|
Here are some helpful
hints for your writing.
Since this page is fairly long, you may want to skip to various sections of it by using the following links as a table of contents:
It's time to be creative
Questions you want to answer for your reader
Prioritize the answers to the questions
Contact information
Create visual impact
Will you be using:
a word processor
an email or our design form
to create the text of your page?
Include pictures
Help with email attachments
Now is the time to get creative.
For most people this is the hard part. How do you get your message across in such a way that your prospective audience is going to call you rather than somebody else? We suggest that you take a few minutes and quickly jot down some of the things you want to say. Don’t worry too much about how these ideas are phrased. For right now, just concentrate on getting your ideas down on paper or into your word processor.
Don't be critical of yourself!
Just let your ideas flow.
To return to top of page
A few questions you may want to answer for your reader.
What types of training do you offer? How long have you been an instructor? Do you offer ground school classes? What type of aircraft do you use for instruction? Do you own the plane or rent it? Is the plane new or newly painted? Does it have new or upgraded avionics? Do you have references from previous students? How should your readers contact you? What is your personal philosophy or style of instructing? What is the airport you fly from like? Is it a large, busy airport with a control tower, or your own personal grass strip? Whichever it is, tell why you believe it’s the best thing for your students. Anything that you can think of that will help to convince a student to call you put it down!
To return to top of page
Prioritize and expand on the answers to the questions above.
Decide which are your most important points and prioritize them. Write a few sentences addressing each of the items you want to cover. Try to write as you would normally speak. Remember, you're not writing a paper for your high school English teacher, you are simply communicating with someone who wants to learn to fly! Just write in a way that feels comfortable to you. Let your personality shine through!
To return to top of page
Contact information.
Even though we ask that you give us certain information about you so that we can contact you, we do not release any of this information to anybody! It will be up to you to specify in your web page how you want your students to contact you. We suggest either a phone number at work or an email address. Since the web is a public forum, you may not want to list your home phone number or your home address. How much or how little contact information you include is entirely up to you.
To return to top of page
Create visual impact!
As you've no doubt noticed, there is more to the web than words alone. The web is a very visual media. Now that you've got your message written, look it over to see which words or phrases you may want to emphasize. Experiment with using bold text or italics. Different colors will always catch the eye!
You might try putting key points on a separate line.
Or you can center them on the line!
This is your opportunity to make your writing more interesting to your reader without changing a word!
A word of caution!
Don't get carried away. Too much 'visual impact' can get annoying. We've all read (or tried to read) web pages that are just 'too busy'. Pages where every other word is a different color (or an usual font is used) are just hard to read. You don't want to strain your students' eyes right before they take the vision test for the medical, do you?
To return to top of page
Do you have access to a word processor?
If you have access to a word processor (like Microsoft Word), we strongly recommend that you use it. A word processor will make things much easier for you for several reasons. First of all, you can use the various editing features (bold text, italics, underlines, centering, or different fonts and colors) to easily experiment with different visual effects. You also get a much better idea of what the page will look like. Lastly, it will make it easier for our technicians to setup your page the way you want it. Why do you care if it's easier for us? Because if it's easy for us to tell what you want, we will be able to provide it quickly and accurately for you the first time around.
Once you've finished writing the text for you page, you can send the document to us as an attachment in an email. If you are not familiar with sending attachments to emails, just click here for help with attachments. If you are ready to send us your text document via email at this time, just click to
.
To return to top of page
Don't have a word processor?
If you don't have access to a word processor, you can still send us your text in either an email or by using our design form. The only problem with these approaches is that it will be more difficult for you (and our technicians) to visualize how you want your page to look. You can still use various features to give your page visual appeal. The only difference is that you will have to tell us what features you want. The preferred method of conveying this information is to put your special instructions in parenthesis before and after the text that the instructions will apply to.
For example:
If you want to say: "I've been instructing for 20 years and specialize in instrument ratings" and you want the phrase "20 years" to be in bold print and italics and you want the word "instrument" in red, just type:
"I've been instructing for (bold italics) 20 years (end of bold italics) and specialize in (red) instrument (end of red) ratings".
Our technicians will setup the sentence to look like this:
"I've been instructing for 20 years and specialize in instrument ratings."
It's not as convenient as using a word processor, but it still gets the point across. Use similar instructions for centering or underlining text. For the sake of clarity, please be as specific as possible. If the page we setup for you isn't exactly what you had in mind, just call or email us and we'll change it. We're not finished with your web page until you are completely satisfied with it!
To return to top of page
Pictures! Add pictures to your page!
This is where your web page becomes uniquely your own. Depending on which format you've chosen for your web page, you can add up to 4 photos to it. Pictures of your plane, yourself, your students, your family, your dog, whatever you want. This is your page! All you have to do is send those photos to us. If you already have some digital shots (in either jpg, gif, or bmp format), just send them to us as attachments to an email (please include a brief note telling where each photo should be located on your page.) If you don't have digital photos, don't worry. Many photo processing stores, package mailing services, or photocopying centers have scanners so you can have your prints scanned into digital format. Just tell them what you want to do and they'll take it from there. If you still have problems, just
. One way or another we'll get your photos on your page, even if you have to use the US Postal Service to mail prints to us. There are no obstacles we can't overcome.
To return to top of page
Help with email attachments.
There are many different email editors. Most offer some means of attaching documents or photos to emails. To include attachments using Microsoft Outlook Express, just click on INSERT, then click on FILE ATTACHMENT and specify where your photos or documents are stored. If you're using Microsoft Outlook or Netscape, you will see an ICON of a paper clip on the tool bar. Just click on it and again specify where your photos are stored. Most email systems use a similar means of adding attachments to emails. If you still have questions, please
.
To return to top of page |
