up any novel and you’ll find dozens of them. Listen to a speech and you’ll hear quite a few. But it goes further than that. For instance, the concept of the parable is essential to most religious texts. (Buddha wasn’t literally talking about fish. Jesus wasn’t literally talking about seeds. Muhammad wasn’t literally talking about boats. Wise men tend to use elegant metaphors a great Read more [...]
Posted in Writing Tips