Problem: Write an article based on this summary: Use active voice instead of passive voice Use fewer commas and use them correctly Be concise. Stop using the thesaurus function on your word processor. Revise, revise, revise

Answer: . Verbs have passive voices and active voices, and good writers are always active. The passive voice, appropriate for science reports and some technical writing, places a distance in the writing. Active voice, on the other hand, stands up and demands recognition. Using the exact same verb, you can make a sentence much more active and lively. Active writing is good writing. Passive voice: "The city has been scorched by the dragon's breath." Here, the verb in the sentence is actually "to be," because the subject of the sentencethe cityis in the act of being changed by something (the dragon's breath). Active voice: "The dragon's breath scorched the city." Here, the dragon is the subject of the sentence, and the stronger verbscorchis used as the verb in the sentence, rather than a vestigial verb phrase. . Lots of inexperienced writers think their biggest problem in the world is using commas correctly. It's not as significant a problem as you might think. Commas aren't used when you want "a pause," they're used to separate clauses in complex sentences. That's not to say they aren't complicated punctuation, but that going through and adding commas willy-nilly is bad writing. Use commas when you start sentences with adverbs: "Although I drank the poison Kool-Aid, my Wednesday was mostly boring." Use commas with "because" sentences only if the clause after the because is complex. For example: "I drank the Kool-Aid because I was thirsty" doesn't need a comma before the "because." However, "I drank the Kool-Aid, because my sister left me home alone and there wasn't anything else to drink" requires a comma. You didn't drink Kool-Aid because your sister left you, you drank it because there was nothing else to drink. Use commas to set off intro clauses: "Fortunately, I carry a pocketknife" is an appropriate comma use. Likewise, "To begin a novel correctly, forget everything you know" is also correct. Use commas to separate opposing clauses: "The puppies were cute, but smelled disgusting." Avoid commas when the clauses agree: "I'm happy but I can't help it." In general, fewer words makes for better writing. Lots of students and inexperienced writers get it in their gourds that writing long, flowery prose will impress the teacher and fool them into thinking a genius wandered into the classroom. Just worry about writing clear sentences, not "smarting up" your writing with complexity. Don't write beyond your capabilities and load your sentences with extra words to try to extend the word count. Use the most muscular sentences possiblecut the fat. Adverbs and adjectives are easy cuts. "The flowing, fiery dragon breath beset the besieged and ragged city dwellers, cowering in their filthy, stinking, scorched rags of clothes, all matted and terrible" would be much better written, "Flowing, the dragon breath scorched the city dwellers, who cowered in their stinking clothes." Avoid stacked prepositional phrases. To avoid writing run-on sentences, get in the habit of looking for "stacked" prepositional phrases. These are good indicators that you need to restructure sentences to improve the agreement of the subject and verb. A "stacked" sentence is confusing: "In the field, over the cascading weeks, inside a house, like a weeping girl stood Joseph." Instead, try this: "Like a weeping girl, Joseph stood inside a house in the field. Over the cascading weeks, he" Lots of students think right-clicking and substituting the suggested synonyms for "over-used" words will result in better writing. Most of the time, this is not true. Plus, if you change "The bond between the nations was strong" to "The bond between the nations was beefy," like the synonym-generator suggests, your writing will look foolish. Most teachers can also recognize when you're writing beyond your vocabulary, as well, so it's best to focus on more important aspects of your writing. If you want to use a more appropriate word, or substitute a word for something that you're overusing, looking at the suggested synonyms is a perfectly acceptable way to find alternatives, but if you don't know the word you must look it up before you insert it. . Good writing means good editing. No great writers wrote perfect drafts the first go-around, and you won't either. If you want to be good at English and succeed in your English class, it's important that you save enough time at the end of a writing assignment to go over it, both for proofreading and for editing. While they involve similar skills, proofreading and revising or editing are actually quite different, and equally important. Editing happens when you improve a piece of writing by re-wording sentences to improve them, checking the writing for content, and addressing large concerns about the essay or the assignment. When you revise, you're "re-visioning" the writing, looking at it with new eyes. When you proofread, you're specifically looking for mistakes on the sentence-level. So, spelling issues, commas, and other little problems are what you should look for when you proofread. This should happen after you revise.

Problem: Write an article based on this summary: Appeal to the seller's sympathy. Get the seller to make adjustments. Pressure the seller to make a deal soon. Be adamant with the buyer. Send the buyer away temporarily. Tell the other person the decision isn't yours to make.

Answer: Let the seller know if you don't have much money to spend. I'm unemployed / a student / retired. I only have (X) to spend this month. Can you make that work? Try to convince them to tell you how low they'll go, or at least start making concessions. What's your range of flexibility on this item? If your competitor can sell it for (X), you probably can as well. (Make sure the comparison is reasonable; don't offend the seller with a comparison to a clearly inferior item.) If you appear in a rush, they won't have time to convince you to pay more. I can pay you in full right now if you go down to (X). I'm only around this afternoon. If they didn't want your item, they wouldn't be haggling for it. I'm sorry, but I really need (X) for that item. Any lower and I won't be making any money off it. If the buyer won't meet your current price, making a conditional deal will get them out of your hair and still let you sell the item if you don't manage to offload it for a better price. I'm not willing to sell for that price right now. Come back half an hour before closing and I'll consider it then. I'm going to try to sell it at my price. Why don't you leave me a contact number and I'll phone you if no one's purchased it by the end of the sale? You appear harder to convince if you claim the decision rests with someone else. I'd love to buy this, but (my wife/my father) won't let me spend that much. I'm sorry, but it's company policy not to give discounts. (The owner/the company) sets the prices. Unfortunately I'm not able to adjust them myself.

Problem: Write an article based on this summary: Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM or DVD-ROM into your computer. Restart the PC. Press any key to boot from CD when prompted. Press the F8 key to agree to the Microsoft end user license agreement when prompted to do so. Select each field that does not say "Unallocated Space. Press the D key to delete each field. Repeat steps 6 and 7 until the only field left is "Unallocated Space.

Answer:
You may also use the Windows XP Setup disks. If using the disks you will have to install each disk when prompted during the setup. This will start the Windows XP setup program. This prompt will appear shortly after the (POST) power-on self test. Once the CD loads, press the Enter key at the Welcome to Setup screen. Since there is already an existing Windows XP installation you may receive a prompt to repair it. Press the ESC key to bypass this option and continue formatting the disk. " All your existing partitioned and non-partitioned spaces will be listed on the screen. Use the arrow keys to select fields to be deleted. When prompted, press the L key to confirm partition deletion. This will clear old data from the hard drive of the computer. " Now that all the partitioned spaces are deleted, press the C key to create a new partitioned space. Press enter to create a new partition of the maximum size.